oh bama

Last nite, I headed to an Obama rally on the Boston Common. Quite expectedly, the turnout was huge - I was somewhere in the middle of the crowd, and let's just say that I should've brought my binoculars:

The opening speaker was Deval Patrick, first Democrat to be elected governor of Massachusetts in something like 16 years. His message was simple: we're in deep, deep sh#t in this country, and even though everybody and their grandma is expecting a Democrat to become the next President, we still need to show up at the polls.

Barack then came on, and stole the show - clearly, he's a natural-born orator. He outlined his platform by using examples from the lives of working-class folks, and promised to enact universal healthcare by the end of his first term. What I thought was most interesting is his discussion of his differences with Hillary - instead of throwing punches, he explained that their approach is not the same. He portrayed Hillary as an insider who's always looking forward to the next battle to prove her strength, whereas he was one to bring people together... the whole "don't work the system, the system should be working for you".