By RYAN CHRISTNER

rchristner@dailynews.net

Jim Slattery, the Democratic candidate for Senate looking to unseat long-serving incumbent Pat Roberts, spoke at Fort Hays State University on Thursday as part of the school's "Times Talk" television show.

Slattery addressed the crowd of students, faculty and interested residents for about an hour while fielding questions and touting his stance on the big issues of the day.

With the election less than four weeks away, Slattery seemed in full campaign mode, using strong language to describe his views and defend statements made in Roberts' political ads, pounding his fist on the podium to emphasize many points.

He began by highlighting the many complaints he has heard throughout his campaigning, complaints which are getting louder as economies worldwide show signs of vulnerability.

"What has happened is absolutely unforgivable," he said of the nation's current economic state, "and it's time for the American people to hold the politicians in Washington who have been voting for these irresponsible (fiscal) policies accountable in this election."

Kansans, he said, must go to the polls remembering that "this land is our land; we own it."

The nation, he said, must be taken back from big, international oil companies, pharmaceutical companies and financial institutions.

Slattery said the country is not taking advantage of the resources necessary to advance alternative energies and break its dependence on foreign oil.

"People have called Kansas the Saudi Arabia of wind," he said. "Let's take advantage of it."

He added he supports offshore drilling, nuclear power and an environmentally friendly use of coal and believes big strides must be made to increase the fuel-efficiency of vehicles made in the U.S.

Another of Slattery's highly accentuated talking points was the country's "reckless spending" habits.

"We have run up the nation's credit card to a dangerous point," he said.

He stressed the rampant growth of the national debt during the past seven years, to which he named the war in Iraq as a contributing factor.

"The Iraqis have a budget surplus today of $80 billion. We have a budget deficit this year maybe of $1 trillion," he said. "Why in the world aren't the Iraqis paying for their own reconstruction and paying for our work there?"

The Iraq war has not only been financially irresponsible, he said, but culturally irresponsible as well.

"We have deployed a predominantly Christian army into the land of Islam with the notion that we are going to somehow make peace between these warring factions of Islam that have been at each other's throats for more than 1,000 years," he said. "I think that is naive."

Slattery said he supports as rapid a withdrawal of troops as possible without causing chaos on the way out.

A historic election looms on the horizon, and Slattery said he remains optimistic about the future of the country.

"It is going to require all of us as Kansans and as Americans to step up and make the sacrifices that we're all going to be asked to make to get us out of this mess we're in," he said. "But you know what? We can do it."