I'm kind of disappointed I was hoping for a final 'whistle stop tour' by rail

[grantcart]

I think it would be great to see them go from Viriginia all the way through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana to Illinois.


Think how many millions would stand by the tracks to watch Barack, Joe, Michelle and Jill go by on their way to the next whistle stop.

http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/obamas-whistle-stop-tour-in.html




Edited to add from Obama's earlier whistle-stop tour

Suzanne Malveaux's reporting live from a train depot in Paoli, and Barack Obama just rode by on the back of a traincar in a campaign-style reminiscent of Harry Truman's "whistle-stop" tour of 1948.

The Caucus has a report on Obama's train-depot tour, "Obama Takes Campaign to the Rails in Pennsylvania":

With a pull of the train’s whistle, Senator Barack Obama boarded his car today at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station and opened a four-city rail tour, arriving at his first stop here to hundreds of cheering supporters.

As he stepped off the back of a blue Georgia 300 Club Car, festooned with red, white and blue bunting, the crowd erupted in applause. Strains of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” filled the air as Mr. Obama made his way to a stage built alongside the tracks.

“Now it is our turn, Pennsylvania,” Mr. Obama said. “This is a defining moment in our history. All of you are here because you can feel it.”

For more than a year, the field of presidential candidates have campaigned across America by plane and by bus. The trip across Southeastern Pennsylvania today was the first run on a train of the 2008 race, with Mr. Obama slowly making his way from Philadelphia to Harrisburg.

It is the final weekend push before the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday, where Mr. Obama is locked in a fierce battle with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. In recent weeks, Mr. Obama has campaigned on two fronts, alternating his focus between Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, and Mrs. Clinton.

Today, as he delivered his closing argument to the voters of this state, Mr. Obama focused on the Democratic side of the contest and drew sharp distinctions with Mrs. Clinton. To a burst of applause, he declared: “You do have a choice in this primary.”

The campaign rally here unfolded on a sun-splashed April afternoon, with hundreds of people of all ages turning out to see Mr. Obama, filling a large expanse alongside the Amtrak line here in the Philadelphia suburb of Wynnewood. Young children, perched on their fathers’ shoulders, waved blue Obama signs in the air. A crowd also gathered across the tracks, their views occasionally interrupted by a passing train.

Mr. Obama seemed amused by his latest mode of transportation. As he descended the escalator at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, he said: “Let’s get on this train. This is what I’m talking about.”

The conductor, waiting to greet Mr. Obama, told him that he could sound the train’s whistle. “Can I do that, right now?” Mr. Obama asked. “Am I allowed.”

[hlthe2b]

1. Maybe..

No offense intended, but that has a lot of very negative connotations for many old enough to remember (or who know their history).....

[grantcart]

3. Not sure what your referring to but the Whistle Stop Tour was made famous by Truman

[hlthe2b]

6. 1968: Bobby brought back to DC by funeral train

google some photos of the throngs meeting the train or better yet, the videos.... Very moving. (Lincoln, Eisenhower, and FDR likewise "came home" by train after their deaths) but Bobby is the one that is still seared in many memories, even those like me barely old enough to remember.

[grantcart]

7. yes they were on trains but there were hundreds of politicians who used

trains to campaign on

including Barack Obama





The idea that we can't use trains to campaign on because of Bobby is bizarre in the least and I watched every minute of it.

[hlthe2b]

9. Not trying to argue, but many will be aware of the transposition

I don't know how old you are and whether you have seen the footage of RFK's last train ride and the poignancy of the thousands of people at every tiny stop, but there will be many who feel a sense of discomfort.... Just pointing this out, not trying to criticize you or the idea.

[grantcart]

11. old enough that I remember every minute of JFK's assassination

and Martin and Bobby and Malcom X. In fact I am old enough to remember taking vacations on trains - much more fun than driving.

I don't associate Dallas, Motels, Hotel Kitchens or Ballrooms with the macbre events that happened to tale place there.

The fact that they are still commonly used and were used earlier this year by the Obama campaign should tell you that most people don't picture trains the way you do.

[hlthe2b]

18. as I say, perhaps

but you should be a bit more sensitive to the issue, as will be countless Americans... That he has made short train appearances outside Chicago is great, but these were not immediately following the exposure and foiling of not one, but two assasination attempts.

Train appearances are part of Americana, but for someone so often compared to both JFK and RFK, there is a very real sensitivity. Perhaps things will change and he'll get that chance to bring the whistlestop back as a fond remembrance. We shall see.

[book_worm]

19. Clinton whistestopped, Reagan did, Duakis did, Gore did, Kerry did, Ford did, Obama did

whistle stop tours are one of the old fabrics of American politics and I truly doubt that if a politician travels by train it will cause discomfort because RFK did it too.

[msallied]

2. Well there is always re-election. :)

[sandnsea]

4. What about Florida to Illinois?

What if they left after the Clinton Rally on Wednesday. It could go up through GA, SC, NC, VA and then kick over to your route and end up in Illinois on Tuesday. It's a great idea and really would be an amazing way to end this.

[FLyellowdog]

10. Yes, that would have been awesome.

[PretzelWarrior]

5. that's John McCain's territory. Using a clean coal train

and he'll even stand on an apple crate to give his speeches in his top hat. News of his journey will surge through the U.S. by telegraph.

[grantcart]

8. lol

[Hippo_Tron]

13. Telegraph and railroads are still new and confusing technology for McCain

He prefers campaigning via horse and buggy.

[On the Road]

12. There are Other, Darker Memories of Muskie in Florida

We were going down to the depot to get aboard the "Sunshine Special," Ed Muskie's chartered train that was about to chug off on a run from Jacksonville to Miami -- the whole length of Florida -- for a series of "whistle-stop" speeches in towns like Deland, Winterhaven, and Sebring.

One of Muskie's Senate aids had told me, as we waited on a downtown street-corner for the candidate's motorcade to catch up with the press bus, that "nobody has done one of these whistle- stop tours since Harry Truman in 1948."

Was he kidding? I looked to be sure, but his face was dead serious. "Well . . ." he said. "Funny you'd say that . . . because I just heard some people on the bus talking about Bobby Kennedy's campaign trains in Indiana and California in 1968." I smiled pleasantly. "They even wrote a song about it: Don't tell me you never heard 'The Ruthless Cannonball'?"

The whistle-stops were uneventful until his noon arrival in Miami, where Yippie activist Jerry Rubin and another man heckled and interrupted him repeatedly. The Senator at one point tried to answer Rubin's charges that he had once been a hawk on (Vietnam) war measures. He acknowledged that he had made a mistake, as did many other senators in those times, but Rubin did not let him finish. "Muskie ultimately wound up scolding Rubin and fellow heckler Peter Sheridan, who had boarded the train in West Palm Beach with press credentials apparently obtained from Rolling Stone's Washington correspondent, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson."
Miami Herald, 2/20/72

Both the Washington Star and Women's Wear Daily reported essentially the same tale: A genuinely savage person had boarded the train in West Palm Beach, using a fraudulent press pass, then ran amok in the lounge car -- getting in "several fist-fights" and finally "heckling the Senator unmercifully" when the train pulled into Miami and Muskie went out on the caboose platform to deliver what was supposed to have been the climactic speech of his triumphant whistle-stop tour.

There is more -- much more, and Obama would do well do give such things a wide berth.

:smoke:

[sandnsea]

14. Kerry did a whistlestop in 2004

Not one incident. It was terrific. You can't let one bad campaign affect every one in the future.

[On the Road]

15. Nah, I'm Joking

The whistle-stop idea was a pretext to link to the story of the wandering boohoo, probably my favorite passage from the best campaign book of all time. Couldn't resist.

[sandnsea]

16. Ah, well okay

That was definitely worth it!

[grantcart]

17. lol Thompson would have loved this GE campaign