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Obama, where art thou? |
The John D’earth band had just left the stage as a cadre of volunteers and supporters took their places on the risers behind a banner reading "Change we can believe in." And on an October night when temperatures dropped into the 40s, the bass line and horns from Kanye West’s "Testify" began to pound through the cold air. The man was coming.
Mr. West hails from Chicago, the city the Democratic presidential candidate calls home. In the hip-hop world fueled by hyperbole, nobody has a bigger personality, no rapper embodies the role of rock star more than West. And, four songs later, as the man himself took the stage, worked his way through the volunteers hand by hand, then faced the packed Pavilion audience and took the mic, it was hard to believe that any other candidate—Democrat or Republican—holds more of a rock-star aura than Barack Obama.
 Presidential candidate Barack Obama fit the role of rock star during his stop at the Pavilion on Monday. |
As his first words make their way through the Pavilion, supporters pressed against the rail barricades, straining to get a closer look. Obama’s October 29 fundraiser in Charlottesville felt more like a concert than simply another opportunity for a stump speech. What Obama delivered was an hour-long speech, with no notes, that touched on what are emerging issues in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"He’s just a real person," says Corey Brickers, who drove from Roanoke to listen to Obama. "He’s coming straight from his heart, and he’s speaking to everybody. I’m a parent. I’ve got two kids. My wife’s an emergency room nurse. So with the health care thing, she sees that everyday."
Obama’s speech was marked with moments of laugher and indignant anger. Using a free-wheeling style that responded to shouts from the audience (all positive), Obama roamed the stage in a dark suit with a bright blue tie, ticking off the issues that he sees as vital to his campaign. He spoke on universal healthcare, promising to make sure every American had healthcare off the same quality that Congress member receive.
"We are going to do it by the end of my first term," Obama shouted over the growing roar from the crowd. He waited until the cheers crested. "The time for waiting is over."
His anger rose when talking about the Iraq war. He blasted the Bush administration for leading the county into a war that he said "fundamentally diminished our standing in the world." Vowing on his first day in office to sit down with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to start bringing troops home from Irag, Obama tapped into the audience’s anger over the current war.
"You are sick of George W. Bush," he said. The crowd confirmed this with another wave of cheers. "Let’s admit it."
While touching on other issues such as minimum wage (he said that it should be raised every year), special-interest money and education, Obama steered clear of one issue that has dogged his campaign in the last weeks.
He has received harsh criticism for his decision to include gospel singer Donnie McClurkin in some recent appearances. McClurkin is a self-described "ex-gay" singer who has expressed hostile opinions toward homosexuals, claiming that through prayer that he was "cured" of his homosexuality. Much has been made in the press of McClurkin’s appearances with Obama. Some view the move as an attempt to shore up support in the African-American church, though Obama has suffered criticism for McClurkin’s inclusion. Obama’s campaign has tried to frame the controversy in terms of a dialogue between two opposing viewpoints.
Obama made very little mention of any gay issues, and no mention of the recent flap. Some of the language at the beginning of the speech, though, bore hints of inclusive rhetoric. After calling the Charlottesville audience a "cross section of America," Obama pointed out that there were blacks and white in attendance, old and young, men and women.
"You see gay folks and straight folks," he said, then quickly skipped to the next subject. He ended with an anecdote about Republicans whispering to him that they secretly supported him. "It’s O.K.," Obama said with a laugh, the crowd laughing along. "You can come out."
The day before his Charlottesville speech, Obama’s campaign announced that he would start more forcefully confronting Hillary Clinton, who is widely seen as the Democratic frontrunner. The announcement came after Obama suffered criticism that he lacked assertiveness.
While branding himself as a Beltway outsider, Obama didn’t once mention Clinton’s name Monday night. He did, however, direct not-so-veiled jabs at the former First Lady and current New York Senator. He painted Clinton as part of the "game" that his opponents charge he lacks experience at playing.
Obama pointed out that the game hasn’t been working for millions of Americans, and that the country needs "to put an end to the game plan."
"If we’re going to bring about change," said Obama, "we have to change our politics, how we do business in Washington."
UVA student Alex Pope says he came expecting Obama to be a great speaker.
"He exceeded my expectations," Pope says. "They talk a lot about his lack of experience, but he soothed those doubts tonight."
The night lacked any pointed barbs at anyone other than Bush, and Brickers says he’s glad Obama didn’t go on the attack as promised.
"I would hope that’s not the case, because he’s built his whole campaign around being different, so I don’t want to see him going out and doing the same as others," he says.
"He’s saying he’s a Washington outsider. And because he’s not part of the system, the media paint a picture of him that’s really not true. They talk about ‘He’s so cerebral. He’s so aloof.’ And I didn’t get that from him. I got somebody that was really down to earth, somebody that I could really have a conversation with."
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