CO rallies for Obama

By David S. Lewis
Contributing Writer
Columbus Post

On Saturday, Mayor Mike Coleman joined many of Ohio's elected officials at the first Barack Obama organizational meeting in preparation for the state's post-Super Tuesday campaign.
Coleman, who endorsed Obama last October, was animated and enthusiastic, warming up the stump with a rousing call for change and echoing the candidate's major campaign theme.
The meeting, held at the Harrison Park building on 1st Avenue in Columbus, was attended by over 300 citizens, politicians and ministers from across the state. In attendance were such figures as Ohio Senator Eric Kearney (D-OH), the President Pro-Tempore of Columbus City Council Kevin L. Boyce, Mansfield's Mayor Donald Culliver, Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim F. Hagan, state representatives Ted Celeste (D-OH) and Vernon Sykes (D-OH), and many others.
Also in attendance was the senior senator from Illinois Dick Durbin, the man who persuaded Obama to make his bid for the presidency nearly one year ago. Senator Durbin recounted his experience with Obama in the early days of the campaign.
" We would go to Republican towns expecting 12 people to show up and the police would meet us and tell us to wait while they got the crowd under control,” said Sen. Durbin who introduced the candidate at the '04 Democratic Convention where Obama's electrifying speech fueled the first speculations that there may indeed be a viable black candidate in 2008.
Every seat in the room was long taken when the bus from Cleveland arrived 20 minutes into the meeting, delivering another 50 supporters. The atmosphere in the room was almost reverent, with an equal number of whites and blacks all spurring on the speakers with earnest murmurs of assent as they preached on the opportunity Sen. Obama affords the community as the candidate of change. The tone was like that of a summer revival meeting, with many gentlemen in fedoras and ladies in their Sunday best. The electricity was palpable, Columbus' first expression of faith and loyalty to their candidate and hope and optimism crackled through the air like bright lightning. The speakers quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Kennedys, connecting Obama with the Americans whose legacies have meant the most to the African-American community.
" We should be proud of this moment in history, when a woman and an African American are seeking the nomination of the party we have loved for so long," said Commissioner Tim Hagan to thunderous applause.
Senator Durbin pointed out that many of the organizers present were young whites.
" Why are they here? They want to believe they live in an America where an African American can be elected president...they want to believe they live in an America where their voices will be heard," said Durbin.
" Ohio...now it's your time," he declared.
The organizers, though mostly young, conduct themselves like seasoned vets. Matt Vassar, a Cincinnati-area director, called for attendees to stay after the meeting to help call voters in Colorado with their cell phones in order to secure that state's delegates for Obama.
" This is a Red Light Emergency," said Vasser. "I know you all have free weekend minutes."
Mayor Coleman was one of Obama's champions early in the campaign; he is co-chair of the Senator's National Council of Mayors and said he has come to know Obama over his years in the U.S. Senate.
Jerry Austin, campaign manager for the Reverend Jesse Jackson during his 1988 bid for the presidency, said that Caroline Kennedy sees Obama as the candidate most similar to JFK.
" Not Jimmy Carter, not Walter Mondale, not Bill Clinton or John Kerry; Barack Obama," said Austin.
He also quoted an op-ed he wrote for the Orlando Sentinel on January 16 regarding the major differences between Jackson's campaign and that of Obama.
" Jesse Jackson was an African-American candidate for president. Barack Obama is a candidate for president who is an African American," said Austin. The article compares the 1988 status of black Americans in the public eye with that of today, arguing that the situation has changed and America is now ready.
" In 1988, I employed a very distinguished-looking white gentleman to stand behind the Rev. Jackson during public appearances," Austin said. "Jackson doesn't even know that."
After the meeting, when asked by the Columbus Post why he was such an enthusiastic supporter of Senator Obama, Mayor Coleman responded, "I've come to know Barack during his years as a U.S. Senator, and he's a once in a generation chance. Once in every few generations! I support him because I believe he will cause the kind of change we need in this country...he is the only man who can bring about that change."
The Mayor has been campaigning aggressively and after Super Tuesday, plans to travel the state securing the Ohio primary for Barack Obama.
For more information on the Obama campaign, visit www.mybarackobama.com.

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