It was never going to be easy. In fact, it seems to be a peculiar Democratic disease to go into the fall thinking that defeating the Republican presidential candidate -- whatever Republican presidential candidate -- amounts to a slam dunk. Thankfully, the Obama campaign, and the candidate himself, has never fallen prey to this disease.
Like Hillary's campaign, the senior leadership of the Obama campaign closely studied the 2004 campaign. But the Obama campaign began to implement the lessons it derived from 2004 from the beginning. Its goal was not to win the Democratic nomination, but to win the White House. Its analysis didn't focus on improving at the margins but on answering the question, Why has only one Democratic presidential candidate won 50% of the vote since 1968 (Jimmy Carter in 1976)? In light of their conclusions, the Obama campaign started from the outset to rectify the weaknesses they found in prior Democratic presidential campaigns.
In essence, the Obama campaign set out to radically change Democratic campaigns.
They say you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Too bad Sarah Palin blew hers pandering to GOP prejudices during her convention acceptance, rather than taking the opportunity to make the case that the McCain-Palin ticket would amount to a pair of real independents.
Already criticized for being a policy lightweight, Palin shamelessly embraced the shallow, bragging about the smallest of accomplishments, from selling state assets on eBay to dishing out feel-good checks (paid for with the sweat and tears of Americans in the other 49 states getting drilled at the pump). It was a performance worthy of the admonition attributed to Mencken that no one loses money or office by dumbing down the conversation.
Whereas Joe Biden went out of his way to pay some respect to John McCain, and differed primarily with his colleague's decisions, Palin had no such regard for Barack Obama, delivering one belittling, even juvenile, barb after another, most targeted at Obama's personality (or the GOP's narrative thereof).
In 145 days, George W. Bush will no longer be President of the United States. And if we do everything we must do for the next 67 days, my friend of many years, Barack Obama, will take his place.
Imagine that day: January 20, 2009. You are on the West Lawn of the Capitol, warmed by the throngs of excited people, all ages and colors. With his hand on the Bible that Michelle holds, Barack Obama takes the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States.
Today was the grand opening of the Illinois Headquarters for the Barack Obama campaign. This is the third headquarters the campaign has in Chicago, but the first dedicated to Illinois volunteers! The volunteer headquarters is staffed by volunteers from all over the country, and has people working on activities throughout the country. The new headquarters will focus on efforts for Illinois volunteers.
Illinois Statewide Campaign Headquarters
566 W. Lake Street
Lower Level
Chicago, IL 60661
You've seen Yoda's view from last night, now I want to give you mine. I'm not going to add a whole lot to what I thought about the content of last night's speeches as I had most of that in last night's live-blogging efforts. This instead is mainly just to give me the opportunity to post the pictures that I took.
I was in the press box at Mile High Stadium (now Invesco Field). First off, it is huge. I guess I never really appreciated how much press there could be (or needed to be) at football games. The good news was that we were inside with air conditioning and covered in case it had rained which thankfully it did not. (What does that mean James Dobson?) The bad news is that we were squished in tight, not able to fully appreciate the vibrancy of the audience, and had to deal with reflections through the glass for pics. (Also you might note from the angle of the pics that we were almost directly across the field from Yoda.)
Last night was an amazing, amazing experience. I was up high in the "mile high stadium" and what a total high it was to be there. If you saw shots of the stadium you might have noticed that there were sort of three tiers of seats -- I was in the very top tier, a tiny dot in the crowd, and loving every minute of it.
Below are some photos that I took from my "dot's eye" perspective and some other experiences from last night.
Having distributed all the credentials we got, I headed over to INVESCO. Which was probably good idea. The shuttle bus I took was filled with volunteers. In fact, there are a ton of volunteers here, perhaps twice or three times as many as at the Pepsi Center. Credentials seemed to have been checked every 75 feet or so. They have plenty of water (and even Porta-potties) available for people waiting in line. There was even a guitarist and a conga player entertaining people outside the security check point. But it does appear that the line will be long. There are people already lined up, and looked like some had been waiting for a while.
I don't know if the people outside could hear, but Cheryl Crow was doing a soundcheck after I got set up. Another performer that other people recognized followed her. I made my way up to the 4th floor, to the Blogger mini-lounge. Hence, the opportunity to live blog.
It is 1:30 and we have been told that if we are planning to hear Obama at Invesco field tonight we better leave at 2:00 to make sure we get through security in time. Crazy, huh? So, again this will be a list of things for future expansion -- "crib notes" as Jeff called them.
So far today: - heard a rumor that Obama would be speaking at the Il delegation breakfast this morning and rushed over there only to decide it wasn't true
- went to a "Think Precinct" training held by Democracy for Colorado - awesome
- went to a panel discussion held by PDA (Progressive Democrats of America) featuring Congressman Keith Ellison and Congressman Robert Wexler talking about protecting the constitution and was treated to surprise visits by Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ron Kovic (the movie "Born on the 4th of July" was based on his life) - fantastic
- took the 16th Street Shuttle back to the Big Tent and on the way was treated to an impromptu call and response on the bus of "Fired Up - READY TO GO!" Totally cool. - scarfing down some pizza at the Big Tent and meeting up with Eric V to coordinate schedules
- writing this blog - too rushed!
On the agenda: - finding a bottle of water so I have something to drink while waiting in line
- heading over to union station where with any luck there will be a shuttle to Invesco
You probably won't hear from me any more today as there is not likely to be internet access there. But I can tell you right now that all of Denver is FIRED UP AND READY TO GO!
Senator Dick Durbin spoke before the Illinois Delegation to the Democratic Convention in Denver on Wednesday, August 27th. The video is 12;19 minutes long. You can download it here.
Cong. Jesse Jackson, following an emotional appearance by Cong. Bobby Rush, gave a very memorable speech to the Illinois Delegates on Wednesday morning. Sandra has already mentioned this.
Jackson spoke before the Illinois Delegation to the Democratic Convention in Denver. The video is approximately 15 minutes long. It may take some time to load. You can also download it here.
