COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Saturday it will be difficult to make progress on important domestic issues until the Iraq war has ended.
The Illinois senator cited health care, education and other concerns and said most Democratic candidates have similar goals, with differences only in the details.
''None of these things we are going to be able to do effectively until we bring this war in Iraq to a close,'' Obama told about 2,000 people in a town hall-style meeting.
The appearance marked the beginning of a two-day trip to heavily Republican western Iowa. Obama drew the loudest applause when he emphasized his opposition to the war.
Most polls have shown Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton atop the Democratic party's 2008 field, and the campaigns have squabbled at a distance over the war.
Clinton's allies say Obama has voted for spending bills to finance the war, and that can be equated to support. Obama rejected that charge.
''Even if I'm against the war, we need to make sure the troops have the armor they need,'' Obama said.
Obama said he would have voted against the initial $87 billion to pay for the war because it included $20 billion in reconstruction money that was certain to be wasted because of the chaos in Iraq.
''This is a recipe for disaster,'' said Obama. ''How do you send $20 billion to a government that isn't a government?''
Clinton voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq in 2002 but has said she would not have done so if she had known then what she knows now. Obama, who was not in Congress in 2002, said he opposed the war from the beginning.
''We've got a war that should never have been authorized and should never have been waged,'' Obama said. ''It's a war that's left us less safe and damaged our standing in the world and it's a war we need to end.''
Obama said he is pushing legislation for a gradual troop withdrawal.
''There is no military solution to the problems in Iraq,'' he said. ''There are political problems between the warring factions there.''
On immigration, Obama said he favors a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the United States, though he would require them to pay a penalty and ''get to the back of the line.''
''After all, they have broken the law,'' he said.
Though Obama is in his first term in the Senate, he rejected suggestions that he needs more experience before running for president.
''I've only been in Washington for a few years, but I've been there long enough to know that Washington needs to change,'' Obama said.
Obama's next appearance, in Onawa, was streamed on the campaign's Web site. Aides said the event was seen at 5,000 house parties in all 50 states, including gatherings in all 99 Iowa counties.
Obama's wife, Michelle, watched from a house party in Des Moines. On her first solo campaign trip on behalf of her husband, she only briefly discussed politics with a crowd of largely black supporters who had gathered for the rally in the home of Willie Glanton, Iowa's first black legislator.
During a 15-minute speech, she focused on her upbringing in a working-class family on Chicago's south side and her subsequent marriage to Barack Obama.
She said voters should elect him as their next president for his integrity, his guts and the fact that ''this brother is smart.''
''Politics turns away good people. If you got sense, don't do this,'' Michelle Obama said. ''But I'm not just here as the wife of a candidate, but I'm here as woman, a mother, a professional, a citizen desperate for something to change.''
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