Home › News › Boulder & County News
Boulder-area residents electrified by Obama speech
Photo by Joshua Lawton
University of Colorado seniors and volunteers Lindsey Moss, left, and Katie O'Block, both of Durango, wave extra flags after placing hundreds of American flags in empty seats before Barack Obama's acceptance speech for the presidential nominee on the last day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver at Invesco Field.
Associated Press/The Denver Post, John Leyba
Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., waves before making his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Thursday.
STORY TOOLS
RELATED STORIES
More Boulder & County News
- Boulder leaders: Builders need to give back
- Black-tailed prairie dogs may get protection
- Defense: Novak a 'scapegoat' for angry clients
Share and Enjoy [?]
DENVER — As many as eight hours before Barack Obama officially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, thousands of people filled the streets for the chance to see the politician in person.
“This is historic,” Boulder resident Bill Rubin said as he waited for Obama’s acceptance speech inside Invesco Field at Mile High. “It’s amazing that it’s happening.”
Rubin, 55, was among the crowd of more than 75,000 who waited for hours to hear the speech. He said it was worth the wait to experience the politically charged event firsthand.
“I’ve been waiting for a long time to have a change in government,” Rubin said.
The active Democrat was among the Colorado residents who won a lottery of so-called community credentials to the official end of the Democratic National Convention.
“The folks here are saying, ‘Let’s change this (country), and let’s change our standing with the world,” Rubin said.
Outside the venue, a line of foot traffic stretched from the entrance of Invesco to nearly the cordoned-off entrance of the Pepsi Center.
Slowly, the crowd filed into the stadium through Secret Service screenings and credential checkpoints.
Once inside, the Obama merchandise went fast — but the hot dogs and soda went faster. One unhappy vendor was sending hungry Democrats to the opposite side of the stadium for Italian sausage, and another vendor was scrambling to pop more popcorn.
Martine McDonald, 22 and a peace studies major at Boulder’s Naropa University, bought one of the hot-selling Obama mugs once she got in the doors.
“I’m just happy to be in the building,” she joked.
McDonald, who is bi-racial, said it was deeply important to see a half-black, half-white man accept a major party’s nomination for president.
“You never see that represented,” she said. “I never would have dreamed that would happen.”
As the last bits of confetti were still fluttering to the ground at Invesco, Longmont delegate Nate Vanderschaaf was beaming and dancing with his 3-year-old daughter, Natalie, to the strains of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.”
Vanderschaaf was one of 12 Democratic delegates from Boulder County — including three superdelegates — who were in the Colorado delegation, which was seated closest to the stage to watch the night’s festivities.
“Barack Obama was in fine form this evening. I particularly love that he laid out all of his platform specifics,” he said. “He left no stone unturned.”
Delegate Shari Malloy could barely contain herself.
“I am overwhelmed, completely inspired and full of hope like I’ve never experienced before,” said the Longmont teacher.
Jessica Wittmer, a delegate from Boulder, was ecstatic that she was no more than 50 feet away from Obama when he gave his historic speech.
As she worked her way through a crush of people leaving the Colorado delegation section, she said she was more than ready to work on the Democratic candidate’s behalf.
“He said everything that he had to say and inspired all of us to get out there and start working tomorrow,” she said.
Sarah Kihm, a delegate and a University of Colorado accounting major, was by far the most succinct: “Wow.”
Posted by Ralphie2 on August 28, 2008 at 11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
GRAND SLAM!
I have no idea how the Republicans will be able to follow that act.
Posted by Ralphie2 on August 28, 2008 at 11:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
P.S. McCain to announce Tim Pawlenty as VP. BORING!
Posted by blacksho89 on August 28, 2008 at 11:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
blacksho89, a local conservative, reports that the candidate gave a well delivered speech. He gave lip service to gay marriage, illegal immigration, and abortion. I was impressed that he included the need for nuclear generated electricity in his energy plan. That took guts.
To the national pol (Algore) who got a standing ovation for his support of abortion, and then had the....I don't have a word for it...to PRAY, I need to say that you just don't get it. To those of us who see that abortion ends a human life, applauding that end is disgusting. And then to do it in the name of God?
Barack Obama gave an inspiring speech tonight, but with supporters who whoop, holler, and applaud abortion-
How can I vote for this man, even though McCain excites me about as much as a bowl of cold oatmeal?
Posted by juanitadark on August 28, 2008 at 11:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
blacksho89,
Sir,
It is simple-minded people like you who give this great country a bad reputation. Abortion! Abortion! Abortion! You represent cruelty, ignorance, hypocrisy, and oppression. Let me guess... you're a "Christian"? On the contrary, my friend... you are a sadducee and a liar. And it is the prideful arrogance of people like you who make people all over the world despise our beautiful nation. I feel sorry for you. I hope someday you will decide to engage in real and deep reflection, read more, and finally begin to see things as they truly are. Until then, you are on the wrong side.
Posted by bwg on August 29, 2008 at 12:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hopefully those making such a big deal about this being "historic" and reference the "I have a dream speech" remember this quote from it:"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Judge Obama by the content of his character, *not* the fact that he happens to be the first of a certain skin color to be nominated. If anything the very fact that he accepted (asked for?) special treatment to be nominated in the stadium rather than where the rest of the convention took place, as was good enough for past candidates. should give a clue as to his character. This choice led to I-25 being closed for a few mile stretch for a number of hours during rush hour inconveniencing thousands of people and costing large sums of money. Is he going to reimburse all the businesses that lost money (like downtown restaurants ) during this time? I sincerely doubt it as he is a typical politician who was more concerned with building himself up (effectively forcing these business to make a campaign contribution consisting of the lost $ during that time) than thinking of others.
Why does anyone think he represents change? The color of his skin may be different but that doesn't mean anything else is. He didn't manage to be nominated within a major political party without being part of the traditional political machinery and pandering to various special interest groups telling them what they wish to hear. He isn't espousing anything new or different. His performance in the senate didn't indicate any major
change or difference from the rest of the senate as if he would bring "change". People are just falling for the same old political rhetoric spouted every election season by insider candidate claiming to be different.
The only truly different candidates are those of third parties who the press doesn't pay enough attention to since they "don't have a chance" to win.. Thats a self fulfilling prophecy, since no candidate will win or gain contributions without media coverage that truly gives a chance to different ideas that may take more than a sound bite to explain. True change takes questioning assumptions of the current status quo and that may mean that new ideas aren't accepted on first hearing if only given a "sound bite" level of explanation and no true exploration to see if a change of view might make sense. Change isn't as easy as a politician spouting a new slogan when underneath his policies aren't really much different from the exiting status quo.. or he wouldn't have gotten elected at a time when the media is still focusing on superficialities rather than covering issues in depth.
Posted by Erryt on August 29, 2008 at 1:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
bwg:
Barack Obama represents change from the course of the current administration. The current administration by republicans is running this country into the ground economically through its failed policies. It has also gotten us mired in a war in Iraq which we should not be fighting. The 'no child left behind' program is unfunded and probably wouldn't have worked if it had been. Our healthcare system is a mess.
So the change is having a president who would make an attempt to fix the above problems. Congress would have to pass any laws necessary, so he has to be able to work with them.
It is a guarantee that McCain will not even try to fix the above problems, since he goes along with whatever the republicans tell him to say these days. He really is controlled by special interests. Also his personality isn't very good for negotiations due to his temper.
Posted by juanitadark on August 29, 2008 at 1:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
bwg
You are a man with a very small penis. Seriously, you're penis is very small and you will never be content... due to the smallness of your penis.
Posted by bwg on August 29, 2008 at 2:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Obama's proposals are fairly typical democratic politician proposals, no real "change" in that sense. Senators actually are in a better position to actually propose legislative changes to begin with than a president who can only ask Congress to do something. What truly major "change" did he propose while serving in Congress? (btw, I won't vote for either major party candidate, so its not that I think McCain is any good).
If you explore other ideas out there, in comparison the policy proposals from Obama aren't much different from McCain's despite the rhetoric to the contrary. Yes, there are differing policiy viewpoints in a few areas but from a broader perspective those are minor. In order to differentiate themselves the major parties focus on these and make differences the size of molehills seem like mountains by the narrow focused telescope two major parties viewpoints. Open yourself up to a wider perspective viewpoint of other parties and policy viewpoints and you'll see how minor these differences are in comparison. Of course the mainstream media won't bother actually discussing issues in depth to the same degree as they follow the horse race aspects of the campaign and the superficial gloss of campaign speeches.
Given Obama's rhetoric on Iran, etc, I don't know that he is any less likely to get us into a war than McCain. Neither one is addressing the issue that most of the health care mess is due to government intervention to begin with (done in a way that confuses people into thinking its the market's fault rather than government's faulty intrusions into it) and the role it plays in funding a large number of people's healthcare currently (eg, health care providers are stuck accepting lower payments from medicare that may not cover costs and hence they raise prices on the private side to make up for it) . I see other ways to help people outside of government, but *If* the government is going to help poor people that can't afford insurance.. the root problem is the lack of funds of those people which can be addressed directly (ie, negative income tax for poverty, or if needing to micromanage their financial choices then vouchers that will let them buy private insurance) rather than having the government be paying for healthcare directly and mucking with the market and then trying to avoid blame for a mess it caused. Actually much of the problem is that the government made health care benefits tax deductible to corporations. If it had been made deductible for individuals (or at least not deductible via corporations) then instead individuals would have bought their own healthcare policies all along and have policies that stick with them even when they change jobs so there is less of an issue with companies not treating pre-existing conditions.
continued below:
Posted by bwg on August 29, 2008 at 2:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The "change" the Democrats are proposing in their platform, according to an article in the Camera recently, would further damage the healthcare financing system in this country. They propose to force insurance companies to pay for pre-existing conditions. If someone is struggling to afford health insurance, how will they react to that? Obviously they won't bother having insurance until they need it for what is now a pre-existing condition the company will be forced to pay for. Then after they are treated.. they'll cancel the policy. So as a result of course many people will drop their insurance coverage and for those who don't choose to game the system that way, their premiums will be raised, and more will be unable to afford insurance, and the government will have caused a mess but will then step in claiming it needs to fix what it just broke.
Of course the government won't instead lower taxes enough for people to be able to afford it, or make it say a tax credit for individuals and get rid of the corporate tax deductibility of benefits so people can buy their own policy they'll carry with them between jobs. Or provide vouchers to those who can't afford insurance to buy it (likely combined with health savings accounts) so the government stops paying healthcare providers directly in a way that raises costs to private payers. Or make charitable contributions a tax credit so I can give money to a private charity that helps out those without insurance rather than wasting it giving it to the government. Lots of possibilities.. but those would require truly "audacious" candidates and truly responsible media to cover other ideas and question the assumptions about the status quo rather than dealing with sound bite level easy to explain, but questionable, policies that are often more smoke and mirrors than real effective policies (this is true of both major parties).
Of course another factor in raising healthcare prices is due to problems with the judicial system and handling of malpractice, etc, (like the sort of
sleazy lawsuits based on junk science that made the last Democratic VP candidate, John Edwards rich..later discovered by the public to be sleazy to his wife and supporters, which doesn't surprise those of us who understood how he became rich). However of course attorneys contribute alot of money to campaigns so such issues are more likely to be talked about than actually done.
Posted by blacksho89 on August 29, 2008 at 6:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
juanita:"...finally begin to see things as they truly are. Until then, you are on the wrong side."
If crying for 3,000 deaths a day is being on the wrong side, then I'm proud to be.
Posted by AlohaBoulder on August 29, 2008 at 6:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Too much time is wasted on arguing the ethics of abortion. Obama's point was that we should focus on what we can all agree on: reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. Maybe some members of the religious right don't want to reduce unwanted pregnancies. Young women with no opportunities and the responsibilities of motherhood are easier to control... If you're pro-child, then support the children who might become pregnant because they don't have access to birth control or were told just to "abstain."
Posted by nuggethillrd on August 29, 2008 at 8:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Concerning the closing of ! 25, Mr. Obama had nothing to do with that, other than wishing to more address to far more people than the accepted delegates at the convention. The decision to close I 25 rested with the Secret Service, Dept. of Homeland Security, and the Denver PD. A comment from a federal agent was that a truck might explode along the highway, an absurd statement if I've ever heard one, but one quite representative of the absurd paranoid times we live in. As for the speech itself, I thought it was a great powerful speech, laying in a nutshell who the man was and what he hoped to achieve if elected president.
Posted by Billprez on August 29, 2008 at 8:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"Boulder-area residents electrified...."
Is this the electric shock therapy that the mind-numbed robots of the Boulder democrat machine require to support this charlatan?
Posted by whvacman on August 29, 2008 at 8:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Tough act to follow ??? That's all it is an ACT!!!!
Posted by johnbarleycorn on August 29, 2008 at 8:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Posted by Ralphie2 on August 28, 2008 at 11:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
P.S. McCain to announce Tim Pawlenty as VP. BORING!
-------------------------------------------
I think it'll be Palin...that'll be a bit more exciting.
Posted by visigoth on August 29, 2008 at 8:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Obama == Jimmy Carter's Lost Second Term....
Posted by bwg on August 29, 2008 at 8:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
re: "concerning the closing of ! 25, Mr. Obama had nothing to do with that, other than wishing to more address to far more people than the accepted delegates at the convention. The decision to close I 25 rested with the Secret Service, Dept. of Homeland Security, and the Denver PD. "
er, Obama chose to allow all this to happen. He could have said "sorry, I don't wish to force all these people to contribute to my campaign effectively through the loss of their time, money, and hassle. I'll simply speak the same place everyone else has as candidates have done in the past".
Posted by siggy1123 on August 29, 2008 at 9:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Obama has class.
Posted by bbbbobber on August 29, 2008 at 2:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ralphie2 said it all - it's an 'act'. Obama is all promise and no substance. Coming from the South side of Chicago, he brings nothing but shadows and questions. Where's the beef?
Posted by ecinaj007 on August 29, 2008 at 7:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
BWG, blacksho89 and Billprez---
well put, thank you!
Posted by wras on August 29, 2008 at 9:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Barry, how many times did you say "I" in one half hour?
Posted by bwg on August 30, 2008 at 5:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"Obama has class"
I don't consider it classy to force non-supporters to lose time (I-25 closing) & money (time=money, lost business due to I-25 closing) from people who would never support Obama, as if they'd made a campaign contribution (lost money) or volunteered (lost time).
Of course he wont' compensate them or apologize because he is the elite who needs a huge audience unlike any past candidate in order to make a better tv event, and who cares how much hassle it causes.
This isn't someone with class. This is a standard politician whose rhetoric seems to hypnotize some people into believing that some how he is different and represent change.. despite the utter lack of ever introducing these supposed major change proposals while he has actually been *in* Congress to introduce a bill. All a president can do is suggest that someone in congress introduce a bill.
Actually re: similarity of sound/spelling with Obama and Osama.. I suspect for the well known effect of a subset of voters who don't follow the news much voting based on name recognition it helped Obama get votes for those who didn't realize why his name sounded familiar.
The Obama campaign has mentioned it wishes to go after non voters, ie those folks who often aren't voting because they don't care enough to be well informed and would likely make decisions based on a superficial sound bite understanding of the candidates positions.
(Requires free registration.)
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.
Camera staff does not actively monitor comments. If you believe a comment breaks the user agreement, please flag the comment and someone will take a look at it.