AP: Obama Draws 10,000 to Downtown Oakland Rally

[flpoljunkie]

Obama Draws 10,000 to Oakland Rally

By LAURA KURTZMAN
The Associated Press

Saturday, March 17, 2007; 10:09 PM

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Illinois Sen. Barack Obama attracted a crowd of 10,000 or more to downtown Oakland Saturday in his first Bay Area rally.

Having glided to the top tier of Democratic candidates on a message of hope, Obama told the crowd his campaign "is a vehicle for your hopes; it is a vehicle for your dreams."

But he also used the appearance to contrast himself with his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton. Without naming her, Obama made an issue of Clinton's much criticized 2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq, for which she has refused to apologize.

"I am proud of the fact that I opposed this war from the start," Obama said to huge cheers in this most anti-war of cities. "That I stood up in 2002 and said this is a bad idea. This is going to cost of billions of dollars and thousands of lives."

Obama said it was time to leave Iraq and to tell the Iraqis, "We want to be your partners, but we can't continue this occupation."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701522.html

[Ninja Jordan]

1. California has now become very important; Obama is popular there.

He wins the Feb 5. CA primary, he'll win the nomination...

[flpoljunkie]

2. Fans of Barack Obama celebrate after waiting in long lines and finally securing seats to see him

Fans of Barack Obama celebrate after waiting in long lines and finally securing seats to see the candidate speak in Oakland. Chronicle photo by Christina Koci Hernandez

[BluegrassDem]

7. No wonder Rev. Al is jealous

[Colobo]

15. That's kickass!!!

[Ethelk2044]

3. Great News!

This is great news for him. I wish him the best.

[Ethelk2044]

4. Video

I only wish there was a video. I would love to hear his speech.

[ariesgem]

17. Here's a video clip from the speech

http://extras.insidebayarea.com/multimedia/2007/0317obama/

[NDP]

5. That's what happens when you get unlimited free Press on a daily basis from cable news bloviators

[nevergiveup]

8. We always complain

about not getting any good press and then when we have a candidate that does, we complain about that too. It makes you wonder sometimes.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Press like this is terrible, just terrible

<As the mother of two biracial children, Nishioka said Obama's rise as a credible candidate for president gave her whole family cause for hope. Obama is the son of a white American woman and a black man from Kenya and was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia.

<"What I like about him, is he has a global background and a global view," said Nishioka, a retired attorney. "He's more of a change from the status quo. He's definitely fresh.">

It's bad for the Democratic Party, true progressives and humanity in general.

(Good post, by the way...:thumbsup:).

[NDP]

18. No, when the media act like only certain candidates exist, then we have a problem. The media

should be covering news, not creating stars, which is what they are trying to do to trick people into nominating Hillary or Obama, so that 2008 can be about a bunch of nonsense.

[TheConstantGardener]

6. If only Kucinich had his good looks and money...

But it's good to see someone wiser than the Hillaristas getting attention like this.

[AtomicKitten]

10. crap -- missed it

I do so look forward to seeing him speak somewhere.

[Clarkie1]

11. Damn, I would have liked to have been there! K&R. nt

[Clarkie1]

12. here's some pics from the rally...

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Beautiful! Thank you! nt

[Colobo]

16. Gobama! Please come to Tampa!!!

[caligirl]

14. my son and a bunch of his friends, never before drawn to politics, went. Loved it.

All are college fresh.


We were shocked that the invite to go was initiated by my sons friend whom we have known over 6 years. He has been apolitical this entire time. In fact most of the kids in the groups except our son were apolitical until this moment.

This really tells me something about Obama. These kids are first generation Americans of mid to upper mid class Asian or Indian parents. None have ever had an interest in politics until now.