Obama says he'll walk picket line after elected

Barack Obama addressed the annual convention of Council 61 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Des Moines, Iowa today.

He told members that he would walk the picket line as president if organized labor helped him into office.

"I stood on the picket line and marched with workers at the Congress Hotel in Chicago last week," said Obama. "I had marched with them four years earlier and I told them when I left that if they were still fighting four years from now, I'd be back on that picket line as president of the United States."

Obama spoke of the need to break the gridlock that's hampered progress in Washington.

"We've heard promises and slogans about change before," said Obama. "The road to Washington is often paved with good intentions, but it always ends in the same divisive, polarizing politics that's blocked real progress for so many years."

Michelle Obama and Sen. Dick Durbin at opening of Chicago Volunteer Headquarters