Bill

Though I'm an Obama-backer, I'm not so pure as to miss an opportunity to see Bill Clinton. In fact, it's the first time I've ever seen a president in person. For the first time in forever Oregon's presidential primary counts for something. Positioned fourth-to-last on the schedule, just beating out population powerhouses Puerto Rico, Montana, and South Dakota, we are usually a forgotten outpost. Mathematically Obama looks to have an insurmountable lead, but Hillary is fighting on for the nomination and for us Oregonians that means attention. On Monday Bill Clinton came to Salem, Oregon, so Serena and I hopped over there for the morning to see him speak. I'm firmly in Obama's corner, but Bill is good. Really good. By the end I thought, "Wellll, okay, I could see voting for her." That good. I mean, I know the strong reasons for voting for Obama, but he still made me think twice. That was the most impressive part of the entire thing. A couple other thoughts:

• They didn't have any kind of metal detectors, bag searchers, or basic check-in. That astounded me. I kept waiting and waiting for the check, but it never came. He's a former president! It blew my mind that they were just letting people in.
• There was a guy in the corner who kept yelling things about how he thought Hillary was terrible. Bill ignored him until about ten minutes left in the speech and said something to the effect, "I'm sure you've got some good ideas, but you keep interrupting me while I'm speaking. Now, why don't you let me finish and then you can have the stage and all these people who came to see me can stick around if they want to listen to you." This received a big applause and the guy was jeered into silence. Literally. He didn't peep after that.
• It seemed like there were a few people like me who weren't voting for Hillary, but were stoked about the idea to see a former president speak.
• The room was tiny, probably only able to hold 1,000 people. I'm guessing they didn't want to risk a half-filled room, but there were hundreds of people waiting in line that weren't let in. Seemed a little strange, but, again, maybe part of the strategy.

A couple photos of the guy in action. I can't say it enough, he's good:
I'm especially fond of the first one above. A) He looks like he's falling into the crowd and is bit worried and B) His secret service security agent (top right) looks so happy.

Barack and Bill...

... RICHARDSON!!!! (<-more on that below) Wow, awesome, inspiring rally in Portland this morning. After braving the cold and biking to my friend Josh's house at 6:15am, he and I made our way (via public transit, per Barack's request) to Memorial Coliseum for the Obama rally.

We thought we were die-hards, arriving at 7am, half an hour before the doors open and a full two and half hours before the event started. By the time we arrived there was already one or two thousand people waiting in line. I guess that means they are Obamaniacs and Josh and I are merely Obamites. You can't be the best at everything.

Back to Richardson: When this whole campaign started I was a Richardson supporter. He was my number one, err, numerouno. Unfortunately he was never able to consistently break above the 10% ceiling in any state outside New Mexico, but after demonstrating significant support he, like John Edwards only a few weeks later, joined the elite club of "Most Sought-After Endorsements" (those two plus Al Gore make up the trifecta, not to be confused with The Trifecta of Power). At 6:30am, while printing out my official event ticket (which, btw, was simply a printed text-only email), I saw that Richardson was endorsing Obama. Hooray! My old guy was backing my new guy which in turn backed up my decision to move on to Obama. I looked at Josh, he looked at me and said, "Maybe Richardson will publicly endorse for the first time today." And he was right! We witnessed the endorsement first hand, with our own eyes and ears, very cool.

The enthusiasm and energy was phenomenal, all the way down to the golf club-holding town crier imploring people to support the impeachment of Bush. Whether you agree with Obama's policy's or not, you must admire the way he inspires millions of people. It's a breath of fresh air from modern politics. More in the next few day about specific policies... now off to bed. Enjoy the photo:

Obama in Oregon!

It's an Obama frenzy with his speech yesterday about race and the news today that he's coming to Oregon. There are events in Portland and cities to the south and I'm going to be able to attend as I head over to the west side of the state to visit Serena. Received my event ticket today. :)

There is much to be said about the presidential race, topics I will save for another day, but one is the possibility of having a president who inspires people. It's been nearly eight years with a president unable to speak articulately, evoke inspiration, or even use words correctly. All policy aside, it is a refreshing prospect to have a president who can do one of his most important jobs: speak.

That in mind, enjoy: