Breaking: The Guy With The Purple Shirt Votes Obama

[Bodhi BloodWave]

by SamGrahamFelsen
Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 07:33:02 PM SWT

Bob Howard, a Chicago resident, was there on October 2, 2002 in Federal Plaza when a young State Senator with an unusual name stood up before a crowd and declared, "I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war."

In fact, Bob can be seen among the crowd in the thirteen seconds of video that exist from the rally...

Five years later, when we finished editing the video from Barack's speech outlining his plan to end the war at DePaul University, we noticed a familiar face in the audience...

And today, we caught up with Bob on his way to the polls...

youtube vid here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY7BDYeonwk

Sidenote: the Dailykos member who posted this over there is a campaign blogger for BarackObama.com.

[AtomicKitten]

1. I had never seen that slice of Obama's 2002 speech.

Damn, I wish they had preserved all of it.

Thanks for posting.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

6. My pleasure, once i saw that i had to bring it over here

since i was fairly sure a number of people would like it :)

I also found it interesting in its own sense, kinda a nice full circle thing of sorts

[Kittycat]

2. I thought i would pont out... Only in Chicago

Will you catch someone wearing little more than a vest and a long sleeved shirt in the dead of winter :lol:

I took my son out to catch the bus in sandals & a running jacket today.

To respond to the OP... Thank you for sharing :)

[hedgehog]

7. When I ran into my neighbor at our polling place, she was wearing

shorts although it is 33 and raining and the ground is covered with snow. Admittedly, she had just come from the gym! We snow belters don't pay any attention unles there is at least a foot of snow predicted. Then we make a bread/beer/milk run.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

9. And here i am supposed to be a norse viking

and i hate all things thats called snow and cold O.o i feel like a failure reading this. hehe

[hedgehog]

11. I hate the snow myself and go out during January and February

only as needed. Our dirty little secret is that we aren't really cold hardy, it's just that after putting on boots, scares, mittens, hat and coat for six weeks, we've had enough. By mid-March, we can't even be bothered to button up our jackets.


BTW - it's my theory that the Great Lakes are the most beautiful place to live in the entire world. It's Nature's gift to us to bury them under 2 feet of snow 2 months a year to keep them uncrowded!

[Bodhi BloodWave]

13. If or should i say when i next visit the US again, i'll try to get a trip to the Great Lakes area

since i have heard a lot of nice things about the area(so far I've only visited Arizona, Phoenix to be exact )

[hedgehog]

15. It's a great place to live, but I'm not sure I'd want to visit. There're

a lot of things to do in the big cities like Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo. Where I live, most activities are community based like softball leagues and chicken dinners or fish fries to raise money for this cause or that.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

16. Well, aslong as there is a number of stores

selling computer games or RPG books i think I'd survive, i bought a ton of that the last time i visited, otherwise it would be more looking at the nature and such while i wasn't busy with the books :P

[hedgehog]

17. We've got plenty of nature here. We're on a major migratory fly way and every

Spring and Fall a Cooper's Hawk stakes out my chicken yard to catch a snack!

[Bodhi BloodWave]

19. If i decide to visit, is there any specific dates i should concider trying to have included

regarding local festivals and similar events?

[hedgehog]

20. Oswego, New York has a huge music festival during the summer

MAKE HARBORFEST PART OF YOUR SUMMER PLANS!



For four days in July the City of Oswego hosts Harborfest, Central New York’s favorite summer festival. Harborfest brings more than 100 choices of admission-free entertainment to stages located at scenic venues throughout the city. These stages feature local, regional and nationally known recording artists and entertainers. From reggae, jazz, Dixie, blues, hip-hop, swing, folk and rock ‘n roll Harborfest offers a diverse menu of entertainment for every possible musical taste.

“Awesome” doesn’t quite describe the festival’s world-class music choreographed Entergy Nuclear Northeast Fireworks Spectacular, one of only seven such continuous presentations in the Northeast. It’s an annual Saturday night Harborfest event that brings more than 100,000 spectators


Harborfest’s traditional Friday night feature concert has spotlighted a “who’s who” list of popular national recording artists including The Drifters, Don McLean, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons, the Buckinghams, Dion, The Four Tops, Kenney Chesney, Blood Sweat and Tears, Delbert McClinton, Three Dog Night, The Temptations, Mary Wilson, KC and the Sunshine Band, Arturo Sandoval, Wilson Pickett, Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers, Al Jardine, The Neville Brothers and many more.


For young families, Harborfest provides activities and entertainment for children at its popular Children’s Stage and Children’s Activity Area. The Children’s Stage features entertainment carefully chosen to inform, entertain and educate youngsters. The Harborfest Children’s Activity Area features supervised arts and crafts activities for young boys and girls. In addition, children have the opportunity to design their own costumes and march in the Harborfest Children’s Parade, a Friday tradition at the festival that is tied to the yearly in-school cultural component.




For serious shoppers, there’s plenty to do at Harborfest. Enjoy walking along the scenic park areas flanking the Oswego River as you browse and shop at the Juried Arts and Crafts area. The hand-made items offered for sale meet the highest standards for quality and innovation. Shop at the Harborfest Marketplace where you’ll find manufactured merchandise to fit any size budget. While shopping you just might be entertained by buskers (street entertainers) who add to the festive atmosphere.

For those who enjoy the fun of amusement rides, the Harborfest Midway offers an exciting array of games and rides from the traditional carousel, bumper cars and Ferris wheel to the latest technological marvels in a traditional American midway setting.

http://www.oswegoharborfest.com/?p=about

[hedgehog]

3. kick with a smile

[TexasObserver]

4. Obama's 2002 speech proves he's no Johnny Come Lately

It proves he was right from day one about Iraq, and it proves he is a thoughtful person whose values regarding war are similar to most Democrats.

[FrenchieCat]

5. That's great! We've got a Witness!

Barack is who he was.....found his voice long ago!

The Year of the Organizer

The Obama campaign's commitment to the principles of community organizing has proved decisive to their primary victories so far. It has also brought new voters to the political process who could make the difference for Democrats in the general election.

Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier | February 1, 2008 | web only

The two remaining Democrats in the race for the presidency both have roots in the community-organizing world. Hillary Clinton wrote her senior thesis at Wellesley College on legendary organizer Saul Alinsky. Barack Obama spent three years as a community organizer in Chicago. But it is Obama's campaign that most clearly embodies many of the characteristics of a social movement -- a redemptive calling for a better society, coupling individual and social transformation. This shouldn't be surprising. Obama has enlisted hundreds of seasoned organizers -- including unions, community groups, churches, and environmental groups -- into his campaign. They, in turn, have mobilized thousands of volunteers -- many of them neophytes in electoral politics -- into tightly knit, highly motivated, and efficient teams. This organizing effort has turned out a new group of voters, many of them young people and first-time voters.

Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina was due in large measure to this grassroots organizing approach, which dramatically expanded voter turnout. Obama's campaign had organizers in each of South Carolina's 46 counties, 32 Get Out the Vote offices throughout the state, and 154 "staging" areas where volunteers picked up precinct lists and campaign materials. The South Carolina campaign was so well organized they conducted two GOTV "dry runs" on the two previous Saturdays before the primary, practicing every step of the Election Day operation to make sure that all staff and volunteers understood their responsibilities.

On Election Day, the campaign had 15,000 volunteers in South Carolina, according to Jeremy Bird, the Obama campaign field director. In another departure from past campaigns, Bird targeted people who had never participated in politics before. Turnout increased to 532,000 this year from 293,000 in 2004. Twenty-seven percent of those who cast a ballot were first-time voters. Moreover, turnout in the Democratic primary exceeded Republican turnout a week earlier by 97,000 voters. As a result, Bird says, "South Carolina is in play in November if Barack is the nominee," challenging the conventional wisdom that a Democrat can't win in the state.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_year_of_the_organizer

[Radical Activist]

8. The first line of that article is a little off.

Hillary doesn't have roots in the community organizing world. She wrote a paper about it and then turned down a job offer from Saul Alinsky because she believed taking an insider establishment approach was more effective.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

10. Its kinda nice to have a witness like that methinks :)

least it verifies my own views of Obama to some degree

[1776Forever]

14. Thanks for posting this! I really enjoyed seeing this - GObama!

:applause: :woohoo: :applause:

[snappyturtle]

12. I think Barack Obama should incorporate his remarks with the DATE

into a campaign ad. Thanks! K&R

[cottonseed]

18. Great post, thanks n/t