UPDATED BELOW
Dem hearts are aflutter in anticipation of Barack Obama’s visit to Baa Ram U. this afternoon. (He’s also visiting Denver for a rally at Civic Center Park.) He’ll be speaking at a very pretty part of campus known as “The Oval,” where most of the oldest buildings are located. (It’s the part of our campus that screams “college campus!”) I can’t be there myself, but I’ll try to post local news updates and video as they are available. It’s a good day to be Obama in Colorado–the Rocky Mountain News announced yesterday that their polling has him with a comfy 12-point lead here. (And yet, for some reason the national news stories I hear all identify Colorado as “close,” or a “toss-up.” Close? Stick a fork in us–we’re done, baby!) Obama is not alone with his double-digit lead–actually, Mark Udall has an even more commanding 14-point lead over Bob Schaffer for our open U.S. Senate seat. Even more exciting is the news that Betsy Markey may actually up-end Marilyn Musgrave, and install a Democrat in my congressional district for the first time since the early 1970s.
Colorado has been growing its own Democratic party–the state assembly and state senate flipped from Republican to Democratic control in 2004, and in 2006 we elected a Dem governor–but in presidential politics, an Obama win would still be remarkable. (The last Dem presidential candidate to win this state was Bill Clinton in 1992.) I sure wish things had turned around 4 years earlier–think of all of the trouble we could have saved the world if Colorado had gone for John Kerry!
Many of us worked hard for that, but I think too many people were still living in that post-9/11/01 coma of fear, and wanted to believe that George W. Bush was in fact the “Commander in Chief” they hoped he was, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Half of the U.S., not to mention the rest of the world, was onto Bush by then, but Hurricaine Katrina was the event that finally changed people’s minds about him domestically. The criminal ineptitude on display that last week of August 2005 was enraging and humiliating. I remember a conversation with my Republican father, who was visiting that week, while we watched a news report on TV about New Orleans, and I commented, “I just can’t believe we’re stuck with Bush for another three and a half years.” My father did a shocked double-take, and said, “we’ve got three and a half more years of this?,” appalled and disgusted by the thought of the continuing Bush regime. To be sure, the Dem congress hasn’t done enough to help the people of New Orleans–my hope is that New Orleans won’t be forgotten amidst the long list of problems the next U.S. president will inherit.
Here are some links and spaces to watch to get news and video feeds of Obama’s visits to Colorado today:
UPDATE, 12:35 MDT: He’s speaking now in Denver at Civic Center Park, and has been for about half an hour. He sounds good–who wouldn’t, with the kind of lead he’s got? Apparently, people started lining up at the park before dawn–and it was a very cold and windy morning here in Colorado. Denver Police estimate that he drew a crowd of more than 100,000, which is mind-bogglingly huge. Here’s a story from the Denver Post website, and here’s an excerpt from his prepared remarks. I wonder what the crowd up in Fort Collins will be at 3:30 p.m.?
UPDATE, FORT COLLINS, 2:15 P.M. MDT: The crowd is again huge, and was lined up since early this morning. People have started moving through the security screening to get into the Oval. I don’t know if the Denver Post and the other Denver media will also do a live stream of his appearance in Fort Collins, since they had their own visit earlier in the day, but the Fort Collins Coloradoan is featuring live updates.
UPDATE, 3:30 P.M. MDT: Wow–he’s speaking even a little ahead of schedule. You can find a link to the live video feed here. Good populist rhetoric–the country needs to work “not just for the CEO, but the secretary, and the janitor.”
UPDATE, 3:45 P.M. MDT: When he asked the crowd to raise their hands if they made less than $250K a year, the response was a little lackluster. Is it a really rich crowd up in Fort Collins today? The line about investing in renewables got a great response, and a good tie-in with Governor Ritter. (Baa Ram U. is branding itself “The Green University,” after all.)
UPDATE, 3:52 P.M. MDT: Here come his comments about expanding opportunities for college: “If you are willing to commit yourself to service. . . . whatever way you decide to serve. . . . then we are going to make sure you have the money to go to college, no ifs, ands, or buts.”
Obama has done a nice job of incorporating Hillary Clinton’s and Al Gore’s messages on universal health care and the environment into his spiel. It’s going over very well this sunny but unexpectedly cool afternoon.
UPDATE, 3:59 P.M. MDT: The no red America, no blue America routine–we all need to pull together for the good of the country. “I ask of you what’s been asked of the American people throughout our history. . . believe in yourselves, believe in each other, believe in the future.” Nice message of intergenerational dependence, and that young people today need to pass along their advantages to the generations that follow.
Nice speech–I think it was identical to the one he gave in Denver this afternoon, from what I saw of it, but that’s OK. I think it was a version of his stump speech, although I’m not sure since I don’t have cable TV.
Historiann 
This is the kind of attention we thought we’d be getting up here in the west slope of the Alleghenies. I guess we went too blue, too soon. I think they calibrate the prospects by weighting not only current polling but also outcomes in recent four year cycles, and by that measure, CO, NV, and NM should indeed be getting the emphasis. If youse can hold the fort out there in Fort C., I think we can deliver this part of the Rust Belt.
I just heard from a well-placed source in Arkansas. The Big Dog is going in there this week. They think it’s purple at best at this point, but will be doing what they can to flip it over.
NB: Jefferson said whoever was in possession of New Orleans must infallibly be “our natural and habitual enemy.” This was before he bought it, of course. It looks like liberation could come within ten days down there.
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I find it hard to believe that Obama is doing better than a 12-point margin in Pennsylvania, but I guess we’re getting all the love this year because we’ve been a solid Red state in the Bush years. This year, we’re poised to have 2 Dem U.S. Senators; maybe a 5-2 split in our congressional delegation D to R; and a Dem Governor, Assembly, and State Senate. That’s pretty true-blue by my lights, and quite a change from when I moved here 7 years ago. At that point, it was the opposite of how it may be in 9 days’ time: the Governor, Assembly, and State senate were all Republican, we had 2 Republican U.S. Senators, and our congressional delegation was 5-2 Republicans to Dems. That’s a remarkable turnaround, but then I suppose we can credit George W. Bush for trashing the R brand, even here in Colorado.
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I got to see so of the action up close. (I didn’t attend though—I was stuck grading papers from an apartment on campus.) The turnout was truly incredible. The line stretched all the way from the Oval to Prospect Road. Many people (including John’s brother) parked near the Oval only to discover they had to make a nearly two mile trek to the end of the line.
Some McCain/Palin supporters showed up only too be booed. One appeared to be dressed as a Cat?!
People are still filing out now.
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Mary, thanks for the on-site report. If anyone else is a local who was up there, I’d like to hear your impressions. (I think ej was there briefly, and will try to file a report.)
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Obama’s not quite as far ahead here as in Colorado, Historiann, but an average of several polls today is suggesting that about 11 % may not be too far off the number. Ed Rendell is coming over here to soft coal country on Wednesday evening to make sure that support does not go soft at the last minute. I’ll try to check in on the event and report if there’s anything noteworthy stirring. It shouldn’t be necessary to camp out. Our gov is a pretty popular guy, but I wouldn’t be looking for any camp meeting dynamics.
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Rendell is a decent guy–I remember when he was first elected mayor of Philadelphia, back in my grad school days. He seemed so earnest, hard-working, and wonkish, that he could deliver bad news and the people would say, “well, he must be right, let’s fix this problem his way.” That’s how anti-glamour can work for a politician–he’s clearly not in this line of work for the adulation and fawning crowds, so maybe there’s something to this guy after all?
(Just a theory of mine about Ed Rendell.)
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