Sunday, May 18, 2008

Obama Draws Record Crowd in Portland

Barack Obama drew the largest crowd of his campaign today in Portland, Oregon, the New York Time reports:

Senator Barack Obama drew one of the largest crowds of his campaign so far on Sunday, addressing an estimated 75,000 people who had gathered here on the banks of the Willamette River.

“Wow! Wow! Wow!” were his first words as he surveyed the multitude, which included people in kayaks and small pleasure craft on the river on an unseasonably hot day in Oregon.

It is “fair to say this is the most spectacular setting for the most spectacular crowd” of his campaign, he told the audience. His wife and daughters, who have been with him most of the weekend, joined him on the stage at the beginning of the event but left as he was about to speak.

Mr. Obama has been campaigning extensively in Oregon, a state he hopes to win in Tuesday’s primary, as the Democratic presidential nominating race ticks down to its last handful of contests. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has been on a four-day swing through Kentucky, which also holds its primary on Tuesday and where she appears likely to draw the most votes.

Mr. Obama stopped earlier at an ice cream parlor, Lew’s Dari-Freeze and Drive In, in Milwaukie, a suburb of Portland. There, answering questions from reporters, he edged closer to declaring victory in the Democratic battle than has been his habit. He said he was returning to Iowa to await the results of the primaries on Tuesday night because “we thought it was a terrific way to bring things full circle.”

Portland has got to be ground zero of Obama support. Either that, or that river-side burg's emblematic of the Obama phenom in "progressive" cities nationwide.
Check out this video of the event, from the Huffington Post:


See also, the Portland Tribune, "Poll: Obama Trouncing Clinton in Oregon."

Also, don't miss my earlier entry, "
Barack Obama's Cult of Personality."

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