Obama coming to Salem – I got tickets!

Below is some video of an enthusiastic crowd in downtown Salem today, waiting to snap up tickets to Barack Obama's appearance in our normally sleepy city on Friday.

The Coffee House Café must have done some bang-up business. Proving that laid-back counter culture types also can have business sense, a nicely tattooed employee worked the line (which stretched most of the way down the block).

As you'll see, I was desperate to cover up the corporate latte that I'd just bought at a nearby Starbucks. That's where I heard about the ticket giveaway, which led me to head down the street, venti latte in hand.

I enjoyed being part of the Obama excitement. I'd wondered about how it was possible for a presidential candidate to fill up a large auditorium with thousands of supporters on short notice.

With Obama – and the electronic age – it isn't difficult. His campaign put up an online ticket issuing site, but the (accurate) word on the street was that it'd been closed. That made those of us waiting in line feel better about our chance to score the two tickets each person could get.

A guy next to me was phoning friend after friend, telling them to get their butts downtown if they wanted Obama tickets. I could see people hurrying down the sidewalk, having heard about the Coffee House Café ticket opportunity.

I chatted briefly with a reporter from the Statesman Journal who I knew. He's covered local politics for many years, and said that this was the first time a viable presidential candidate had come to town.

Mostly they skip Oregon, our May primary usually being irrelevant, delegate-wise. But this year is different. Obama's coming to town.

And I've got tickets. It's been a long time, like maybe never, since I've been enthused enough about a candidate to spend a couple of hours in the Salem Armory at a campaign rally.

But this election is different. Obama's coming to town.

Comments

[Condor]

I have found the Way, and the Truth, and the Light, and it's Obama !!!

[Paul]

I'm excited. This sold out fast, which is surprising for old apathetic Salem. I'll be coming from Corvallis.

[Condor]

It's hard not to see the attraction. Hope, Change. Who is against Hope or Change? Not me, and you can have Hope for Change if you follow this bright, charismatic, dynamic speaker's lead.

However, if we look beyond the attractive package for a moment, we might remember this election is about actual issues. What are we hoping for and what is this "change" pro-Obamas are so excited about?

Obama represents something very familiar: Government as a permanent, inefficient, out of control crutch. Obama, according to the voting record, is THE most liberal senator in the U.S. Senate.

With Obama you get a naivete about foreign policy, a radical on abortion (It's OK to run a drill into the skull of a baby well into the third trimester), opposition to the most reasonable pullbacks on the Supreme Court's inappropriate lawmaking. You get someone who will pull the troops out of Iraq "immediately" with no mind paid to the consequences to our allies in the region and our own security. He won't be able to do that anyway, so that is a rhetorical false promise. He willingly associates with a hate-spouting "reverend" who demonizes white America whose "chickens have come home to roost" in the form of 911.

Obama is all about feel-good talk and no substance, but the chief role of the office he seeks is not to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. The president protects and defends the Constitution. He is commander in chief of the armed forces. He is not an entertainer.

Obama has the audacity to present himself as one blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed him with the capacity to make sweeping changes in this hour of need.

His campaign is a gimmick, based on a slick, charming, charismatic presentation of the old standard campaign slogans of hope and change. This guy is smooth as silk and people are drinking the Kool-aid like the followers of Jim Jones. But what you will get is someone who wants to grow a government that already is too big and out of control, wildly spending money we don't have and selling this debt to the Chinese.

Get out and make your own life better and don't rely on Obama's promises to do it for you. Work, succeed and be happy.

[Martin]

Thanks for telling the truth about the liberal looser Obama, high taxes,no security hate America, just wonderful.

[Ocelot]

Based on how "Martin" spelled loser, and his general lack of proper English usage (I assume his native language) I think I'll vote for Obama.

[Condor]

Ocelot (cool name!):

Sometimes education is a barrier to seeing the truth.