Obama: “In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people"

[bigtree]

October 29, 2008



A cold breeze off the Elizabeth River could not keep the crowd of over 22,000 home on a Tuesday night.

They came to Harbor Park to hear of hope and change from Barack Obama. A cool 47 degrees was warmed up by Glen Nye running for congress, Congresman Bobby Scott had the crowd chanting "yes we can" to keep warm.

Govenor Tim Kane spoke of the 9 visits the Obama Campaign has made to the Old Dominion with another visit set for this coming thursady in Virginia Beach.

Barack hit the stage to a standing ovation. The crowd screaming "Obama, Obama, Obama". You could feel the energy from the crowd as they listened to Obama speak of hope and change. The middle class will come back. Affordable health care for everyone. Bring our Service people back from Iraq and save the country 10 billion dollars a month.

He asked everyone to get out and vote next Tuesday. Make phone calls to your friends and neighbors, talk about the importance of every vote will count in this election.

read: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-127688





One week before Election Day, Sen. Barack Obama brought the "closing argument" of his nearly 20-month campaign for the presidency to a packed Harbor Park in Norfolk on Tuesday night.

From a riser above home plate, Obama spoke to a nearly full stadium, 11,000 in the stands plus another 11,000 on the playing field. The crowd began lining up long before the sun went down and then waited for hours in dropping temperatures before the Democratic candidate strode out under the stadium lights.





Obama took a few shots at opponent John McCain on the economy and health care, but after a policy-rich speech returned to the bipartisan themes of unity that marked his 2004 Democratic convention speech and his early campaign.

He also hit on a theme that every speaker before him also brought up: the importance of winning Virginia to Obama's overall electoral strategy, and of finishing strong.

"We've got to work for it, Virginia. We've got to work like our future depends on it," Obama said in closing his speech. "If you want it as bad as I want it, then I promise you, we won't just win Virginia, we'll win this election."

read: http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_obama_1029oct29,0,574848.story





Barack Obama told the shivering crowd of at least 20,000 people Tuesday night at Harbor Park to not “believe for a second that the election is over” and urged them to get out, knock on doors, convince neighbors and work for the “change we need.”

“If we come together, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, disabled, not disabled,” Obama said, punching out the words like he was calling attendance. “If we come together, our voices are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyists, or the most vicious political attacks, or the full force of the status quo in Washington.”

“It’s getting harder and harder to make the mortgage, or fill up your gas tank, or even pay electricity at the end of the month,” he said. “At a time like this, the last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired old worn-out theory of John McCain and George Bush that says we should give more to billionaires and big corporations and hope the prosperity trickles down to everyone else.”

“The American story has never been about things coming easy, it’s been about rising to the moment,” he said, pausing, his voice booming, “when the moment was hard.





"It’s about seeing the highest mountaintop from the deepest of valleys. It’s about rejecting fear and division for unity of purpose.” He said the stakes are too high to play political games or to try to divide the country by class, region, or “by who we are and what we believe.”

“There are patriots who supported this war in Iraq and patriots who opposed it,” he said. “There are patriots who believe in Democratic policies and those who believe in Republican policies.

“The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America.”

“In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history,” Obama said. “That’s what’s at stake, that’s what we’re fighting for.”

read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/harbor-park-crowd-obama-hits-home-run






(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

[babylonsister]

1. 22,000? Is anyone matching these numbers up, and who is

accruing more people? Does McSame get the same stalwart folks, everywhere?

[bigtree]

2. 22,000 in the cold night

McCain/Palin are failin