Packed house greets Obama staffer

Pengilly's was packed Monday afternoon to greet Raul Alvillar, Western region political director for the Barack Obama campaign. Fresh from Obama appearances this weekend in Salt Lake City and Elko, Nevada, Alvillar said that although no Idaho campaign stops are certain, he'll be working hard to get Obama to Boise.

Close to 100 people showed up at the historic Boise saloon to welcome Obama's emissary. People bought Obama Ts and signed up to volunteer on the campaign (see below). At one point, organizers asked people inside to move up so people waiting on the sidewalk could get in.

Alvillar said that after an afternoon spent meeting with Democrats in the Treasure Valley (including several bloggers just before the public event at Pengilly's), he had heard plenty about how former VP and 2000 presidential candidate Al Gore had drawn 10,000 people - among his largest crowds anywhere - to a January lecture at Boise State. "I want to have an event here for Barack with 10,000-plus," he added, noting that about 1,300 Idahoans have already signed up at www.barackobama.com.

Obama appeared Sunday in Elko, Nevada, where a crowd of 800 greeted the candidate. Also Sunday, he met with hundreds of Utahns who organized a last-minute rally for Obama to see the candidate on his way to a fundraising event in Park City.

Obama is also the runaway Boise favorite among candidates at Eventful.com, where 339 people have "demanded" him compared to 34 for Hillary Clinton and 32 for John Edwards. (Republican-Libertarian candidate Ron Paul has 131 demands.)

Idahoans for Obama meet at 1 p.m. the last Sunday of each month at Papa Joe's on Capitol Boulevard across from BSU. The next meeting is August 26.

Comments

[Sisyphus]

Responding to your inquiry from the earlier post. I was there and sought you out. But alas I was informed you had gone.

A raucus caucus to be sure. The guy's a rock star. My friend Kathy Miller was a little surprised there weren't more people of color. But the well attended event wasn't well publicized. If he came to Idaho the people of Boise would come out in droves. I'll look forward to seeing more of Raul and I hope he and the others get some seasoning by then. It was nice to see a mix of young and old at the event. It was also nice to see Curtis Stigers there.

I'm not sold on Obama yet, but his foreign policy speeches last week turned me back in his direction. His star quality is one of many factors contributing to his electability. I fear Republicans will try to sink him at all turns. No Clinton has been elected nationally without a spoiler in the race, never once getting a majority. Republicans are licking their chops over a Hillary candidacy. Obama and Edwards are correct in going after her taint of lobbyist money. People are so desparate for a populist and many are ready to believe Obama is it. I too wanna believe.

[ReggieH]

Wonderful article, Julie. I was rather bummed that I couldn't make it to the event b/c of a last-minute emergency, but am very glad that you posted this so that I could see how it went. Glad to see that everything went well.

[Julie Fanselow]

Sisyphus, yes, I had to leave at 6. Sorry I missed you.

Are you able to reconstruct any of the questions from the audience and the answers given? Someone was asking about Pakistan just before I left.

It's interesting that his recent FP speeches prompted you to have another look. Many liberals were aghast as what they'd call saber-rattling. But the fact is we've been ignoring most of the real trouble spots while we've been embroiled in Iraq, and Obama is doing a great job of articulating that. I saw a great line from him somewhere on how we're funding both sides of the war for oil.

Yes, I'd definitely like to see more people of color come out for Obama in Idaho. There were more at the March kickoff, and I suspect that the monthly meetings will draw more BSU students of all sorts once fall session starts. We also had an African American woman drive up from Mtn Home for one of the early organizing meetings.

[Julie Fanselow]

Reggie, I am sorry you couldn't make it, but you ought to feel great that the little organization you launched is becoming so red hot!

[Sisyphus]

I was in the back Julie so I didn't always catch the questions. The answers seemed to require some more homework but that's typical of a campaign just getting off the ground.

I'm not a peacenik but hold the view that war should always be a tool of last resort. Some liberals have a pacifistic knee jerk reaction which the Republicans love to point out at every opportunity to our demise. As a student of history I'm more pragmatic than that. Diplomacy does little good if you engage in it from a position of weakness. But since 9/11 I, and every other American, wanted some justice from the religious extremists that caused it. And almost every country on the planet would not begrudge us that right. Hell I was ready to go after the Taliban when they blew up those 5000 year old Buddah statues in Afghanistan as a crime against humanity, let alone the second class status they place the women in their country.

But this administration had another agenda and sidetracked our military and our country on another self defeating path. I believe the country now recognizes that fact and Obama's redirection of purpose will resonate across party lines.

I certainly think folks should ignore the spin and should not take what Obama says as a threat to Pakistan, the goal is bin Laden and the other zealots. I'm sensitive to the delicate situation in Pakistan but I'm at a loss to understand how this adminstration can say it supports democracy and threatens all countries who harbor terrorists yet it continues to support a military dictator whose country continues to allow the Taliban and al Qaeda to exist. We owe Musharraf very little in this regard.

Moreover Musharraf allowed the world's greatest nuclear technology proliferation to occur and is directly responsible for the nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran. How can we outsource the hunt for al Qaeda to this government?

And what is the consequence if we get actionable intelligence, launch an unauthorized drone or some shock troops to kill him. Will Pakistan come to his defense? I don't think so. Will it weaken Musharraf's tenuous hold on power? Maybe. But the more we dance on this subject the stronger our enemy becomes and the weaker we appear. Virtually every response our administration has made to 9/11 has resulted in tactical or strategic victory for tiny al Qaeda including the diminishment of our Constitutional rights. Its pathetic we allow this to happen. And we call ourselves patriots.

I'm glad to know one candidate consistently saw Iraq for the diversion it was and still has his eyes on the prize. It is a failure of this administration every day Osama walks the planet. The man is dependent on dialysis to live, he can't be that hard to find. The next election it is every American's duty to select the candidate who will do the most to rectify the diminished honor and status in the world we've self inflicted. So far I think Obama might be the guy.

[Irwin Horowitz]

Today's Statesman references this blog article in the op-ed pages:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/story/128510.html

Thought you'd like to know Julie.

[Julie in Boise]

Yes, and thanks to Randy at Ridenbaugh Press for noticing, too.

I really like the way the Statesman is quoting bloggers all of a sudden. After almost four years, it's a nice bit of publicity.