 "Photo: Joshua Jow")
It was overcast when between 15,000 and 20,000 people gathered Friday for the only rally of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential announcement tour boasting the stated goal to "kick ass" boldly on the bill. The spectre of rainfall failed to thwart the spirit of the audaciously hopeful third-year senator from Illinois, or that of his followers.
"This is just a little bit of rain, I hope you don't mind," the presidential candidate said as a sea of navy blue "Obama '08" placards turned into make-shift umbrellas.
The crowd at Auditorium Shores, though united by enthusiasm, consisted of people of various ages, races and backgrounds. David Gillette, a senior at St. Michael's Catholic Academy, ditched class for a spot at the front of a seemingly endless line outside the venue's gates.
"I'll learn more from Obama than my classes," Gillette said, who arrived four hours before Obama took the stage.
Nick Chu, president of co-sponsoring organization the University Democrats, said organizing the rally with only three weeks notice from Obama's national campaign was hectic.
"It's been crazy, but a good crazy," Chu said.
Logistical planning was further complicated when the site of the rally was changed from UT's Gregory Gym, following an early realization that the response to the senator's visit would be overwhelming. Texans for Obama, a grass-roots group that teamed up with Obama's national campaign to bring the senator to Austin, reported more than 16,000 online R.S.V.P.s for the rally, which was also made open to the public.
"This is the largest event that the University Democrats has ever been a part of," Chu said.
The organization is currently in talks with Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign about a possible visit to campus.
Obama's magnetism extended all the way to Princeton Review's ninth-most conservative school in the nation, where a group of Aggie Democrats embarked on a trek from College Station across the geo-political spectrum.
"Barack Obama is the next president of the United States," said Sohail Hassan, a political science major at Texas A&M University who saw the senator speak back in 2004. Meredith Clancy, vice president of the group, said there hasn't been such an energizing political figure since Robert Kennedy.
"He's one of the candidates that can really speak to our generation. I think he's really invigorated a lot of people in our age group," Clancy said.
Chu prepped the audience with D'Andra Thomas-Jackson, chair of fellow co-sponsoring organization the African-American Culture Committee, who commented on the crowd's mixed nature.
"You don't often see such diversity at a political event," she said. "Hopefully we're starting a trend."
Obama took the stage amid fickle rain to the sound of thunderous cheers and intermittent chanting. The senator's unusual name rolled off the tongues of a pun-savvy audience promising to "Barack the Vote."
"We're gathered in this place because the entire nation understands that we are at a crossroads," the senator said at the outset of his 40-minute speech.
Obama touched on a number of issues, including climate change, high tuition costs and the national energy policy, or what he sees as a lack thereof. He spoke most at length, however, on U.S. involvement in the Iraq War.
"We are less safe now than when this war began," Obama argued.
The senator, who came out against the war in 2002, outlined his plan to begin the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by May of this year.
"Austin, it is time for us to bring this war to an end!" he declared.
At the climax of his speech, Obama recalled historical examples of American triumph over adversity as motivation to make changes in the country today.
"Tell your friends Pookie and J.J. to put down the Gameboy. We've got work to do," Obama said.
Maggie Shader , a graduate student in the school of journalism and former Daily Texan senior features writer, said she came to the rally out of curiosity and left thoroughly impressed.
"I knew that this Obama wave was sweeping the country," she said. "Now I know why."
Be the first to comment on this article!