Live & Vote DC: Barack Obama @ T.C. Williams High School

February 11, 2008 by Rachel Eisley  Send to a Friend

our one day of political involvement (and Rachel’s outstanding photo coverage work) continues and ends here:

After covering the Clinton rally last week, I decided to round out my democratic presidential candidate exposure by attending the rally for Barack Obama held in the gym of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA yesterday afternoon. The audience was drawn from the community, and was very diverse. The average age seemed to be from 20s to 50s, with a few young families as well. I heard from campaign staffers that the free tickets for the event had been completely handed out in 1 hour! An estimated 3,000 supporters waited outside in the cold for 2 hours, standing in line. Once seated, they waited another 2 hours for Obama to start, not because he was late, but just because that’s apparently the way campaign rallies go. Lots of waiting. There was a large press presence and my experience getting a press pass was more complicated and security focused than for the Hillary event.

Before the rally began, Obama held a round table discussion with several educators and parents from T.C. Williams, with the press as audience (over 100 people armed with video cameras, still cameras, laptops and the good ole pen and paper). Most of the conversation focused on Obama’s proposals for education reform. He related a bit of his life story, how he was raised by a single mother, and faced difficulty navigating the public school system, and that he has only recently finished paying off his own student loans. The discussion addressed many issues facing public education today, such as the controversial No Child Left Behind program, federal classroom funding for students with special needs, and the importance of involving parents in students’ education underscored with the following quote from Obama: “Parents need to get off the couch and turn off the TV and read to their kids!” Obama also discussed raising teacher salary, forgiving student loans/providing scholarships for students who pledge to become teachers, giving families with college students a $4,000 tax credit which would require either community or armed forces service by the student. Ways to pay for these incentives include ending the war in Iraq and repealing tax cuts for the wealthy.

Upon leaving the round table discussion, a campaign volunteer presented her small baby to Obama who held her for a photo op. Contrived, yes, true to the of “heart-warming” tradition photos advertising a politician’s human side.

Most of you should recall the iconic football movie “Remember the Titans” based on the true story of African-American coach Herman Boone bringing together the newly racially integrated (as of 1971) Virginia high school football team “The Titans.” Obama mentioned this movie at the beginning of his speech, to much applause, as the Titans are from T.C. Williams high school, and coach Herman Boone was present at the rally. The crowd was already very excited before Obama even entered the room, and their cheering and sign waving only increased throughout Obama’s talk which touched on many of the issues mentioned in the roundtable discussion. I felt that Obama went much more in depth with his proposed policy changes and ideas that Hillary Clinton did. It might have been the fact that the attendees were mostly adults, in comparison to the mostly student audience of Clinton’s rally.

Similar to Clinton, Obama desires to:

implement a universal health care system to all Americans

bolster the flagging economy

give a tax break to the middle class

withdraw tax breaks for the wealthy,

lessen dependence on foreign oil

make higher education affordable again

end the war in Iraq.

Yet he directly spoke to the ways in which he would be a better president than Hillary. (Hillary did not speak against Obama during her speech.) Obama said that Hillary was too much a part of the “Washington establishment” and that he thought it would be very hard for her to break out of the politics of the last 15 years. This comment seems to be a response to the general consensus that she has more experience than Obama. Responding to audience chants of “Yes We Can!” Obama declared the possibility of real change, motivated by hope for the future. He addressed the fact that his critics accuse him of being naive about his ideals, but he said that every great change in America came from one person having hope for the future. He considered the examples of Martin Luther King, Jr and John F. Kennedy, role models for Obama. After hearing his oration and call to action, I am curious to see if Obama will be able to deliver on his promises. Although, both Clinton and Obama brought up the point that from the money spent on the war in Iraq, thousands of domestic problems could have been completely solved. If the US can afford the current $493,510,000 (http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home ) spent on a war that many disagree with, we can certainly afford health care (in a press release, Obama states “We spend 2.2 trillion a year on health care in this country. For the money Americans spent on health care last year, we could have hired a group of skilled physicians, paid each one of them $200,000 to care for just seven families, and guaranteed every single American quality, affordable health care.”) (http://obama.senate.gov/speech/070125-the_time_has_co/) This seems to make sense. Is it feasible? I don’t know. Both Hillary and Obama had more than a few “wait and see” claims.

Obama ended his address by fielding questions from the audience. A retired veteran asked Obama what his opinion on the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is, concerning the rights of homosexuals serving the military. Obama said he wanted to overturn the measure, and said that he didn’t understand why it even remained an issue, especially during a time where military membership is low. Other questions asked for more clarification on his stances on public education policy, and on why he is a better candidate than Hillary.

Obama spoke with conviction and fervor, and it was obvious that his supporters were die hard. The rally was complete with lots of cheering, little kids wearing political paraphernalia, copious amounts of the colors red, white and blue. What a way to excite prospective voters two days before the primary.

I anticipate it will be a tense few months as primaries continue to sweep through the country. Even though Super Tuesday is now behind us, the race for the presidential nomination continues for both parties. Tomorrow, February 12th, the primaries for VA, MD and DC will all take place. Voting is of the essence as right now the democratic nominees are neck – and – neck. According to the latest information (as of today) from CNN’s “Election Center 2008″, Clinton is in the lead with 1,148 delegate votes and Obama is only slightly trailing behind at 1,121. A total of 2,025 votes are needed to win the nomination.

McCain is clocking in at 723 votes, with Huckabee substantially trailing behind with 217. 1,191 votes are needed to win the Republican nomination. (Check out CNN here.)

Get out the vote!

check out Rachel’s Hillary coverage here:

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