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Thousands rally for Obama in Prince William County
Thousands rally for Obama in Prince William CountyBy Dan Roem
droem@timespapers.com
Between 10,000 and 12,000 people sweated out temperatures in the upper 80s on June 5 in Bristow to hear the first Democratic presidential candidate in 44 years who has a realistic chance to turn Virginia blue.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama spoke to the Nissan Pavilion crowd which had flocked to Prince William County from all across the region during the first day of his general election campaign, following the defeat of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) in the Democratic primary.
“Are you ready to go? Are you ready to change America?” Obama asked the enthusiastic crowd.
Those who had watched Obama’s primary victory speech on June 3 heard much of the same content at his stop in Northern Virginia two days later.
The attendees applauded his campaign promise to run a clean race against presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the general election.
“We joked about the fact that if you had asked the pundits a year ago who were going to be the two nominees, it wouldn’t have been me or John McCain,” Obama said of a telephone conversation he had with McCain after securing the Democratic nomination. “And we pledged to have a substantive debate; a debate that’s not personal, but is about our respective visions for the country."
“And he said it out loud, so that will allow us to hold him to that,” one Washington, D.C. resident said of Obama’s campaign pledge, following the rally.
To Peter Miller of Bowie, Md., that pledge meant Obama would be running an “open and honest” campaign.
“It won’t be a nasty campaign. Both candidates want to talk about the issues,” said the father of a returning Iraqi war veteran.
Obama’s overarching focus on “change” resounded loudly with the potential voters gathered before him on Thursday.
“It’s about time for a change; we’re in the 21st-century, and it’s ridiculous that this hasn’t happened earlier,” said Anna Grivas of Centreville. The issues she most wanted to be handled differently were Iraq, the economy and gas prices.
Change also was present in recent converts from Clinton’s campaign.
“I am recently a Hillary Clinton supporter, and I am now fully ready to put my heart and soul into this mission,” said Arlington Democrat Laura Huennekens.
Transitioning her support from Clinton to Obama was “not as hard as I thought it would be,” she added. “I’m finding Obama’s ideas very sound. He’s a wonderful speaker; he’s intelligent. His ideas are good and, more importantly, his values are in the right place.”
Another Clinton fan, Brenda Lewis-Holmes of Centreville, said that “maybe I was starting to see what everyone else was seeing,” when she switched allegiances. “I didn’t want to buy into any of that, mind you,” she added.
Taryn Barney of Ashburn saw Obama when he kicked off his college tour at George Mason University in February 2007 and has supported him “since day one.
“I was already inspired by his first speech. But today, we got real close. We were like, right there on the floor,” Barney said, noting she and her friend arrived at 3 p.m. and stood on the floor in front of the stage for three hours waiting for Obama to speak.
“But it was totally worth it,” said the history major. “I got amazing pictures, and I’m really excited. I think he’s really going to do well and it’s an amazing feeling because we witnessed history.”
Virginia Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine and Sen. Jim Webb joined Obama at the event as the day’s main speakers, and talked optimistically about the junior senator from Illinois’ chances of topping McCain in the commonwealth and the Electoral College.
“In Virginia, just for one minute, let me tell you something folks: We know a little bit about change,” said Kaine, going on to speak about how Virginia’s economy has drastically improved over the last 50 years and how Democrats have made major statewide gains since 2001.
Kaine, who said he was the first statewide elected official outside Illinois to endorse Obama’s candidacy, cited polls showing Obama running “neck-and-neck” with McCain in Virginia.
“So we know he can do it,” declared the governor, adding, “in other words, he’s counting on us.”
According to Pollster.com, McCain led Obama in an average of various May polls conducted in Virginia, 46.5 to 43.1 percent.
McCain had been up 57 to 36 percent in a January 2007 poll conducted by Survey USA.
“We’re all here today as witnesses to the truth, that democracy, particularly American style democracy, works,” Webb said. “Rarely has the American system seen the kind of enthusiasm and participation that we’ve seen in our Democratic Party primaries.”
Clinton and Obama approximately split about 36 million popular votes cast in the Democratic primaries. Obama won Virginia by 28 percentage points in February.
Despite Obama’s rock-star-like status among Democrats, the anticipated heavy turnout did not materialize on Thursday.
Traffic to Nissan did not become nearly as bad as some in the media projected, as 25,000 to 50,000 people were anticipated to show up.
Instead, only about 12,000 came out; most people had received fewer than two days’ notice for the event that kicked off during rush hour in the middle of the week.
“It was wonderful coming down from Centreville; it was very nice,” said Lewis-Holmes, who arrived in the 2 o’clock hour. Parking lots opened at 2 p.m. and the entrance gates to the pavilion were scheduled to open an hour later.
The location of the rally also drew attention from those out of town because even though Prince William County gave a majority of its votes to Kaine in 2005 and Webb in 2006, the county has a reputation for being more politically conservative than other Northern Virginian localities.
Too bad you didn't find and interview the dozens of Fauquier residents who went to the rally. Even The Plains resident Christina Elgin got her photo in the POST. John Fry, a WWII veteran, was interviewed by various media sources. We saw people from all walks of Fauquier life at the rally. Our son Jeffrey was in awe at how many people participate in democracy. FYI: The estimated crowd of 50,000 was silly - Nissan does not hold that many people, but the numbers scared people away. The 12,000 or so who were there cheered and cheered. And were very proud citizens.
Martha J. Toomey and Jeff McCord
Posted by martha
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