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Energized crowd drawn by hope for change, sense of history
Barack Obama gestures during speech Thursday before 15,000 at Buchanan Park in Lancaster.
Lancaster New Era
Published: Sep 05, 2008
11:25 EST
Lancaster
By AD CRABLE and JANET KELLEY, Staff
Cassondra Roane dragged her grandson out of McCaskey High School Thursday afternoon for a reason.
Supporters cheer for presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday after waiting hours in the heat f...(more)
 
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"It's good for him to see that you can be anything you want to become — you can do it!," she said minutes after she and Darrian Hilliard, a 15-year-old sophomore, had hung onto every word uttered by Sen. Barack Obama on a hot, late-summer afternoon atop the city's Buchanan Park.

"I want to push that on all my grandchildren," the Lancaster woman said. "You can do anything. We just heard a man who has."

Hope, the expectation of change and a sense of history in the making seemed central themes that drew a diverse crowd estimated by officials at around 15,000 to Obama's third stop in Lancaster this year, and his first since winning the Democratic nomination for president.

Strolling up to a packed security entrance was 78-year-old Jack Spiese, who had been at Obama's other two Lancaster stops — at Stevens College of Technology on March 31 and the Lancaster Amtrak Station on April 19. Spiese also was there when John F. Kennedy made his locally famous campaign speech in a packed Penn Square in 1960.

A Columbia resident and retired Temple University professor, Spiese was also at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 when Martin Luther King delivered his "I have a dream" speech.

"Now a dream has become a hope," he mused, referring to a theme in Obama's campaign. "The man is just a straight shooter."

Later, he Spiese would lead the masses in a chant of O-B-A-M-A.

In contrast, with an air of equanimity, there was Warren Snyder, 85, of Lancaster. Sitting against a security fence, beside a chatty group of onlookers, the retired city resident wore a hat and brought a book, "Masters of the Air," to read as he waited for several hours for the presidential candidate to appear.
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"I'm a registered Republican and just went to pick up my tickets to hear Sen. McCain next week," Snyder said. "I want to see both of them and hear what they're going to say. Well, I know what they're going to say," he said with a smile, "but I want to hear them say it."

At times, the event seemed like a rock concert — long lines, souvenir peddlers, pre-show chanting and a buzz of what was about to unfold.

There were signs, such as "Hockey Moms 4 Obama."

And like many big-name acts, not everyone got to see the star.

Obama's campaign is about accessibility to the masses, but an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people who braved a searing sun and long wait did not get to see the presidential candidate, instead settling for listening to his words drift down to them from afar.

Lines to get through security gates with full-body scans began backing up hours before Obama's speech.

When Obama's campaign bus arrived at the Buchanan Avenue entrance, a line still stretched from the top of Buchanan Park, through a part of the Franklin & Marshall campus, down Race Avenue and onto Buchanan Avenue.

Obama noticed and was visibly concerned, reports Mayor Richard Gray, who greeted the candidate.

"The first thing he said to organizers was, 'Why are all those people outside?'" Gray said.

The candidate then elected to delay his talk for almost 30 minutes to allow more people to get in. He chatted with the welcoming group, signed autographs, reviewed papers and talked on a cell phone, Gray said.

When Gray was contacted by campaign organizers Wednesday, and was told that 3,000 to 4,000 people were expected to show up, the mayor said he immediately sensed there would be a logistical problem.

"They obviously underestimated the appeal of Obama to the people of Lancaster," Gray said. "It's unfortunate that we didn't have a place where more people could get in."

Also unfortunate, he said, was that the four security gates, controlled by a private security contractor, didn't open hours earlier than they did.

"We feel disappointed for the people who didn't get in," Gray said. "On the other hand, we are elated at the number of people who showed up. It says a lot about the popularity of Senator Obama in central Pennsylvania."

Shortly before 3 p.m., several people who had been waiting in line gave up and made their way to the snow fences near the top of the ridge — figuring if they couldn't see Obama, they'd at least be able to hear him better.

"I'm an Obama supporter," Mike Clark, 49, of Lancaster, said, "I'm not registered to vote, but I support him,"

The 90-degree heat sent many scurrying for refuge under the few trees in the seating area. Fire company officials at the event reported a few heat-related incidents. One person was transported to a hospital.

Among the early arrivals was Hillary Clinton supporter Marie Suydam, 67, of East Petersburg. After her favorite lost in the primary, she said she was undecided for a while but is now supporting Obama because "McCain is just a grumpy old man."

Donna Lindsey of Lancaster was determined for her second-grade son, Johnny, to see the man who may lead their country. She'll try to take him to see John McCain on Tuesday when the Republican presidential nominee speaks in Lancaster.

"It's a great opportunity for a child," mom said. She's tried to expose her son to the import of a presidential race on TV.

"I only watch the Disney Channel," the unimpressed Lancaster Country Day School student replied, showing more interest in the sunglassed Secret Service agents than anything else.

"I think if he sees him in person, it really shows the impact," mom said hopefully.


Staff writer Ad Crable can be reached at acrable@LNPnews.com or 481-6029.

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He has PA locked up. This is no swing state. The libbies have taken over the majority and will easily hand Obama the win.
podunk
Politics reduced to cult of personality.
I hear Jim Jones was really persuasive...charismatic even.
But the country is smarter than that, right? Doesn't appear so.
Whirlwind
Here's is Obama's Change. From INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Democrats' reintroduction of militant Michelle Obama in Denver was supposed to show her softer side. But it only highlighted a radical part of her resume: Public Allies.

Barack Obama was a founding member of the board of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife became executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies in 1993. Obama plans to use the nonprofit group, which he features on his campaign Web site, as the model for a national service corps. He calls his Orwellian program, "Universal Voluntary Public Service."

Big Brother had nothing on the Obamas. They plan to herd American youth into government-funded reeducation camps where they'll be brainwashed into thinking America is a racist, oppressive place in need of "social change."

The pitch Public Allies makes on its Web site doesn't seem all that radical. It promises to place young adults (18-30) in paid one-year "community leadership" positions with nonprofit or government agencies. They'll also be required to attend weekly training workshops and three retreats.

In exchange, they'll get a monthly stipend of up to $1,800, plus paid health and child care. They also get a post-service education award of $4,725 that can be used to pay off past student loans or fund future education.

But its real mission is to radicalize American youth and use them to bring about "social change" through threats, pressure, tension and confrontation — the tactics used by the father of community organizing, Saul "The Red" Alinsky.

"Our alumni are more than twice as likely as 18-34 year olds to . . . engage in protest activities," Public Allies boasts in a document found with its tax filings. It has already deployed an army of 2,200 community organizers like Obama to agitate for "justice" and "equality" in his hometown of Chicago and other U.S. cities, including Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Washington. "I get to practice being an activist," and get paid for it, gushed Cincinnati recruit Amy Vincent.

Public Allies promotes "diversity and inclusion," a program paper says. More than 70% of its recruits are "people of color." When they're not protesting, they're staffing AIDS clinics, handing out condoms, bailing criminals out of jail and helping illegal aliens and the homeless obtain food stamps and other welfare.

Public Allies brags that more than 80% of graduates have continued working in nonprofit or government jobs. It's training the "next generation of nonprofit leaders" — future "social entrepreneurs."

The Obamas discourage work in the private sector. "Don't go into corporate America," Michelle has exhorted youth. "Work for the community. Be social workers." Shun the "money culture," Barack added. "Individual salvation depends on collective salvation."

"If you commit to serving your community," he pledged in his Denver acceptance speech, "we will make sure you can afford a college education." So, go through government to go to college, and then go back into government.

Many of today's youth find the pitch attractive. "I may spend the rest of my life trying to create social movement," said Brian Coovert of the Cincinnati chapter. "There is always going to be work to do. Until we have a perfect country, I'll have a job."

Not all the recruits appreciate the PC indoctrination. "It was too touchy-feely," said Nelly Nieblas, 29, of the 2005 Los Angeles class. "It's a lot of talk about race, a lot of talk about sexism, a lot of talk about homophobia, talk about -isms and phobias."

One of those -isms is "heterosexism," which a Public Allies training seminar in Chicago describes as a negative byproduct of "capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and male-dominated privilege."

The government now funds about half of Public Allies' expenses through Clinton's AmeriCorps. Obama wants to fully fund it and expand it into a national program that some see costing $500 billion. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as the military, he said.

The gall of it: The Obamas want to create a boot camp for radicals who hate the military — and stick American taxpayers with the bill.

jackieboy
QUOTE (Whirlwind @ Sep 6 2008, 09:03 AM)
Politics reduced to cult of personality.
I hear Jim Jones was really persuasive...charismatic even.
But the country is smarter than that, right? Doesn't appear so.

Remember .... The great masses of people will more easily fall victem to the big lie than to a small one. What great fortune for poilcians that people do not think!!
Robotspyder
[quote name='Whirlwind' date='Sep 6 2008, 08:03 AM' post='433788']
Politics reduced to cult of personality.
I hear Jim Jones was really persuasive...charismatic even.
But the country is smarter than that, right? Doesn't appear so.
{/quote]

I bet you don't even need more than one flavor of Kool-Aid. Wasn't it Grape that the flock drank for the last time?
Reader70
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