Obama pads his pocketbook, polishes his pitch at Minneapolis rally

06/29/2007

By Bob Von Sternberg,
Star Tribune
June 29, 2007


Thousands of Minnesotans gave Barack Obama the rock star treatment Friday, the kind he's routinely basked in on the campaign trail for months.

"Everywhere we go, we've been seeing these remarkable crowds, just like today," he said with a grin to the supporters who jammed Minneapolis' International Market Square to the rafters. "It's tempting to think it's all about me, that I'm so fabulous.

"But that's not the reason people are coming out. All over the country, people are saying they're ready for change. ... They're weary of the politics of the past. They're ready for the politics of the future."

He was greeted by roars, repeated often during his 20-minute stump speech.

He largely abandoned the cool, professorial style he often employs, delivering his points in a full-throated bark.

"Part of the reason people want change is George Bush," he said. "Folks have looked at the past six years and said, 'It's not workin' for me -- it's not workin' for us,' " he said. "They're tired of a politics based on fear instead of hope, a politics that divides instead of bringing us together."

He ticked off his positions on health care, education and energy policy but got his loudest response when he denounced the Iraq war as "a war that should never have been authorized, a war that should have never been waged. Enough is enough."

In a crowd that skewed decidedly young, Azi Sakizadeh, 19, a college student from Woodbury, was representative. "There's just something about him, so many things that make him special," she said. "It seems like he has what it takes to take on the country's problems."

Roger and Carole Rydberg, a middle-aged couple from Plymouth, were of two minds.

Carole Rydberg remains an undecided Democrat, but said she "wanted to listen to him in person. The first time I heard him speak, I remember wondering if I was hearing the first black president."

Her husband needs no convincing. "This is the first real politician we've had in a long time," he said. "This guy has charisma, has a story, tells the truth, thinks on his feet -- so different from what we've got now.

"We need a rock star running for president in a country where most people watch 'American Idol.' "

As has long been standard during presidential campaign visits, the opposition zinged Obama even before he arrived.

In an e-mail headlined "The Audacity of Hype," playing off Obama's recent best-seller, the state GOP blasted: "All the media hype in the world can't obscure the fact that Barack Obama lacks the experience, leadership and accomplishments necessary to be commander-in-chief."

Prodigious fundraising

Obama's first trip to Minnesota as a presidential candidate was less about the contest for the Democratic nomination than about his prodigious fundraising track record and grass-roots organizing.

Friday's rally, coupled with a $1,000-a ticket fundraiser, were held at the tail end of the second-quarter campaign cash reporting deadline.

Obama's campaign aides said they had sold 3,000 tickets to the rally, which could net them as much as $75,000.

By any measure, Obama's fundraising strategy has been stunningly successful. His campaign reported Friday that it had easily exceeded its goal of raising money from 250,000 people in the first six months of the year, reaching more than 255,000 by Friday night.

The campaign won't say yet how much the donors have given, but the large number suggests that their fundraising will be competitive with the $25.7 million he raised in the first quarter.

Aides to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's fellow Democrat, say she will match her $26 million from the first quarter. That another candidate could even approach her fundraising prowess was unthinkable six months ago.

Unlike Clinton, who has attracted a sizeable number of $4,600 contributions (the maximum allowed by law), Obama has concentrated more on smaller donations.

As the end of the second quarter approached, he held a series of $25-a-head rallies like Friday's in eight other cities, including Chicago and Kansas City.

Obama's appearance reflects the campaign's belief that "we can create a remarkable grass-roots operation here," said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, the first mayor in the nation to endorse him. "This is going to be a good state for us to find volunteers."