The Associated Press
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Barack Obama greet one another at a rally.
EL DORADO
From a presidential politics standpoint, El Dorado isn’t just off the beaten path — it’s in the ditch of the gravel side road. A major presidential candidate stopping there to stump seems about as likely as Hillary Clinton picking Ann Coulter as her running mate.
Yet, there was Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday afternoon, taking the stage at a packed Butler Community College gymnasium and giving southeast Kansans who support the Democratic delegate leader a chance to listen and cheer him on — in a red-state town of fewer than 13,000 people. Not only that, they got to see what could be a pivotal moment for next week’s Kansas caucus, as Gov. Kathleen Sebelius took the podium after Obama to endorse him as the Democratic nominee for president.
These Obama supporters itching to see the young Illinois senator came to their good fortune thanks to Obama’s family tree. His grandfather, Stanley Dunham, was an El Dorado native, and his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, was from Augusta.
“It’s very special,” said Betsy Jensen, a mother of two young daughters. “I drove from Wichita, and I’m really happy that somebody in the Democratic party is making me feel like Kansas means something. I’ve been voting here for like 20 years, and for some reason, you feel like your vote doesn’t count, because you’re such a Republican state.”
In a speech that touched mainly on the themes and stances his campaign has become known for — change, unity, universal health care, tax reform, fighting the influence of Washington lobbyists — Obama wove in the story of his grandparents and parents to express his vision of what America should be.
The Dunhams married just after World War II began. Stanley Dunham was serving in the war when Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, was born at Ft. Leavenworth. Madelyn Dunham worked on a bomber assembly line while waiting for her husband to return home from the war.
The Associated Press
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, right, waves with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., following a rally at Butler County Community College in El Dorado on Tuesday. Gov. Sebelius endorsed Obama during the event.
“In a time of great uncertainty and great anxiety, my grandparents held on to a simple dream: That they could raise my mother in a land of boundless opportunity,” Obama said. “That their generation’s struggle and sacrifice could give her the freedom to be what she wanted to be, to live how she wanted to live.
“I am standing here today because that dream was realized,” Obama said.
The El Dorado appearance was apparently thrown together quickly last weekend, but attendance didn’t suffer as a result. Seemingly the entire Democratic-leaning population of red-state Kansas stood in the cold wind and flurries outside the Butler gym as noon approached, hoping to get in to see the senator.
Obama drew several standing ovations from the crowd, including sections of the speech when he talked about credit-card reform, ending the war in Iraq and taxes on the middle class.
“Last night, we heard the president say that he wanted to make his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent again,” Obama said, referring to President Bush’s State of the Union address Monday. “We can’t afford more George Bush tax cuts for those who don’t need them and weren’t asking for them. It is time to give tax relief to middle-class families who need it right now.”
Cara Codney, the Emporia State University campus coordinator for Students for Barack Obama, said seeing him in person turned out to be what she expected.
“He is an amazing speaker, so when you see him speak, you really believe him,” she said. “We’re all looking for hope, right?”
According to a crowd noise survey done by an Obama campaign worker warming up the crowd, most of the attendees made the short drive from Wichita; only a small number cheered to identify themselves as El Doradans.
One El Dorado resident, Butler County student Katie Gette, had brought her algebra book with her; Gette had missed class to see Obama. She thought Obama was displaying an emphasis on smaller communities with his El Dorado appearance.
“Because Kansas doesn’t really have any electoral votes or anything,” she said. “So it means a lot that he would take the time out of the primary campaign, a really important part of everything, to come and talk to us about people you know.”
Mike Poage and his wife, Gretchen Eick, didn’t even get to see the speech. After a morning appointment in Wichita, they headed up to El Dorado, not knowing when Obama’s speech would begin. They caught only a glimpse of him as he began to leave the gym. Poage said it was worth the drive.
“A lot of folks here are too young to even participate in the caucuses, but the spirit is there,” Poage said. “And hopefully we can get more people to participate and more people to realize that their vote actually does count. And I think Sen. Obama’s just working on spreading that spirit that he’s so eloquent at doing.”
Obama’s supporters may have found it appropriate that they entered the gym to gray skies and flurries and exited the event to a cloudless, bright blue sky. After leaving El Dorado, Obama headed to Kansas City, Mo., a more common campaign stop.
“I hear a lot of people talk about the energy that it creates, being like when Kennedy was running for office,” said Diana Hyle, an Emporia State student working as an Obama volunteer. “And this is my way to live that sort of enthusiasm, to live that sort of Camelot experience. It’s really exciting. I couldn’t sleep last night, I was so excited just to come hear him speak.”
Comments
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Posted by JayJazz (anonymous) on January 30, 2008 at 2:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'd rather vote for Osama than Obama... but then again there probably isn't much difference between the two of them. Given the chance they will both destroy the US.
Posted by roger (anonymous) on January 30, 2008 at 3:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
JJ You might as well vote for osama , you probably voted for his family friend and business associate George bush. I would vote for a 3 legged yellow dog before I vote for someone who will run our country like bush did. Talk about ruining our country, have you pulled your head out of the sand long enough to see what has happened in the last 7 years? I'll be happy to vote for Obama or Clinton whichever makes it on the ballot.
Posted by morethenenough (anonymous) on January 30, 2008 at 3:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Picture of the kissing DEMOS kinda disgusts me....Like the thought of voting for another Clinton!
Posted by 77flint (anonymous) on January 30, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Grow up! Comparing an American to Osama. You can't do that PALIASO! Get ready for more kissing the Republicans messed it up. Anyone else will be cleaning it up.
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