| bertram123 |
 Posted: Thu 13:19, 13 Oct 2011 Post subject: He has soul and a conscience |
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| “He has soul and a conscience, and he’s looking out for Joe Blow.” A woman in the crowd, de scribing herself as a lifelong republican, said she hadn’t been happy with the current administration and, after hearing Barack’s speech, she liked what he said. 11 The next day, a columnist for the Denver Post wrote that Barack would need ongoing inspiration to keep conveying his optimism to voters and wondered whether Barack could continue to inspire after his short time on the campaign trail. In the article, he quoted a 63yearold man who’d driven to Denver to hear Barack: “He gives me hope as a presi dential candidate. He will win because the American public is ready for a change. He’s energized people to a level I haven’t seen since JFk [ John F. kennedy] and rFk [robert F. kennedy].” He wrote about a 19yearold college student who said she wanted to vote for someone she could believe in, and of a 59yearold woman who wanted to see Barack in person, add ing that there was something about Barack that made her think she could trust him, that she thought the idea of being hopeful again was wonderful, and that she hadn’t been that hopeful since 1968. The key, the columnist said, was for Barack to continue to inspire and to keep voters’ attention. He agreed with an advertising salesman in the crowd: “He’s timely. But as this thing goes on, he’s got to get a lot more specific and a lot stronger.”12102 BArACk OBAMA The sensation that was Barack Obama quickly knew no borders. While there was great interest in the 2008 presidential race throughout the world, there was particular interest in the popular young senator from Illinois. Barack was being covered by the foreign media from Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, and Nairobi. A spokesperson for an Italian news agency stated, “Hillary and Barack are the big stars as far as the coverage is concerned. For us to have Italian journalists traveling to Springfield, Illinois, two years before the election is, by Italian standards, crazy.”13 While there was global interest in U.S. politics and the presidential race, there was per haps a greater interest in Barack Obama because of his African American heritage, his message, and the huge crowds showing up at every venue on the campaign trail. By the end of March 2007, Barack announced his campaign had raised more than 100,000 donations totaling at least $25 million, $6.9 mil lion generated through Internet donations. A great percentage of the donors were firsttime donors who sent $50 to $100 from home com puters. |
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