From HuffingtonPost.com:
Obama Draws Record Crowd Of 75,000 In Portland
The Huffington Post
May 18, 2008 06:45 PM
The Washington Post reports from Obama's rally in Portland, Oregon:Sen. Barack Obama has seen his share of large crowds over the last 15 months, but his campaign said they have not approached the numbers gathered along the waterfront here right now.
The campaign, citing figures from Duane Bray, battalion chief of Portland Fire & Rescue, estimated that 75,000 people are watching him speak.
The scene suggests this is not an exaggeration. The sea of heads stretches for half a mile along the grassy embankment, while others watch from kayaks and power boats bobbing on the Willamette River. More hug the rails of the steel bridge that stretches across the water and crowds are even watching from jetties on the opposite shore.
Another account from the Swamp:The crowd covers the lawn here at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, from the streetside entry gates down to the Willamette River. Portland fire officials estimate 60,000 people are packed inside the park proper and another 10-15,000 are watching outside the gates. Spectators are lining the bridge behind Obama and watching, bikini-clad, from boats on the river.
The stump speech is Obama's standard riff - 30 minutes long and counting now, despite the sun beating down on the candidate. He's added a few Oregonian flourishes, drawing big cheers when he said the country can learn from Portland's commitment to mass transit and bicycle lanes. The biggest applause came when he denounced the Iraq war; Oregon is a hotbed of anti-war activism.
At one point, someone in the crowd shouted an expression of love at Obama. He broke his speech for a moment: "I love you too," he said.
"If you vote for me on Tuesday," he said, "We won't just win Oregon. We'll win this nomination, we'll win this general election. And you and I together, we'll change this country, we'll change the world."
Seventy-five thousand people seemed to like the sound of that.
Now....estimate with me people...
How many of those were HARD WORKING WHITES?
Of course, we just know that Oregon doesn't count because of its large Black population....(sarcasm dripping here).
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3 comments:
A picture is indeed worth 1,000 words_IF the "hard-working" Smart people of Oregon turn out tomorrow, in mass, and cast their votes for Obama?!
We shall see...
I think the jury might still be out on this one. If Hill-spawn has used race/class effectively enough, the "hard-working, white Americans" she seeks are the redneck types; not the more (dare I even say it) sophisticated and cultured types that might be found in places like Portland.
I hope that this 75,000 person turnout is only a prelude to bigger things to come from Oregon and other "hard-working, white Americans". But as it stands now, this number pales in comparison to the 239,000+ rednecks Clinton lured in W. Virginia.
Rikyrah
The people of Oregon are not the "hard working whites" that most analysts are referring to when they talk about Obama's troubles with White voters. Obama was expected to do well with White voters in the Northwest (that is part of his base). It is a different region, different kind of population.
The demographics (beyond race) in terms of class/education/age... are different there, and there is also a difference in terms of their politics. Oregon...especially Portland, is much more of a grassroots progressive area...direct descendents of the Hippie/anti-war generation. Portland is a smaller version of Seattle, San Francisco & L.A.
The demographics in terms of class/education/age/and politics are much more favorable to Obama.
Hillary's base is older, more rural, tends to earn less money, tends to consist of fewer college graduates, etc. The Northwest is the opposite of all of that.
Unfortunately for Obama...these White voters are not as well distributed across the Country. They cover the Northwest, the Rocky Mountain West, and there are some in the Northeast & Mid Atlantic. And we can't forget about the many new-age White progressives from Minnesota, Wisconsin (and some parts of Iowa). I think of Minneapolis as the Portland or Seattle of the Midwest. But there are not nearly as many of these more new-age progressive White voters as there are Hillary voters- the more traditional White voters.
Now before the Rev. Wright nonsense....Obama was doing o.k. with White voters across the board...even with Hillary's demographic.... (that's basically what the Iowa results told us). But that support slipped after the swiftboat efforts.... leaving him with support from more modern, deep blue progressive White Democrats....and I suspect there are some White Independents who are still sticking with him.
The "Hard Working Whites" who the pundits are referring to live in the old Midwest...the Rust Belt States (Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri, Indiana..etc..., where thousands & thousands of manufacturing jobs have left and where big box stores have swallowed up small towns). They are also in some parts of the Northeast...like Massachusetts, New Jersey, etc. The Mid Atlantic...West Virginia, etc..(although Obama did pretty well in the Mid Atlantic region before the Wright propaganda peaked..he would struggle a lot more if the votes were taken now...post-Rev. Wright). And of course the old traditional South. Unfortunately...these "hard working whites" make up the majority of the White voting population.
The new-age progressive Whites from the Northwest, from Minnesota, from the Rockies.... might as well be from a different Country in terms of their politics. They do not fit the mold of the traditional White voter (luckily for Obama). They are much further along in terms of Race, Social issues, being less xenophobic, they are more cultured, and understand the World a little better. They have a broader perspective on the World and on where the Country is today and the direction that it should go...and they have the intellectual prowess to navigate through all the political bull.... They recognize nonsense when they see it... the okie doke doesn't work for them. Usually they are able to see "Wright" through the bull.... pun intended. On the contrary...their traditional White counterparts don't yet have the intellectual chops to navigate through all of the nonsense that comes at them through Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Rush Limbaugh, etc.
Did any of that make sense?????
Let me know... I am suffering from a migraine and I am out of commission today.
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