"We are here today because the country calls us, we are here today because history beckons us, we are here today because we face a series of challenges as significant, as daunting as any generation has faced.” –Barack Obama, Oakland, California, March 17, 2007

No experience, no chance. Right? Wrong! Breaking all the unwritten rules along the road to the Oval Office and truly forging a path of his own (trailblazing, really), it is the junior Senator from Illinois who is winning over the American people and making history with his refreshingly candid and eloquently forthright political style. Fueled as much by an adoring public as by the man himself, this Cinderella story of political and quite possibly Presidential proportions is sweeping the nation off its feet in a firestorm of inspiration and excitement not seen since perhaps the likes of JFK and the grassroots movements of the 1960s.

Barack Hussein Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States on Saturday, February 10 in Springfield, Illinois to a crowd of over 15,000 enthusiastic supporters who came out to demonstrate their adoration in person, despite a wind-chill factor that plunged temperatures well below zero.

The weather in Oakland wasn’t quite as severe (sunny and 70s), but the turnout for Obama’s St. Patrick’s Day rally here was no less dramatic. A picture of multiculturalism, much like Barack himself, an exuberant Bay Area crowd of more than 12,000 people encompassing all ages, races, and walks of life descended on Oakland’s Frank H. Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall. A deluge of support and a wild success, to say the least. And while the numbers alone are impressive—15,000 in Springfield, 20,000 in Austin, and 12,000 to as many as 30,000 in Oakland, by one estimate—it is really the groundswell of everyday people converting adoration into action who are making this campaign such an exceptional, overwhelming, and unexpected success.
I can personally attest to the excitement and commitment of Obama volunteers. Armed with pure adrenaline and joy, I leapt at the chance to attend a volunteer planning meeting on a Sunday (and a sunny one, at that). Did I mention there was but two days’ notice for this planning meeting? Not knowing what to expect, I showed up to the meeting … along with some 500+ other folks who, just like me, learned of the need for volunteers to help make Barack’s trip to Oakland a seamless success and answered the call without hesitation. By a show of hands, over one-third of those in attendance were first time political volunteers (myself included). Among those at the meeting were a large group of supporters from Sacramento. Their early support for Obama was highlighted by the speaker and it was pointed out—to a roar of clapping and cheers—that prior to Barack's announcement as a Democratic presidential candidate, the couple who started the Sacramento for Obama group were registered Republicans! Planning meetings for allegedly inexperienced politicians don’t typically draw crowds in these numbers (or those excitedly departing one political party for the other), or so I’m told. But then Barack isn’t your typical inexperienced political candidate.
To quote Chrish Hughes of the New Media team at Obama for America headquarters, “Barack says often that this is a campaign about building a movement to change America, to reinvigorate our faith in the democratic process and rediscover its potential to bring about deep, lasting change. That isn’t rhetoric. It’s real. This campaign is different. People are noticing that, hearing this message, and getting up off the couch to volunteer.” This sentiment is echoed all across the country by men and women moved to mobilize in support of Barack. Says Darilyn from Florida, “The grassroots movement is going to sweep through this nation for Obama. The big story will be how ordinary citizens joined together to make a difference.” A retired U.S. military serviceman and Alabma native by the name of Brete comments, “Senator Obama's message to us all is that we have for too many years forgotten that the ownership of government is supposed to be ours as true citizens of the U.S. It is time we learn this message and take heed with this leader of citizens!” Read More...