The Obama Rally

We are rolling for Des Moines after the busy day in Cedar Rapids. The Obama rally was huge - about a thousand people at the Veterans Memorial Building. He was introduced by local freshman Congressman Dave Lobesack, and local radio personality Tim Boyle. Like the others, the major focus was on getting people out to caucus. He mentioned the war, health care, global warming, college tuition. But most of his speech featured rhetorical responses to Edwards and Clinton, without ever mentioning. He countered the argument that he didn't have enough experience arguing that he had the right kind of experience - not in Washington, but in working with the people. The gamble, he said would be in putting the same folks in and expecting a different result. Though he the referenced Bill Clinton's similar response to the same issue in 1992. "Bill Clinton was right then, and Barack Obama is right now." He spent even longer countering Edwards' emphasis on confrontation, that some think Obama is too nice. There's no shortage of anger and partisanship in Washington, but "we don't need more heat, we need more light." He took a shot at Edwards pointing out that after law school, he turned down "trial lawyering" to become a civil rights attorney. He defended his slogan of hope, arguing that all great changes in this country began with hope. But as Marc pointed out after, independence and ending slavery only happened after we fought wars. Like Clinton, Obama tried to turn a weakness into a strength, defending his statement that he would talk to our enemies, not just our friends, quoting JFK that we should never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate. Overall, the speech told the story of his campaign as that of the underdog, that is now winning. But it's hard to be the underdog when you're winning. That said, we were all very impressed with his skills as a speaker.

Obama Rally Part 1:


Obama Rally Part 2: