US Features
Riding momentum, Obama fires up crowds into party mood
Feb 12, 2008, 8:07 GMT
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois makes remarks during a campaign rally at 1st Mariner Arena, in Baltimore, Maryland, 11 February 2008. EPA/MIKE THEILER
College Park, Maryland - Cheers and screams swelled to rock- concert volume as Barack Obama walked on stage, riding momentum he hopes will carry him to the US presidency.
'Wow, look at this crowd,' he shouted into the university basketball arena, packed to near capacity with 17,500 people. 'I'm pretty fired up. I am ready to go, and I hope you are, too.'
They were. The African-American senator from Illinois was counting on supporters in three state primaries Tuesday, part of his battle with Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
Fresh from sweeping five preference polls last weekend, Obama is holding rallies in bigger venues than the former first lady. On Monday, the University of Maryland basketball arena was filled with the mostly younger voters swept up by his message of political and generational change.
Marcy Phillips, 35, wrapped herself in a skirt made from blue, plastic Obama campaign banners.
'I love him,' she screamed, swaying to a funk beat pumping from the sound system.
A young white man in the stands waved a home-made sign, 'Barack is my homeboy.' Chants of 'O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma' interrupted the candidate's speech.
To his fans, Obama, 46, is the most exciting candidate in the 2008 race to replace President George W Bush. His stirring pledges to unite the nation - Democrats and Republicans, whites and blacks - to tackle domestic problems, bring troops home from Iraq and restore US moral leadership resonate with a weary electorate.
'And we will go forward and change the world,' he declared Monday.
Perhaps more than anything, Obama's appeal is about a break with the past - the Republican Bush family as well as Hillary and her husband, former president Bill Clinton - and making Americans feel good about their country again. His powerful nationwide grass-roots organizing effort has helped mobilize voters.
'It was really incredible. He's even more charismatic in person,' teacher Amy Roberts, 34, said after a rally Sunday outside Washington. 'I think that he's a man who really does represent change for the country, a different face of America.'
Hillary Clinton, 60, says that Obama lacks experience and is more talk than substance. While she is widely known, voters still seem to be discovering Obama.
Bank employee Jean Allen, an African-American, was impressed by Obama's multiracial appeal and apparent calm under pressure against attacks by the Clinton camp.
'We need someone who is not easily shaken. He's got a level head,' she said. 'He never gets flustered.'
Television producer Breanna Cowe, 27, was looking for more details behind the campaign speeches before committing.
'Obama talks about change, but he doesn't always give supporting evidence of what the change might be,' she said.
Six weeks into the series of state contests to choose the two major-party presidential candidates, Clinton and Obama are in a dead heat in the fight to lead the Democrats into the November 4 general election.
Both scheduled last-minute pitches to loyalists in three jurisdictions holding primaries Tuesday - Maryland, Virginia and the federal city of Washington.
At the sprawling University of Maryland campus, some in the Obama crowd lined up in sub-freezing cold for more than two hours to get a seat in the arena.
At the end, the musical closer - Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours, a 1970 Stevie Wonder hit - left no doubt that Obama is confident he can win.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
wait to hear him explain away his church.
As usual the neocon morons are trying to smear using their usual smear without even the slightest hint of substantial evidence .The idea behind is simple,keep throwing mud until eventually people start to believe that all these accusations must contain some truth .This kind of people either have no comprehension of real issues like health care,education and global warming.Poor USA ,tumbling further down in the statistics of education and health care to the status of a third world country ,all due the republicans .Is it normal that people have a better chance of surviving cardiac arrest in a casino than a hospital ?Is it normal that 100.000 people die every year due bad health care in your country ?I think not and as long as the insurance lobbies throw in more weight in the balance than your own population these malfunctions will continue to exist .The smear campaign can continue for almost a year,do your worst....
This is the way the monsters that Obama wants to capitulate to in Iraq 'fire up a crowd'.
acanadianguy.blogspot.com/2008/02/hrriyet-videolarn-izlemet-iin-flash-7 .html
Note, the above link has a space between the 7 and the .html, it should read:
acanadianguy.blogspot.com
/2008/02/hrriyet-videolarn-izlemet-iin-flash-7.html
Clarify first of all what the USA are doing in Iraq.Without a valid reason there is no need to stay there ,simply said.Obama knows that and wants to pull out,at least he is not stubborn like Bush .Remember what Iraq was about ?
Saying pull out and doing it are two, completely different things. I'd almost vote for this guy just to see what happens.
You see, Obama is the Christ figure in this religion called liberalism. He also represents the virgin figure. He has no real experience, which is to say he is not 'tainted' in any way, appealing to those who wish to 'throw the scoundrels out'.
Tonny, above is the perfect example of this new religion: Obama is real cozy with the US coal companies i.e. favorable legislation, etc., just like Dick Cheney with big oil. The difference is, Tonny is either ignorant of this fact, or, my guess, he simply refuses to acknowledge it. Word, Tonny: 80% of greenhouse emissions in the US come from coal....work on that and get back to us.
This guy is the feel good candidate. He is from a broken home (Clinton), partied hardy at Harvard (like Bush at Yale) and now wants to grow up at the 1600 ave. address. Heck, the only thing missing are the Bush twins with a couple of fifths and some fatties!
Most of all, he's the correct shade of white, or black, because we'd not be writing about him if he were not. No use comparing his resume' to a guy like McCain, because he doesn't have one. Don't feel bad, Our brothers and sisters gen voted for Kennedy, his daddy's construct, instead of Nixon, a completely self-made man. Then again, look how all that turned out...
Yes Obama is the Christ/virgin figure of the 21st century. He is a religious construct for those who do not have a religion. Like his predecessors, his actual history is of no interest, because they will write a new gospel for him.....as they go along. It's On-the-Job-Training, starting at the top...the only thing missing is the halo.
'Clarify first of all what the USA are doing in Iraq.'
Getting rid of Saddam and killing al Qaeda/islamist terrorists.
...answers.
Tonny thinks, for whatever reason, that 540 congressmen and women were just not smart enough to keep from being fooled by Bush's statement of WMD's in Iraq.
Of course he does...because otheriwse, he'd have to consider the alternative:
These same 540 did it to get dumb ol Bush to rid them of Saddam, then they could blame him for going.
Now Tonny is a religous zealot, and as such, he cannot separate logic from belief. Understand, he's not a disciple of any of the great religions, but one of his own making.
This being the case, he avoids the real conundrum of his time:
Was Bush the smart one, or the dumb one?
Now, Tonny and the rest of the libnazi faithful have this paradox:
If Bush was the smart one, all his libnazi intelliguista are stupid...a definite possibility and one I'd love to believe, but highly unlikely
Or
The libnazis were the smart ones, got Bush to do this for them, and then they would benefit from the death and destruction! They'd pillory him (they did right?) and separate themselves (they did, right?) from their own decision (they did that too, right?) so they could get elected.
If so, that would mean his church clerics violated his trust! No! They would never! That would make them no different than that bad old Bush!
Poor Peter Pan...time to grow up.
harold Ickes, a Clinton advisor says that they intend to win over the Superdelegates and usurp the normal delegate process.
I can't wait.
More on the substance in Senator Obama's speech given on 19 Feb 08 in Houston, Texas.
12th Quote:'So we're going to provide a $4,000 tuition credit, every student, every year, but, students, you're going to have to give back something in return. You're going to have to participate in community service. You're going to have to work in a homeless shelter, or a veteran's home, or an underserved school, or join the Peace Corps.
We'll invest in you; you invest in America. Together, we will march this country forward.'
This is not such a terrible idea, but it can be improved on. First, you put in your four years of volunteer work then you get your tuition. If it is really hard work, say inside a combat zone, you get more than tuition. You get a full ride provided you maintain a 3.0 GPA. If you want to serve for longer, we'll give you more, but you have to serve first AND maintain your grades to get that schooling.
...he doesn't have to promise all those other things. In a cake-and-ice cream world, it's so much better if you give away dessert instead of making folks eat their vegetables.
Party on, while our enemies plot our doom.
page: 1
Old SchoolFeb 12th, 2008 - 16:16:56
The most one thing I like about this man, he is very open about his LOANED MONEY and the strings attached to it.......The Clinton, the one with the strap-on, has not told anyone in regards to strings attached to her loaned money, which the bulk of it comes from the Jewish Community. By the way there is an update to the Dead and the Clintons list, check it out on the net. The list is growing.............
And so it is......................
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