'Unprecedented' turnout for first Obama event in New Hampshire

[Herman Munster]

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/16210319.htm

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Sen. Barack Obama shook up the embryonic 2008 presidential campaign Sunday, igniting a tumultuous response in his first visit to the state that will kick off primary voting for the 2008 Democratic nomination in about a year.

More than 1,500 Democrats crowded into a Manchester armory to see and hear the freshman senator, a turnout local organizers called unprecedented this long before the voting.

The armory crowd roared its approval when Gov. John Lynch speculated that Obama might run, and they interrupted the senator's half-hour speech several times with ovations. His speech focused on forging a bipartisan civil approach to solving problems in education, healthcare and national security. That amounts to "an American agenda," he said, not a partisan one.

Earlier Sunday, more than 700 showed up to see him at a Portsmouth book signing, forcing the event to be moved from a bookstore to a conference center.

The Illinois senator hasn't even decided yet whether to run. And not all who showed up to hear him would necessarily vote for him. But the intense curiosity and enthusiasm about him among Democrats suggests that the party is looking for new leadership - and that the presumed frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Rodham of New York, is anything but a certain winner.

"We've never had an event like this," said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan.

[goclark]

1. Go Obama!