Barack Obama Writing a New Chapter of American History in North Dakota

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Sat Apr-05-08 08:21 AM
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Barack Obama Writing a New Chapter of American History in North Dakota

Edited on Sat Apr-05-08 08:46 AM by bigtree

College football was replaced with waving red-white-and-blue signs and cheering throngs of Democrats on Friday night as North Dakota's Alerus Center hosted both the party's presidential candidates.

U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fired up a 16,500-seat arena that was filled nearly to capacity. Both gave their usual stump speeches, with Obama talking about hope and a new politics in Washington, and Clinton talking about fighting on and turning the country around.

Their visits to the North Dakota Democratic Convention come amidst a competitive race for the party's presidential nomination. Obama is the leader, but Clinton is staying in the race, hoping to narrow his lead and convince the party she's the stronger candidate.

The free event attracted spectators from across North Dakota, as well as some from Minnesota, Canada and other surrounding areas. About 775 Democratic Party delegates were seated on the arena floor, while the rest of the crowd was in the stands.

Minutes before Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was scheduled to speak Friday, the 16,000-seat Alerus Center was nearly packed. The line of people still waiting to get in was four-deep and long, and they kept coming.

Inside, Obama posters outnumbered Hillary signs by about four to one. Eight people holding cardboard cut-out letters and numbers spelling OBAMA 08 included seven members of a family and “a new friend” who proudly held the O. Across the way, a group of Clinton supporters did the wave.

About 5:30 p.m., Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., came on stage to the ’80s strains of “Simply the Best.” The standing-room area was opened, and a mass of people rushed onto the concrete floor of the Alerus. Sen. Kent Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., joined Dorgan to introduce the candidate, and Pomeroy used references to the Flood of 1997 and the title of Obama’s autobiography to introduce the people of Grand Forks to the candidate: “They never gave up hope, and, in fact, they had the audacity of hope.”

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama brought his message of change and unity to Grand Forks Friday night and brought the house down.

"We know this election is our chance to start over, to finally come together and solve the problems we've been talking about for generations, to put America on a different path," Obama told an arena jammed to the rafters with North Dakota Democrats. "And that's why I'm running for President of the United States of America."

Obama delivered his standard stump speech, one that harkened back to nobler times in American history and decried the cynicism and schisms in American politics. He said President George Bush has left the country mired in war, economic crisis and environmental calamity - shots that sparked loud applause.

"But that's not the worst of it. We've been in tough times before. We've lost faith that our leader can or will do anything about it," said Obama. "This time we can do it different, we can choose to break the fever of fear that has divided us for so long," said Obama. "North Dakota, I love this country not because it's perfect but because we've always been able to move it closer to perfection."

"Some people think the Democrats can't win in North Dakota, so we shouldn't put too much time in here,'' Obama told a crowd of more than 15,000 on Friday. ``I tell you what, we didn't fly over North Dakota. We landed.''

"We can't afford to give John McCain the chance to carry on George Bush's can't-do, won't-do, won't-even-try style of politics,'' Obama said. ``We are a better country than that.''

Obama also appealed to the state’s Republicans and independents to consider his candidacy by highlighting President Bush’s inconsistent leadership. “He promised a humble foreign policy, but led with an arrogance that destroyed generations of goodwill,” he said. “He promised compassion and conservatism but gave us eight years of policies that were neither.”

Obama referred to the 40th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis, Tenn., saying King inspired him to run with what King called the “fierce urgency of now.”

“Many of the issues we were talking about 40 years ago, we are talking about now.”

He said, like 1968, America again is at war with an economy “in a shambles,” a growing federal deficit and wages that don’t keep pace with inflation.

He promised change if he’s elected president. “We can’t afford to wait,” he said.

“Our nation is at war, the planet is in peril, and our economy is in shambles,” he said. “The problem is we have lost faith that our leaders can or will do anything about it. .?.?. People are saying they are ready for change, ready for something new.”

His patented, and perhaps most negative line, in which he says “the name George W. Bush won’t be on the ballot,” brought standing cheers again, with bass drum roll of stomping feet. “I don’t know anybody who is unhappy that George Bush and my cousin, Dick Cheney, finally take that road back to Crawford in January.”

“Either Sen. Clinton or I will do a far better job of leading this country than John McCain, that is something we can all agree to.”

“The other party is choosing to be the party of yesterday. That’s why we need to be the party of tomorrow,” he said.

He also spoke to his conservative critics. “We know that government cannot solve all of our problems. The American people are a proudly self-sufficient people. That is part of what makes us proud to be Americans. We don’t want our tax dollars wasted on programs that don’t work.

“We want to try something new; we want to try something different, and turn a page and write a new chapter of American history.”