Two postings at Kos focus on Missouri, specifically on the difference in the two presidential campaigns here.
The first explains the difference in robocall strategies. Yeah, I’ve gotten that McCain robocall–twice–informing me that Obama consorts with William Ayers … blah de dee blah blah blah. But Devilstower tells us that the media says Obama has been playing dirty too:
Of course, NPR points out that the Obama campaign is also using robocalls. Except it’s not the national campaign, it’s the the Democratic Party. Except it’s not the national party, it’s the Missouri state party making calls only in Missouri.
“I’m calling to make sure you received something in the mail recently describing John McCain’s plans to give tax cuts for companies that ship jobs overseas.”
Ah ha! A message from a state party attacking McCain’s tax policy. That’s completely equivalent to the McCain campaign running a massive national program to say that Obama is a terrorist dupe. At least it is for the media, who uses examples like this to say that Obama is also running “negative ads.”
Obama drew 100,000 and 75,000 while McCain drew “dozens of supporters”–3,000 in St. Charles and 15 whole people in Columbia. In the interest of fairness, did the McCain campaign require that people get tickets in advance? Surely that would lower the attendance–though … not by 97,000.
The sun shines down over the Arch onto the crowd of 100,000 watching Barack Obama’s speech in St. Louis today.
For me, the most amazing thing about Barack’s speech in Saint Louis wasn’t or anything he said in particular, although it was a fine speech. It was the amazing crowd that had assembled to hear him speak. I’ve never seen Saint Louisans celebrate together so joyously, except maybe after a Cardinals World Series victory.
Even then, there was a sense of purpose and a spirit of unity than no sporting event could provide. The event was focused on the people in the crowd, and we knew it. Congressman Lacy Clay, Mayor Francis Slay, gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Jay Nixon, and finally Senator McCaskill spoke before Barack, but didn’t introduce him. Instead, that honor went to one of us, a high school math teacher, who talked about what was going on for him, his family, and his students, and why that lead him to support Barack Obama. When Barack spoke of job cuts and the need to bring jobs back to Missouri, a woman near me muttered “Bush cut my job and I wanted it back.” When Barack told the story of his mother fighting cancer and the insurance company at the same time, another woman near me yelled “That’s me right now!”
As for the speech itself, it was fairly boilerplate as far as policy details go, but he did have some good personal stories, including one about pie. What I liked best about the speech was his knack for weaving a sense of optimism about the future throughout the speech. When he talked about making college affordable, he repeated John McCain’s attack on him for “caving in to an interest group.” “Our youth are not an interest group – they are the future of our country!” he cried. And Obama wrapped up his speech with a passionate evocation of why we should not despair, why we should not get too bogged down in what is to the neglect of what ought to be:
We can do this. Americans have done this before. Some of us had grandparents or parents who said maybe I can’t go to college but my child can; maybe I can’t have my own business but my child can. I may have to rent, but maybe my children will have a home they can call their own. I may not have a lot of money but maybe my child will run for Senate. I might not be able to vote now but maybe someday my grandson can be president of the United States of America.
More pics below the fold.
The crowd extended all the way back to the Old Courthouse, blocks from the riverfront.
On the way in, every Metrolink car was packed with people going to the speech from every part of Saint Louis, from wealthy suburbanites in the county to the working poor in North Saint Louis. The last time I saw it this packed was when Obama spoke at the Edward Jones Dome before the February 5th primary.
If you look really hard, you can see Barack Obama standing at the podium. Ok, that’s pretty hard.
Can you see him now?
The crowd was really cheering Barack on today. The woman in the bottom right corner yelled “That’s right!” on almost every point Barack made.
Although signs were discouraged, a few enterprising folks put something together. The Republican for Obama hid his face to protect his secret political identity from his family and coworkers. The good people at the Rooster Cafe blended their marketing savvy with their progressivism for a little advertisement. It worked, too – located several blocks from the riverfront, there was an hour wait to get a table after the speech.
