( – promoted by –Blue Girl)

Saturday after noon the Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters held a grand opening in Kansas City.  The doors opened at 10:00 a.m. and volunteers started phone banking, then at 2:30 a group of local and state elected officials who are endorsing Senator Clinton in her bid for the White House spoke to the standing-room-only crowd.

The headquarters is located at 7442 Holmes, on the northeast corner of 75th and Holmes, across the street from the northeast corner of Tower Park.  The office space is being donated by local businessman, developer, community re-investor and Democratic fundraiser Nick Abnos, owner of the Abdiana Futon chain.  

I arrived at the headquarters at about 2:00, with the local politicians who have endorsed scheduled to address the crowd at 2:30.  State Representative Rachel Storch, State Senator Jolie Justus, Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders, and United States Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver.  They were great speakers one and all – well-spoken, articulate in their expression of why they are supporting Senator Clinton – but Congressman Cleaver spoke last, and that man can move a mountain with his oratorical skills.

He had a lot of things to say, and much of it quotable – but I am sharing this post with fellow  SMP blogger Michael Bersin, so I will just relay  one of them before I turn it over to him below the fold…speaking about the Republicans and the concern-trolling of certain factions of the Democratic Party – “We are all Democrats.  We can’t let them separate us.”  

Amen, Mayor (Congress is only national) you got that right.  

“we cannot let them separate us…”

  “This is the first time in America we will have either a woman or an    African American President…”

“I know in Martin Luther King’s lifetime, when he spoke about the  promised land we wondered if we would ever get there. While we’re not there yet, in the promised land, we’re in the front yard…”

“Talk about supporting our troops…You support them by putting them  on a ship or plane and bring them all home to their families…

“I know Senator Clinton and Senator Obama – there was no struggle in  deciding who [to support].”

“Hillary will not pull out of Missouri [unlike 2004].”

“There is no purpose to this [escalating animosity in the primary]. We’re all  Democrats…”

“There can be no change without struggle. Hillary Clinton knows struggle. She knows how to struggle.”

The crowd reacted to each statement as Congressman Cleaver built to a crescendo.

Today’s Kansas City Star had the following small item:

Clinton

opens a local office for the final push

…More than 100 supporters crowded into the office in the 7400 block of Holmes Street to listen to a few minutes of speeches revving them

up for the Feb. 5 primary. Missouri shares a primary date with New York, California, Illinois and more than a dozen other states.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver noted how John Kerry angered Democrats in 2004 by pulling resources from Missouri in the final push toward the

general election. Cleaver said Clinton has told him she will push hard in the state in the primary and, if nominated, in November.

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As always, the stenographers miss the flavor of an event.