BLOG: Obama rocks the Dawg House
I showed up at Hec Edmundson Pavillion just before 9 AM to observe President Obama's noon appearance at a rally for Sen. Patty Murray. By then, the waiting line was stretching beyond the north parking lot.
I walked that way and followed the line down past the soccer field... and the baseball field... and to the turn near Husky Stadium. When I passed the crew house and got to the back of the indoor football practice facility, I could see the line continued on, well past the Waterfront Activities Center. Luckily, I bumped into some friends who let me cut in line. At that point, I didn't have much hope of getting inside Hec Ed and figured I'd have to settle for a spillover seat in the football stadium and a televised view on the big screen.
The epic line was new proof, as if any is needed, that Seattle remains a Democratic bastion and friendly ground for a president who is scorned and vilified to a shocking degree in some parts of the country. As a reminder of that widespread hatred, there were a couple of unsmiling Tea Party types on hand carrying posters of Obama with a Hitler mustache. They were handing out flyers describing how the socialists have stolen the country. I doubt that it dawned on them that the people who "stole" the country they want to take back are the people who were standing in that line -- a rather moderate, middle class, freedom-loving crowd. Maybe the crowd looked scary to them since, unlike a Republican crowd, there were actual black people and Asian people and others who didn't look like their ancestors came ashore on the Mayflower. They all looked like real Americans to me, but, what do I know? My ancestors didn't show up until 1640.
To my surprise, I landed a seat in the upper benches of Hec Ed. I was told the place holds close to 10,000 people. I don't know if that includes all the standing room on the floor. Whatever the numbers, the place was packed as a series of Democrats took the stage to fire up the crowd.
The repeated theme in each speech was that the pundits are wrong; Democrats can still come out winners at the end of this game, just like the Husky football team did in two overtimes last Saturday against Oregon State. Rep. Jay Inslee (who got the third biggest ovation of the day) pulled out a sports analogy from his own past. Recalling the state championship basketball game between the Ingraham High School Rams and the Hoquiam Grizzlies in which he played back in 1969, Inslee described the final desperate seconds of the match. Inslee's Rams were up by one point, a Hoquiam player made a shot and it was swatted away by one of Inslee's teammates to seal the victory for Ingraham.
Completing the analogy, Inslee predicted Patty Murray would swat away her opponent Dino Rossi's crazy ideas, like repealing regulation of Wall Street shenanigans, and win in November.
The second biggest cheers were for Gov. Chris Gregoire, who, like the rest of the Dems, did not flinch from boasting about the legislation passed by Obama and the congressional Democrats during the last two years. She alluded to some of the more goofy Republicans seeking office this year, including Delaware's Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell and took a swipe at "the perennial candidate, a guy I happen to know," Dino Rossi, her failed opponent in two races for governor.
Then came the biggest cheer -- a roaring, squealing, screaming-like-a-rock-concert cheer -- as Murray and Obama took the stage. The president immediately took off his suit coat and rolled up his sleeves. As Murray spoke, he helped lead chants of "Patty Murray! Patty Murray!" I was intrigued to see him in campaign mode since, unlike many other past presidents and candidates for president, I have not seen him live, except at the inauguration where he was downright somber.
In that basketball arena today, he was a different Barack; not the professorial Barack or the inspirational Barack or the too cool Barack. This guy was more of the kid he must have been playing basketball back at Punahou High -- throwing elbows, showing attitude, talking trash.
The notoriously controlledl Obama was at his loosest as he told a story he's been using all along the campaign trail this fall. He bent into the microphone, spreading his arms wide and, in a voice tinged with a slight jazzy lilt of the Chicago streets, told how the Republicans had been driving wild for eight years and finally drove the country's car into a ditch two years ago. Instead of doing anything about it, they just climbed out of the car and walked away. So, he said, he and Patty Murray, pulled on their boots, climbed down into the dust and dirt and began pushing.
"Now, Patty's small, but she's strong," Obama said, grinning. "And I'm skinny, but I'm strong, too." And, while the Republicans looked on, criticizing and offering no help, he said, he and Patty kept pushing and finally got the car back on the road, still with damage and a lot of repairs to be done, but headed in the right direction. And, just then, the president said, he felt a tap on the shoulder and it was the Republicans asking for the keys back.
"They can't have the keys back," the president declared, as the crowd went bonkers, "they don't know how to drive!"
Today, at least, Barack Obama was the cheerleader the Democrats have been longing for. There was no enthusiasm gap among these Democrats. But, of course, this was Seattle and Seattle is not the country.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/davidhorsey/archives/225736.asp
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