I’ve been a Democrat since I was eligible to vote, and believe I was one of the 3 people who voted for Mondale in 1984. I follow every election closely, and now had the added resource/distraction of the internet. I consider myself a little jaded, and have tried not to get too excited about this cycle lest I be disappointed once again. But, then Obama rolls into my little hometown and damn, it’s hard not to be juiced.
Phelps County, where Rolla is located, went for Bush over Kerry by 63-36, so it’s about as ‘red’ an area as you’ll find. I don’t think he has to win these areas, but if he can get it to 45-55 he carries the state. I thought this was not going to happen, but after this swing through Springfield, Lebanon, Rolla and Union today, I’m not so sure.
Roughly 2,000 people (town is 16,000) stood in the sweltering sun yesterday to obtain the tickets. They had to turn away over 600.
My wife and I sat about 10 rows from Obama, in a gymnasium on the campus of Missouri S&T (formerly UMR). It was hot, but the local Democratic party did a great job with handing out water, and the campaign had rented air conditioning units on trailers that vented into the building.
The crowd was a good mix of college students, elderly, white collar types, and a few bubbas. I’m not active locally so I was surprised to see who was there.
Local speakers included the Carnahans (Robin and mother Jean), local political powerhouse family, and then Sen. Claire McCaskill (born at our hospital), Jay Nixon (next governor of Missouri) and Obama entered. Raucous crowd, great enthusiasm.
He did his standard stumpy type speech, obviously wanting to emphasize the economy this week. He added the new wrinkle of a skilled push-back on McCain’s latest attack ads, saying, “he’s spending a lot of time talking about me, that’s because they’ve got nothing to offer themselves…” This was well received, he needs to keep it up. He does it in a way that is disarming, hard to see him as whining when he’s smiling.
Opening it up to a few questions after about 20 minutes, he got the usual mix of odd ball, substantive, the personal. He is good in this format, more so than most realize. He doesn’t just give lofty, pretty speeches, he can answer on the fly in a way that ties it back to his central themes. He need not cede this format to McCain.
My wife and I got close enough to shake his hand, but alas, just too many in front of us.
Takeaways:
- If scheduling allows, he should do more of these events, it impressed the heck out of people here, even those who won’t vote for him. Even a few more hundred votes per rural county plus good turnout in the big cities could swing the state. We’re within a couple of points now as it is.
- It’s really, really hot here in late July, but Obama looked cool throughout. He’s also much thinner in person, very slightly built.
- I’ll let myself get a little more carried away with his candidacy. I’m still jaded, be he IS good.
Thanks for the report, RollaMO. The Indiana reviews were much the same when he was speaking around our state before the primary. Obama buttons are going like mad at our county fair this week and somehow I have the feeling that ours will not be a red county, come November.
Yay, thanks for reporting! It’s nice to hear the view from on-the-ground at an Obama rally in a red town. Really makes the whole notion of red state/blue state seem even more ridiculous….
Great report. I usually stop at the Pannini place when traveling from Mountain Home to St. Louis. What portion of the area population do those patrons represent? A good number seem to be academics, no surprise. Do you have any feel for the Houston, Kabul and West Plains attitudes?
Until yesterday’s turnout I thought you could have fit the entire progressive population of Rolla into the Panera store. Guess I need to get out more (politically). This is a college town, although its focus on engineering and mining make it a little more conservative than a typical college town. The outlying areas are more conservative, with a lot of dittoheads, but also a lot of poor whites who’ve lost small manufacturing jobs over the past decade (in Rolla alone you have 300 jobs lost due to the Briggs & Stratton plant moving to China), who are ripe for a change in direction. Yesterday Obama addressed a young man who lost his job from Briggs by talking about producing wind turbines, solar panels, etc. here.
I live in the MetroEast, and work in St Louis.
I worked some during the 2004 election. I drove people in St Louis (black people) to the polls. The black voting precincts were RIDICULOUS. There was a line about 200 people long, and there were 2 voting booths. Now, something tells me that this was a deliberate decision of the SoS who was at that time MATT BLUNT, now the governor.
That’s the thing that is gonna turn MO. If Robin Carnahan can get voting machines to the Democratic precincts, Obama will win, and Jay Nixon will win, and there will be Democratic wins down-ballot. If she holds with the machines distribution of 2004, the Democrats will see the kind of problems in 2004 again.
McCaskill won in 2006, and Carnahan was SoS. I think that the SoS is the most important position in the state. If we hold that position, we can win the state.
We hold SoS in OH, MO, PA, MN, WI, IA. OH and MO were Republican last go-round.
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in the style of true capitalism – who owns the voting booth wins the election.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Great report–thank you so much!
And yes, you should join your local Democratic club and get out more; you are not alone.
Oh, and a video of a manufacturing job loss question: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=BHHFCxObhxk.