Barack Obama Retrospective - My First Obama Speech, With Barbara Boxer

As we move closer to election day, it's worth a basic reminder of why we got involved in the movement to elect Barack Obama President.  


Also, it's crunch time!  Time to make the calls, walk the beat, write blogs, and talk to people who need to be convinced!  And if that's not enough and they say "He can't talk without a teleprompter" then show them this video, which is still the best single speech I've heard Obama give because he just walked up and plain knocked it out of the park -- with no notes.  


None.  


In the video we also get the full taste of why people are behind Senator Obama, including myself.  


Here's the video:





This is what I wrote then, and it stands the test of time:

You know you've reached star status when -- even though you're a US senator -- they just call you by your name and not your title. Such is true for US Senator and Candidate for President of The United States, Barack Obama.

They just call him Barack Obama.

Senator Barack Obama (D) Illinois, appeared as the star of a rousing February 19th fund-raiser hosted by Senator Barbara Boxer at The Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco's Union Square.

The event drew almost 2,000 people, if not a little more than that number. (And reports with the estimate at 1,000 are just plain wrong. I was there, and I can count.)

What was surprising to me was the number of true voters who turned out. The crowd was most older, white, and liberal, and for the trained eye consisted of some of the Bay Area's most active political citizens. But to be sure, there was a healthy percentage of younger voters as well -- between 20 and 45 years old. And remember all paid between $150 and $2,000, so this wasn't a free event. It sold out the week before it was set to commence.

Personally, I was blown away by Barack Obama. And I've worked for four politicians and donated to several campaigns. Part of Senator Obama's appeal is that he really has his pulse on the problem America faces and that's a belief crisis. Our leaders don't represent us anymore; they stand for their own desires. One doesn't get the impression that Senator Obama has an agenda separate from that of the American People. He knows we're suffering from seeing people killed overseas and going without help in a hurricane-wrecked New Orleans. He knows we're tired of seeing our leaders preside over a vastly imbalanced spread of resources going where they don't help Americans (the Mid East) while people in the South (Louisiana) are still suffering. He gets that we have a massive leadership crisis, yet doesn't step in like Superman, he just has the courage to point his hand in another direction and say "This is where we should go."

I know that's heavy, but it doesn't begin to describe how much people are energized by him and his run for president. It's one thing to hear about it, but you've got to be a part of it to understand.