Posted on 05/18/2008 4:46:11 PM PDT by kcvl
Record Obama Crowd, the Size of a City By Matthew Mosk
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Sen. Barack Obama has seen his share of large crowds over the last 15 months, but his campaign said they have not approached the numbers gathered along the waterfront here right now.
The campaign, citing figures from Duane Bray, battalion chief of Portland Fire & Rescue, estimated that 75,000 people are watching him speak.
The scene suggests this is not an exaggeration. The sea of heads stretches for half a mile along the grassy embankment, while others watch from kayaks and power boats bobbing on the Willamette River. More hug the rails of the steel bridge that stretches across the water and crowds are even watching from jetties on the opposite shore.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
I think that they're sick of the same old geezers that have been in politics for the last fifty years just like we are. They're looking for something new. It's just that they're looking in the wrong place. :(
Don't worry about this clown Oboma. Calm down.
Good Americans can see straight through this guy.
His wife will bring him down.
His past will bring him down.
His lack of experience will bring him down.
Good to see you here "sweetie". It will happen.
Obama was the biggest star at Sunday's gathering -though a popular Portland band, The Decemberists, provided the warm-up act. With blue skies and temperatures in the 80s, thousands waited in lines that snaked through downtown Portland streets.
Obama rallies tens of thousands at Portland waterfront
Nothing about Dave Mathews or free beer.
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks to people at Waterfront Park in Portland, Ore., Sunday, May 18, 2008.
speaking to a crowd filled with sunscreen-smeared babies in sun hats, union members in matching T-shirts, elderly ladies fanning themselves under the hot sun and twenty-somethings dancing to his opening act, the Portland-based band The Decemberists.
I kinda like the whole geezer thing because old men are crabby and don’t like too much meddling with how things are. Maybe not as old as McCain but still good n’ geezery.
Although I wouldn’t mind voting for someone like the president of France’s son.
May 16, 2008
The Decemberists have announced that they will perform at a rally supporting US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama this weekend.
The Portland rockers will give a free show at their hometown rally at The Bowl in Waterfront Park.
Their set will be followed by a speech from Obama.
Tickets are not required, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.
For additional information or to RSVP, visit My.barackobama.com.
—By our Los Angeles staff.
LOL! I know what you’re saying!
Can you name them?
Singin’ Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query, and recent solo-flyer John Moen will join the Obama-non himself for a free rally at the Bowl at Portland’s Waterfront Park this Sunday, May 18. Gates open at 12:30 p.m. PDX time. For more info and RSVP details, head here.
Apart from this bit of politicking, the Decemberists have only one other show coming up: a sweater-tuggers’ love-in with Death Cab for Cutie and Rogue Wave in Bend, Oregon later this month.
Obamaists:
05-18 Portland, OR - The Bowl at Waterfront Park (Barack Obama Rally) *
Are they named for the “Decembrists” who revolted against Tsar Nicholas?
....or does their sense of history not extend that far?
The band's official biography, keeping up their reputation for intentionally over-the-top grandiloquence, describes how they met in a Turkish bath. A footnote following the biography claims, "The Decemberists travel exclusively by Dr. Herring's Brand Dirigible Balloons."
The Decemberists, a indie rock band from Portland, named themselves after a Russian revolutionary group.
Not many bands seek out the label of “hyper-literate prog rock.” But with their upbeat, folk influenced pop, the Portland-based The Decemberists have taken control of that emerging indie rock genre. The band’s lyrics “skip across history … and overflow with mellifluous rhymes” [Entertainment Weekly] to reveal “a wit so bizarre and vaudevillian beauty so ultimately endearing” [Alternative Press].
I think I'll stick to country music.
How appropriate for Obama to associate himself with the namesakes of a Russian revolutionary group — perhaps Bill Ayers introduced them.
Don’t think the Decembrists in Russia were too fearsome as a revolutionary group though - that was in the days when anyone who challenged Tsarist rule was considered a “revolutionary” - even if all they wanted was a constitutional monarchy with a democratic parliament.
Still the best 9/11 memorial documentary ever made—and it was thrown together within 24 hours of the attacks. I’ve seen it more than a dozen times, and it never fails to move me.
Oh boy! I'm with you!
It would be great if they played that as an introduction to Obama's concert. Anyone know??
This band (Decembrists) played the warmup to Obama. No word on whether they played the Soviet National Anthem instead of ours.
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