Obama Rocks UC

The scene at UC's Fifth Third Arena yesterday afternoon was quite surreal. When I got there around 1:15 p.m., a line of people waiting to get in to see Sen. Barack Obama stretched from the arena down Cory Street past the baseball field and toward Jefferson. I lost sight of the line as it crested over a hill.

Everyone eventually got in, though, and filled all the seats except the top few rows of one of the upper sections. The retractable bleachers on one end were pulled back, allowing a stage to be placed under what would have been one of the baskets and a lot of floor space for people to stand in front, plus a platform for TV cameras. Given the loss of the one set of bleachers and the gain of about 500 people on the floor, it looked like about 11,000 or so in the building (basketball capacity is 13,000).

After warmups from Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray and others, Mayor Mark Mallory came on to introduce Obama. Mallory, a super-delegate, announced he was officially supporting Obama — a move that Kevin Osborne predicted in this blog last week. Per Kevin's observations back then, the SEIU union had a large presence at the UC event.

Obama came on to a pounding U2 song and thunderous cheers. I doubt the Bearcats have had a louder crowd this season.

His remarks were similar to what I've heard in recent speeches, particularly the speech he gave last week in Houston on the night he won the Wisconsin primary. He was particularly engaging toward the end when he worked on the theme of "I can't bring change to this country alone. You need to be ready to change, too." He was serious throughout, with only a few funny lines, and the audience seemed to stay focused through his 45 minutes or so.

I'm not an unbiased observer, as I've already endorsed Obama in Tuesday's primary. But no one, no matter who you support for president, can deny Obama's rock star status in these kinds of settings. I have to think everyone who was at the UC event yesterday will remember it for a long time.

After Obama spoke, as he worked his way along shaking hands, I was led backstage with three TV crews to do brief one-on-one interviews. We each had five minutes, and a campaign press official literally kept track with a stopwatch. So I decided to focus my few questions on themes CityBeat readers might care about and I hadn't heard Obama speak about: media consolidation vs. media independence, government funding for the arts and public broadcasting and his ability to help heal the country's racial divide, plus a little more about his plan to give college students a $4,000 tax credit in exchange for 100 hours of community service.

Look for the interview in tomorrow's issue of CityBeat.

— John Fox

(Photos: top black & white by Jon Hughes, bottom color by Joe Lamb)

Comments

[Soft Balls]

Government funding for the arts, his ability to help heal the country's racial divide and chump change for college?

That's the best you could come up with?

[John Fox]

Uh, yeah. What questions would you have asked?

[Real Questions]

Here's a few off of the top of my head, but I don't get paid to be a reporter.

Why will you expand the Pentagon's budget which is already absorbing half of the federal government’s operating expenditures; when the U.S. already spends more on our military than the rest of the world combined?

Will you tax speculators on Wall Street?

You were pro-Palestinian when you were in Illinois in the state Senate. Now you're supporting the Israeli destruction of the tiny section called Gaza with a million and a half people, why?

Why did you change your position on the Israel/Palestine issue and take it off of the table and out of the debate when it's central to our security and to the situation in the Middle East?

There's a civilian death ratio of about 300-to-1; that's 300 Palestinian deaths for every Israeli death. Do you not have any sympathy for the Palestinians and if not, why not?

Why don't you support single-payer universal health care that covers all Americans craddle to grave like they have in Canada or in Europe?

Does the fact that you've take more money from the health industry than any other candidate influence this policy?

This is set to be a billion dollar election. Do you think that money corrupts polictics?

And would you support free airtime for candidates like they have in countries like France?

Would you restore the fairness doctrine which requires stations to give equal time to all candidates on the ballot?

What will you do to address the great racial disparity in the criminal justice system?

Will you increase the minimum wage to a living wage? Why or why not?

What do you say to critics that say you haven't accomplished anything in your short time in the Senate and your being to general with generic, feel-good rhetoric about unity, hope and change that doesn't really specifically tell people how you would do anything?

Is my 5 minutes really already up?

[David E. Gallaher]

The more we get excited about a person's ability to bring change, the more we want to "nibble" them to death.
Relax and observe.
President Obama, if he does nothing else, will be taking the party of Lincoln to history's dustbin.

[sean]

Wow! Some rather clinical comments posted here. I'd just note that neither Barack Obama's plan nor Hillary Clinton's health care plan will end up providing universal health care. The only path to true universal health care is socialized medicine. But since most of America has it's head up it's $#!, this won't happen either. I will say however, that simply putting Barack into office will massively change the perceptions held by so many around the world. I know this because I've been living overseas for the past 10 years. The well educated and generally intelligent that have been voting for Barack seem to understand this. Unfortunately, your state of Ohio has very few of these types and may end up putting us all through weeks and weeks more of listening to Hillary sound off like a school girl that's not getting her way. Do us all a huge favor Ohio, vote for Barack and let's close this thing out now. Otherwise we may be looking at 4 more years of Bush-esque politics with grandpa munster, and that's something I think we all could live without.