Obama draws 15.000 ... in Idaho.

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Obama draws 15.000 ... in Idaho.

« on: February 02, 2008, 12:55:29 PM »

Obama draws some 15,000 in 'red state' Idaho

by John McCormick

BOISE, Idaho – This is a geographically big state. But despite its rapid growth in recent years, there are just 1.5 million people (and a lot fewer Democrats).

Still, Sen. Barack Obama brought his presidential campaign here Saturday morning, drawing what his campaign said was about 15,000 to the Taco Bell Arena on the campus of Boise State University.

That's about three times as many people who participated in the state's Democratic caucuses in 2004, when Idaho was not among early and important contests.

"Wow, look at this," Obama said as he took the stage, triggering a giant roar from the crowd. "What an unbelievable crowd, what and unbelievable reception."

Red state Idaho is one of 15 states Obama is expected to visit in the nine days between his win in the South Carolina primary and the 22 states that will hold nominating contests Tuesday.

With just 23 delegates at stake for the Democrats, only North Dakota and Alaska have fewer than Idaho among the Feb. 5 states (Delaware, where Obama is expected to visit Sunday, also has 23). That has left some scratching their heads about why Obama would bother, with such little time available.

The answer, in part, lies in the flashy graphics the television networks will display on election night showing what states Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton have won.

Obama's campaign believes that if it can win its fair share of states and in diverse locations, those maps will be shaded with his color and could help make a case that he is the most able to win a general election. (And Idaho, with its long panhandle, takes up a fair bit of space on the national map.)

"They told me there weren't any Democrats in Idaho," Obama told the cheering crowd. "That's what they told me, but I didn't believe them. I did not believe them."

The audience here was almost entirely white and lined up in the cold outside to get in, some starting as early as 7 a.m. local time.

"This is the most consequential election in a generation," Obama said, in a speech that made a few nods to the conservative nature of Idaho.

"We've got a lot of hunters in Downstate Illinois," he said in a section where he made clear he is a Christian and supports the Second Amendment. " I have no intention of taking away folks' guns."

In his introduction, former Gov. Cecil Andrus, Idaho's most recent Democratic governor, compared his guest to a past president Obama has increasingly been compared to in recent days.

"I have not seen, since John F. Kennedy in 1960, a person that has the ability to bring together, to excite and to inspire the people of America," Andrus said. "He is the custodian of the hopes and dreams of millions and millions of Americans….to bring about change, needed change."

Obama is scheduled to hold similar mega rallies later today in Minneapolis and St. Louis. His campaign believes some of his strongest states Tuesday will be in the Midwest.

If he's nearly as tired as the dragging press corps following him on this 15-state mission, Obama is not showing it in any major way (he did say Iowa at one point instead of Idaho). He thundered away in his 44-minute stump speech this morning, as fiery as ever, after arriving at his hotel after midnight last night.

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