Be Your Own Obama
It's 8:30pm, the Senator just left the stage and I'm blogging away to get the Senator's statements, my first thoughts, and impressions online as I sit on the press riser. Senator Barrack Obama spoke for a full 30 minutes - to the point where he went hoarse - showing the buckeye state it's first prezzie love of the '08 campaign. Congrats folks, we're back in campaign season. Holla.
"I'm here - in Cleveland - because we're looking to the general election, and we're going to win Ohio." (Crowd has a heart attack as it goes nuts)
Awesome. Glad to hear it. I'm sure Ohio Chairman 'Fern and a whole host of others would love to get that in writing. Senator Obama, and others, here's a promise back - we'll hold you to that. Gore pulled out, Kerry stuck it out...and in between campaign staffers and strategists across the nation continually whine about the Buckeye State. It's apparent to those that live north of the Ohi-ya' and south of Erie that things are turning around here. Promises to invest in Ohio will go a long way with us.
Impressive delivery, the guy's got passion, no doubt. However, he could use a little more fire out of the gate...he seemed to rely on his openers quite a bit. I'm sure he'll improve there with time He came out after Shaw High school's drum line to a crowing mob that would've stoked the fab four. Thirty minutes later the crowd was still hollerin' away; all the while Obama was doing his best to keep his voice alive.
So what about the speech?
Healthcare, 46 million uninsured...check, sounds like a Dem
College, too expensive, student loans too high...check, definitely a Dem
Energy, it's time for new source and clean tech...check-a-roo, he's all blue
War, ""We're in the midst of a war that should have never been authorized"(crowd goes absolutely nuts)...double check
Economy's changing..., hedge fund managers doing well while the lil' guy suffers...yea, that's my Dem
Support for Darfur...
Bill to bring our troops home within a year...
broadband for economically challenged areas regions..
...All thrown in for good measure, check plus
Trade... "We believe in trading with every country on earth. But we don’t want to be taken advantage of. We don’t want to give tax breaks to companies investing overseas, we want to give them to countries investing right here in America." ...hmmm? What does that mean? Sure, I get the "end tax breaks overseas" part, but what about that trading with every country part - huh? I can usually translate rhetoric pretty well, but that one's got my scratching my chin. I'm not advocating for protectionism here, I just want some clarification.
...And therein lies the Obama-conundrum that many of us are struggling to deal with. Sure, he's a strong Dem...but is he "my kinda Dem", cause a lot of the time he's got me scratching my chinny chin chin.
And even if I don't see eye to eye with Obama on each and every issue or stump, does that mean I can't support him? Because I really like his theme of unity...especially considering where the country's at now. But that same theme - the one that left me scratching my head tonight when he brought up trade and I thought of the 200,000 Ohioans that have lost their jobs due to outsourcing - could cost him votes if people like me decide that he's not in the right spot and we can't look past. Time will tell, and I don't have an inkling of answer here.
Closing the night off the Senator fully hit his groove when he related a story about the night before his Senate victory in '04:
Sometimes I get tired, but everytime I do I'm reminded of a woman I met the night before my Senate win.
I was running against Alana Keyes…it was the day before election…before I was about to go on stage, my staff member came by and said, "listen, theres a woman that wants to meet you; can you give her a handshake and a picture?"
"I said ok."She said "I'm so happy to meet you You’re my hopes, you’re my prayers."
The exceptional part of all this," Obama relayed" was that this would Marberry Lewis was born in 1899..she was 105 years old that night I met her. When I think about this African American woman, who had been born in Louisiana - born in a time when there were no planes in the sky and no cars on the road - born when an African American being lynched was more common than one being allowed to vote - born in the midst of slavery and jim crow... And when I thought of everything she had been through and seen…World War I, World War II - she had seen her uncles and cousins coming back from fighting that war, but still sitting on the back of the bus. Saw women win the right to vote, but not women like here. Somehow she retained this confidence that the world as it is is not the world as it has to be. When I think bout that... if Marberry lewis isn’t tired, then Im not tired.
If she can work, I can work. If all of us are ready , together we can do this.
I guarantee you Cleveland Ohio, we will have a better America.
I'm proud that folks like Marberry Lewis can look to Senator Obama and see how far we've come. I'm proud that the Senator is trying to unite this country again. And I'm damn pleased that the last leg of his national tour, before he returns home to Chicago, was Ohio. We'll be seeing a lot of Senator Obama in the coming months, I'm sure. Here's hoping the other contenders notice that the buckeye state is already in play.
PS. Jill, Wendell, and Anthony were there as well.
Dean was destroyed by the insiders. Is Obama down the same path?
http://blog.oh02.com/
An earlier commenter claimed he raised $500,000 this morning in Cinci. I have a hard time believing that number. But I'd guess he picked up at least $100k or so. That's not chump change.
As for the volunteers, I'm not quite sure I know what you mean. He's got Obama volunteers running around everywhere, sure. He made a call for people to invest themselves in the election and do something, sure...but every candidate since Dean has done that too.
However, he also asked everyone to give $5 or what they can. So he's not afraid to go for that.
I dunno, I think he's trying to increase his momentum. Hillary's got the cash, Edwards has the experience doin' this and the infrastructure...Obama is working on his strong suit...juicin' people up.
That's fine as long as he does the traditional campaign stuff too. You'll recall one of the biggest problems with the Dean crowd wasn't that they went after the grassroots, it's that they didn't keep track of their voters or lock them down. It's too early to see if Obama has that problem too.
I think comparisons to Dean at this point might be jumping the gun a bit.
http://blog.oh02.com/
I may have this all wrong. It may be totally brilliant. Am I looking at a demonstration of 21st century Bobby Kennedy wave politics, or Dean Scream II?
I look at this and wonder, why Ohio? Am I missing something? I'm a big fan of Obama. I was also a big fan of Howard Dean. My blood pressure is too high to entertain another feel good progressive loser fest. It's not college kids and idealists in Ohio that will gain Obama the Democratic presidential nomination, but farmers in Idaho and conservatives in New Hampshire.
http://blog.oh02.com/
http://blog.oh02.com/
He's too composed for a Dean Scream, but he does risk overexposure. For that reason, I'd be surprised if we see him but 1-2 more times throughout the year, most likely in Columbus, Toledo, or Y-town, and probably (most likely) in conjunction with a fundraiser.
ok, so i missed this thanks to the flu (stupid influenza), but obama made a stop in columbus on his way to cleveland. it was a very well attended fundraiser. he's really courting the political elites in addition to his populist events. in fact, this is his second trip to columbus in the last 3 weeks. yep. he was already in ohio.
bottom line -- i think obama needed the movement politics to keep his meme alive. he also needs to force the clintons off their game (expand the turf) and make edwards engage (defend his 04 turf, like ohio).
for my money, obama's strategy is brilliant. plus, it raises a ton of money now AND builds a grassroots donor base for later.
what i hope he avoids -- the goddamn dean netroots paratrooper model. the out of state kids in orange hats might look pretty on 20/20. not so much for the locals. don't like 'em. don't trust 'em. it's field organizing 101...
I also like the strategy. All of a sudden Hill's coming to Ohio on the heels of Obama's swing through the state.
Orange hats = shotguns, not field staff.
Obama was a rockstar yesterday, and it was great to see him in Ohio. I appreciate that his showing up will force other candidates like Hillary to come trough as Redhorse pointed out.
I think that Obama realizes that he's going to have to look to new sources for funding and support and he's going to need to reach out to Ohioans for some of that. Granted we're not an early primary state, so it doesn't matter in the way of convention votes unless the primary goes past super Tuesday, but it continues the buzz around the campaign.
I also remember hearing Jo Ingles say that Quinnipiac likes doing polls in Ohio because voters will answer questions here. Given that, Obama might get bonus points in the form of a badly needed Ohio poll bump.
Be that as it may...
Despite the huge turnout, it seems like a lot of it was curiosity generated by Obama's "story." I heard John Kerry in the same room three years ago, and Obama definitely got a flatter response. I was surprised that so many of his good, progressive talking points got just sort of a flurry of reaction. The first time the room really broke open was when he brought up ending the war in Iraq, and I think that was less how he said it than the fact that he said it and people are just so ready for that now.
It's a little hard for me to figure out at this point where this is going. I certainly think Obama would make a good president and I would support him wholeheartedly if he is the nominee. Despite his low-key, almost bland campaigning style, I think he could deal wih any of the current crop of potential Republican nominees easily.
Like some others, I don't hear an electrifying overall message. "Hope" is pretty generic; it was one of the main themes of the Kerry/Edwards campaign too. "Hope is on the way." Whatever. One of the things I felt about Obama's speech was that it was just a disconnected laundry list of progressive talking points. Nice to mention Darfur, for instance, but how do you make people feel Darfur is important to OUR condition? Go listen to John Edwards and he'll show you.
I personally like the idea of keeping his candidacy alive and even fueling it, as well as Edwards', because I resent the feeling that a group of Washington insiders are trying to force-feed Hillary to us.
I feel kinda bad for the guy...
http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2007/02/though_barack_obamas_democrati.html#comments
"hundreds still waiting in line. obama suffers as a result." right.
i'm surprised he didn't find someone running hillary's shadow campaign and interview them as a man on the street...