Idaho Politics: Column

Obama in Boise: “This is Our Moment”

By Jill Kuraitis, 2-02-08

	photos by Andrew Kuraitis

“I can feel it, I can feel it!” was the thrilled chant of two young women on the floor of the Taco Bell arena as they joined the crowd of nearly 14,000 people cheering their demand for Sen. Barack Obama to take the stage.  People young and old who filled three tiers of packed seats and standing-room in the giant venue swayed and jumped to the music, their energy and impatience making the air crackle. 

And when former governor Cecil Andrus walked on to introduce the candidate, the cheer was like nothing I’d ever heard – until Obama himself appeared, and the place exploded with a volume just this side of painful.  It was so wild you could have harnessed the power enough to light the city.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

I’ve seen the Stones, the Grateful Dead, Pavarotti, Baryshnikov, Sting and many world-class performances and speeches in my lifetime – some in venues much bigger than the Boise State arena – and never have I felt something like today when a black Democratic senator with a funny name rocked the capital city of the reddest state in the union.

“And they told me there weren’t any Democrats in Idaho,” opened Obama, to another crack-the-seats cheer, “but I did not believe them, I did not believe them.”

Obama rode the wave of energy into a campaign speech with a variable cadence – at times a rolling line of spiritual music, at others the cheerleading voice of a coach explaining an exciting game plan. 

Yet another explosion of human energy – the biggest of the event – came when Obama said, “no matter what happens in this election – the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot. The name of my cousin Dick Cheney will not be on the ballot.”

“When it was announced we were cousins, that was really embarrassing.  You know, when they do these genealogical surveys, you always hope you’re going to be related to somebody cool, like, oh, Willie Mays, or Paul Revere - now Dick Cheney, that’s a letdown.”

With the laughs still ringing and the timing of a preacher, he hammered his point home with, “The era of Scooter Libby justice, Brownie incompetence and Karl Rove politics will finally be over this year.”

With his theme of “hope” Obama was clearly inspiring more than one generation.  The Obama press outfit said about 40% of those in attendance were under 30, and from the counting and estimating done by reporters, that seemed about right. Obama said in his speech that in Iowa, people 30 and under voted at the same rate as people 60 and over - “which has not happened in a generation.”

Words like “hope” and “change” are thrown around a lot in political campaigns.  In fact, “it’s time for a change” is the most widely used slogan in campaigning, and possibly the least specific. So what does “hope” mean when Obama says it? Why were these thousands of teenagers and young adults up at 6:00 in the morning - the middle of the night for most of them - standing in a freezing cold line for several hours to see this candidate?

Jason, 22, said he understood how it can sound like a cliche, but he feels real hope around Obama because “he’s so unusual, so different from any politician I’ve heard. He doesn’t even seem very politician-y to me, more like a great teacher.”

(Jason’s father, who didn’t want his name used, said he was a Republican.  “Jason made me come with him.  I have to say, I do like the guy better than any of the Republicans running.  We’ll see, we’ll see.")

Two young women, both named Ashley, said this was their first-ever political event, “because we just can’t believe how the government doesn’t seem to get it,” Ashley #1 said.  Ashley #2 agreed and added, “the whole country says, get us out of this damn war, and stop persecuting gay people, but everything just stays the same.” #1 again: “Obama is so, so different.  I really believe he’s completely new and different.”

The two Ashleys came to mind when Obama said, “What we don’t need is the same old people doing the same old things in the same old ways.”

“I love Obama because he’s pretty new in Washington. Some people say he doesn’t understand it…but that’s why I like him,” said Tyler Branson, 24.

I thought of Tyler when Obama spoke of people who hadn’t wanted him to run. “There are folks who say I’m not experienced enough in the ways of Washington. They say we need to season and stew him a little bit more…and boil the hope right out of him!”

Annabelle Grayson, 52, was at the event with her 11-year-old granddaughter. “What’s wrong with Washington is the lobbyists,” she said before the speech. “Too much money, all that corruption, all those people who have no business being there.”

I thought of Annabelle when Obama went for the throat with, “Lobbyists – their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign….and they will not run MY White House.”

When Obama spoke of a minimum 40-miles per gallon standard for new cars, he said, “I didn’t say that in Sun Valley, I said that in Detroit, in front of the automakers, and I told them they had to change their ways.  Well…there was silence in that room.”

But that’s what we need for a President – someone who doesn’t just tell you what you want to hear, but who tells you what you need to hear.”

44 minutes went by as I watched the crowd stay rapt and focused on their candidate. I noted the cheering never grew weary or obligatory or forced, and realized I was witnessing something so intangible, so “you had to be there” that there was little hope I could convey the feeling through words.

This phenomenon of Barack Obama - the person who has, at last, inspired people to stand up and say, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore” even in reddest Idaho, even at the expense of showing their neighbors they’re voting for a - gasp - Democrat- this is something different altogether. He isn’t just the candidate one likes better than the other one.  He’s a whole new genre of political leader, all by himself.

As I stood behind the cameras and watched, I knew I should be more jaded toward a political candidate, having worked for many and seen many more.  I knew that it might be seen as silly that I was swept up in Obama’s message and his inexplicable “differentness” from any political figure I’ve known, and I knew this column would read like a love letter, but I didn’t care.  Because Obama was saying people were tired of the politics of fear - and yes, I’m damned tired of it - and were yearning for the politics of hope and yes - please! I’d like some hope - and as the cheering rose and peaked, he ended with exactly what it felt like in that stadium:  “This is our moment; this is our time…We will remake this country and together we will remake the world.”

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