Dueling Speeches in San Antonio
February 29th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama found their way to the same city tonight for rival rallies ahead of Tuesday’s critical Texas primary. Obama went first — ramping up a crowd of roughly four thousand at a packed Verizon Wireless Amphitheater outside San Antonio.
An hour later, Clinton took her turn across town, addressing a much smaller — though no less enthusiastic — crowd at Hemisfair Park downtown. San Antonio, along with Dallas-Fort Worth, has become one of the important battlegrounds in the state.
The campaigns dueled across town just as they were snapping at each other over Clinton’s latest ad, and as new polls today indicated the races in Texas and Ohio are tight.
Obama’s rally showed the impressive organization of his campaign — and a hint of its controlling nature.
No sooner had I arrived at the Verizon Amphitheater, then a string of five Obama volunteers — from as far away as D.C. and Hawaii — personally escorted me to the press area. When I remarked on the stunning service, a staffer told me that’s what happens when so many volunteers flock to a campaign.
Waiting for Obama to arrive, I ventured out of the press area to interview supporters. Apparently, that was a no-no. When I sat down next to a woman wearing an Obama shirt, a volunteer tapped me on the shoulder and told me the campaign forbids reporters from interviewing anyone before speeches.
The campaign wants reporters doing interviews after the speech, when everyone is fired up and ready to go. It was a bizarre moment: I’ve never been forbidden to interview campaign supporters at a political rally. (Eventually, I managed to sneak away from the Obama police and talked to some folks.)
Obama took the stage at 8 p.m. on the button — a remarkable on-time arrival. His 45-minute speech was stump material that you’ve probably heard from him before. Yet, coming from Obama, it sounded like he was saying it all for the first time. It’s an impressive trait, that he can repeat the same lines so many times without draining the words of their power and energy.
“I don’t just want to end the war. I want to end the mindset that got us into war,” he said, prowling the stage with a cordless mic, in front of the word “Hope” erected in red, white and blue balloons. “End the politics of fear. And using 9-11 to scare up votes.”
Here, Obama deviated from his stump speech to wade into the latest controversy on the campaign.
“Since I’m talking about the politics of fear, I want to take a moment to respond to the ad Sen. Clinton put up today.” The crowd booed lustily. “We’ve seen this before. It won’t work. Because the question isn’t who’s picking up the phone. The question is what kind of judgment will the person picking up the phone have. Sen. Clinton may not be aware but we already had a red phone moment.”
He meant the decision to invade Iraq. “And Sen. Clinton gave the wrong answer. And John McCain gave the wrong answer. George Bush gave the wrong answer….All three of them, they got a particular way of doing things.” He then pointed out that he had opposed the Iraq war from the start. “That’s the kind of judgment I’ll have when the phone rings at 3 in the morning…..You won’t see me trying to scare up votes using the threat of terrorism. I’ll make sure we rally the country together against our common enemies.”
After Obama finished, I dashed to the car, nudged my way through the crowded parking lot, and sped 20 miles down Interstate 35 to hear Clinton. (In my haste, I had forgotten to remove my Obama press badge, which elicited a sneering comment from a Clinton supporter.)
Her crowd was much smaller. She spoke on a stage in front of the park; the crowd filled the street intersection. Perhaps a thousand people.
“When the phone rings in the White House at 3 a.m., there’s no time for speeches, there’s no time for on-the-job training,” Clinton said. She will be ready on day one, she said.
But Clinton couldn’t help but slip in some of that Obama, change-the-world kind of rhetoric. She noted that Dolores Huerta, legendary Farm Workers activist, was there to support her. “Dolores is with me because she knows where I’ve been. People who look at where we’ve come from know we have work to do, but there’s no reason we can’t keep marching….Starting on Tuesday, we will take our country back and we will change the world.”
Voters in San Antonio and all over Texas will be hearing a lot more from these two before Tuesday. As Bill Shute of San Antonio put it, sitting in the back of the amphitheater as the crowd filed in before Obama’s speech, “It feels like I live in Iowa or New Hampshire, the way people have been coming down here and catering to us.”
March 1st, 2008 at 11:29 am
What we don’t hear about Obama is what scares me. This article in the American Thinker is really disturbing and shows his Muslim/Arab leanings or favoritism in the Middle East.
This is a brilliant publication:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/barack_obamas_middle_east_expe.html
Personally, this concerns me because I remember what we didn’t know about Bush junior coming into office…and that is Cheney (we didn’t really know him) and Rumsfeld. Then look what happened.
I’m not convinced that he is pro-Israel/anti-Arab extremists, especially after these very well documented articles in the American Thinker.
March 1st, 2008 at 1:33 pm
YOU MIGHT BE AN IDIOT:-)
If you think Barack Obama with little or no experience would be better than Hillary Clinton with 35 years experience.
You Might Be An Idiot!
If you think that Obama with no experience can fix an economy on the verge of collapse better than Hillary Clinton. Whose
husband (Bill Clinton) led the greatest economic expansion, and prosperity in American history.
You Might Be An Idiot!
If you think that Obama with no experience fighting for universal health care can get it for you better than Hillary Clinton. Who anticipated this current health care crisis back in 1993, and fought a pitched battle against overwhelming odds to get universal health care for all the American people.
You Might Be An Idiot!
If you think that Obama with no experience can manage, and get us out of two wars better than Hillary Clinton. Whose
husband (Bill Clinton) went to war only when he was convinced that he absolutely had to. Then completed the mission in record time against a nuclear power. AND DID NOT LOSE THE LIFE OF A SINGLE AMERICAN SOLDIER. NOT ONE!
You Might Be An Idiot!
If you think that Obama with no experience saving the environment is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose
husband (Bill Clinton) left office with the greatest amount of environmental cleanup, and protections in American history.
You Might Be An Idiot!
If you think that Obama with little or no education experience is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose
husband (Bill Clinton) made higher education affordable for every American. And created higher job demand and starting salary’s than they had ever been before or since.
You Might Be An Idiot!
If you think that Obama with no experience will be better than Hillary Clinton who spent 8 years at the right hand of President Bill Clinton. Who is already on record as one of the greatest Presidents in American history.
You Might Be An Idiot!
If you think that you can change the way Washington works with pretty speeches from Obama, rather than with the experience, and political expertise of two master politicians ON YOUR SIDE like Hillary and Bill Clinton..
You Might Be An Idiot!
If you think all those Republicans voting for Obama in the Democratic primaries, and caucuses are doing so because they think he is a stronger Democratic candidate than Hillary Clinton.
Best regards
jacksmith…
March 1st, 2008 at 5:04 pm
well now i’m convinced
I AM AN IDIOT !
March 2nd, 2008 at 10:04 am
It is delicious to see the vacuous non-arguement posted by Jacksmith in this and just about every other blog in cyberspace. Taking a page from the Clinton playbook, this Jeff Foxworthy rip-off artist turns a spotlight on Clinton’s reality suspending use of words to shore up the false through repitition. “It is Clinton who uses words to deny reality, and expects them to magically change it. Haven’t we had enough of that over the last seven years?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/clinton-obama-and-the-be_b_88349.html
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Jacksmith,
I denounce your accusation that Obama has not experience and Hillary has 35 years experience of what (bulls**t)?
I denounce your accusation that Hillary will copy the regime of her husband and make everything better, do you think she wants to be known as a copycat, she has never known poverty or anything close to it. Obama has lived it, smelled it, and will change it?
I denouce you accusation that Hillary’s healthcare plan is better than Obama’s. We will continue to pay for the hidden taxes on her plan because the poor will not be able to afford it. She failed in 1993 and didn’t try again because she gave up. Her husband stayed in office for another 7 years and he didn’t even believe in her healthcare plan.
I denounce everything you stated about Bill that you think his experience will help Hillary, Remember Rwanda genocide!!!!!
I denounce all your statements. Know you facts!!!!!! Stop watching TV and do your own research!!!! Hillary has over exagerated a lot of stuff regarding her experience. I can visit countries and community centers, as well. So I think I should be the first Woman President.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Stop funding the terrorists!
No more Oil Wars!
Energy Independence Now!
Drill in Anwar.
Build more nuclear power plants
Use More coal.
Use more natural gas
Turn trash into energy
Double the efficiency of windmills and solar cells.
If France can do nuclear power so can we.
If Brazil can do biomass/ethanol power so can we.
If Australia can do LNG power so can we.
Domestically produced energy will end the recession and spur the economy.
Stop paying oil dollars to those who worship daily at the alter of our destruction.
Preserve our Civil Rights and defend our Freedom by ending dependence on foreign oil.
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 am
after tomorrow’s TX, OH, VT, RI primaries the next contest is a caucus on saturday 8Mar in Wyoming, then MS next tuesday 11Mar. after that it will be SIX weeks until Pennsylvania.
“groundhog” day? (pardon the pun) if HRC wins in TX and OH (RI seems hers as a given) then “she has seen her shadow” and there will be another 6/7 weeks of winter.. i mean campaigning.
during which, HRC will likely lose substantially in the Wyoming caucus and MS primary. and given the increasingly negative spirit of the supporters of the two campaigns over the past few weeks, the DEM hierarchy and superdelegates will be under intense pressure to step in and “stop the bleeding”.
it looks to me as if HRC, whether she wins or loses on 4Mar in TX and OH, is in a position to demand the VP slot by virtue of her delegate count and the real threat of her continuing to campaign if denied it. (her leverage of course would be increased after wins and would make her look more magnanimous i.e. “for the good of the party”)
seems almost obvious to me.
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Hillary injects these ridicules claims (who should anwer the phone at 3 AM, like, how many red phones have she answered at 3 AM), in order to divert attention from the real issue: who is the most honest and forthright person to assemble a team and take this country forward? A conniving multi millionaire who gained her (their) fortune by peddling influence achieved on the backs and bank accounts of the American people. A shady political slickster who will not admit she was wrong to vote for the Iraq war? Who supported NAFTA until she started her presidential campaign? A conniving politician who refuses to release her income tax statement?