In South L.A. rally, Obama vows sweeping changes

LAT: In South L.A. rally, Obama vows sweeping changes
By Michael Finnegan, Times Staff Writer
February 20, 2007


(Myung J. Chun / LAT)
'A mood in the air'
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama caps a three-day campaign swing through California with a rally in South Los Angeles.

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama capped a three-day campaign swing through California today with a South Los Angeles rally where he told thousands of supporters he would "transform the country" with sweeping change at home and abroad.

Vowing to shatter the insider culture of the nation's capital, the freshman Illinois senator said he would end the war in Iraq, expand health coverage to all Americans and fix the country's ailing public school system.

"There's something happening in the country," he told a crowd waving blue "Obama '08" signs. "There's a mood in the air. There's a sense that the way we've been doing business for the last couple of decades has to change, that we are at a crossroads in this nation's history."

Obama's rally at the Rancho Cienega Recreation Complex in Crenshaw was the centerpiece of his trip to California, his first since he announced his candidacy 10 days ago.

Before returning to his hometown of Chicago this evening, Obama plans to collect more than $1 million in Beverly Hills at a glitzy fund-raising reception thrown by DreamWorks studio founders David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg....

***

The huge crowd at the Crenshaw event reflected the extraordinary interest that Obama has generated among Democrats. It is highly unusual for a presidential candidate to draw thousands of supporters to a Los Angeles rally nearly a year before California's primary — or even to try....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-obama21feb21,0,5081861.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Rock on Obama!! ~~

I hope he makes it to the Tampa Bay area one of these days!

if I would support him in the primary, but the more progressive candidates the better. We need all the ideas and skills that these candidates have if we are to climb out of the hole the shrub has put us in.

Very encouraged thus far, we have an awesome candidate and people are starting to see that!

Continued: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/20/MNGVPO850M11.DTL

Sounds like quite an evening!

Obama is energizing the country!

thanks!

We ended up kind of in the back -- I could only see him intermittently between people's heads, since I'm rather short.

His speech hit all the important notes. We decided it's his stump speech, but that he wasn't as energized as we expected, probably due to fatigue.

I was very pleased that he covered the history of American social justice movements in pretty much the same way that I think of it -- in every generation there is another group that rises up and demands that America live up to the promise of its beginnings. He talked about health care, education, the war -- all the stuff we care about and then some.

All the people I was with are very active in local Democratic politics. I asked one of the women if she/they are trying to get Obama to come to our area, and she said they're working on getting him to keynote the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in August ($55 a pop), and attend a fundraiser in Montecito (big donors, none of which were in our van today). I've been on hiatus from activism, but I plan to let her know that I will be glad to volunteer again, as I'd like to be at the J-J dinner and see him up close.

I don't know if any of this will actually happen, but it's certainly worth looking forward to. I'm crossing my fingers that at some point he'll give a public speech at UCSB or the like -- that would either be free (outdoors in the plaza) or very low-cost (in the 900-seat hall). At least I won't have to do a 6 hour round-trip drive.

Thanks a bunch for posting this, DMM. Sorry I'm not giving a livelier first-hand account, but I'm pretty tired by now.

Hekate

Seriously. Fatigue is probably from the rigors of campaigning and nicotine withdrawal. Hope he is getting help for that!

OBAMARAMA!!

Whether he's gone cold-turkey or if he's sneaking in a few puffs?

I love Obama's sense of history, and his talking about history in his speeches. IMO, there's far too little attention paid to our, and the world's, history -- and I think if he were elected President these little "history lessons" would be immensely valuable.

Get some rest, and I hope Barack can keynote the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.