I made it to the opening of Senator Obama's Western PA Campaign HQ this evening.I got there a little after 6pm for an event that was scheduled to begin at 5:30. The place was packed.
Take a look --------->
The estimate was a couple hundred people packed into the newly opened office. The crowd, diverse across cultural and generational lines, included political veterans as well as people not involved in politics before this election cycle. It was grass roots all the way.
There were pretzels and chips and salsa set out on a table for the volunteers to nibble on. It was a crowded room - babies being bottle fed, t-shirted college kids milling around, some older people sitting down, lotsa people standing- everyone packed into one room. All there to be a part of something bigger than themselves. "We're going to change the world." they were told.
Some of the local dignitaries I recognized; Sala Udin, Patrick Dowd, Doug Shields, and my part-time OffQ pal, Valerie McDonald Roberts.
In his introductory comments, Cliff Levine (I interviewed him this morning on Lynn Cullen's radio show, by the way) said that the first part of the plan was to do some large scale voter registration.
There's Cliff in the blue shirt. Nice guy, by the way. Very smart.Standing to his right was Patrick Dowd. To his left (past Sala Udin's hat) you can just about make out the forehead of City Council President Doug Shields.
Shields, in his comments to the crowd, unleashed something interesting to ponder: 5 members of City Council:
- Doug Shields
- Ricky Burgess
- Bruce Kraus
- Patrick Dowd and
- Bill Peduto
Patrick Dowd pointed out the symbolic nature of having the HQ on North Highland. It's not downtown, he said. It's in a vibrant neighborhood - it'll be a place where the campaign's volunteers can be talking to members of the community about what's important. I took it to be an echo, of sorts, to the grassroots nature of the overall campaign. Valerie McDonald Roberts challenged the crowd: to carry Allegheny County and to wonder about the impact of seeing a whole row of cars each with an Obama bumper sticker on it.
The office is on 208 North Highland Avenue.
8 comments:
Sorry Maria, the wave has begun. Unite the party, Vote OBAMA on 4/22.
Interesting that Peduto would be backing Obama. I would've expected him to back Clinton.
I think the Obama campaign needs to camp out in every union hall in Pittsburgh. I also think they need to be calling the committee people. If he can win Allegheny County and Philadelphia, he has a shot. He's stronger than I thought up in South Central PA (5 miles from where I live).
Bill Peduto has still got to be extremely jazzed about the idea of a deadlocked convention, and Al Gore riding in to save the day on his white horse.
BHP...i was equally surprised last year by Lynn Swann's early strength in GOP caucuses in Central PA essentially pushing Bill Scranton out of the race.
John K. says: Gore riding in to save the day. That "jazzes" me also. I would love to see the Democrats nominate that loser. Besides, Peduto is another one of those Democrats who likes to hold votes and then not count the results. Super-duper delegates and the Democrats. LOL LOL
Wait, wait! Let me.
John K. says: Hey look at my pee-pee! Isn't it cute! I need you to look at my pretty little pee-pee!
LOL
LMAO
LMAOROFL
Why are we even pretending that their is a national contest? Oh, I forgot, the Clintons need to act out all their demons in the world's spotlight, since the world for this couple is no more than their megalomaniacial psychodrama.
I would love to see those 5 city councilmen stick together on many other things as well.
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