Michelle Obama speaks at presidential rally in Skibo Gym
News |
Only a week after her husband drew throngs to Soldiers and Sailors, Michelle Obama wooed a small crowd at Skibo Gymnasium on Wednesday.
Skibo’s risers were packed with community members and students from many of Pittsburgh’s universities. The rally was staffed by volunteers from a number of Carnegie Mellon student organizations, including Carnegie Mellon Students for Barack Obama, Student Senate, AB Political Speakers, and College Democrats.
Helping Students for Obama lead the crowd in cheers of “Ready to go” was Steve Sovern, a professional mediator from just outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who got excited enough about the campaign to travel to Pennsylvania and rally for Mrs. Obama. Sovern, alongside student volunteers, built up a palpable excitement around Mrs. Obama’s speech.
“I’ve been here since 11 a.m. setting up and it’s been amazing. It feels like [Barack] Obama is coming,” said sophomore social and decision sciences major Rotimi Abimbola, a leader of Students for Obama who had only a few days to coordinate the event.
While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the event questioned the practices of Mrs. Obama’s event coordinators, who handpicked the crowd sitting behind Mrs. Obama. The Tartan’s correspondents observed one event coordinator say to another, “Get me more white people, we need more white people.” To an Asian girl sitting in the back row, one coordinator said, “We’re moving you, sorry. It’s going to look so pretty, though.”
“I didn’t know they would say, ‘We need a white person here,’ ” said attendee and senior psychology major Shayna Watson, who sat in the crowd behind Mrs. Obama. “I understood they would want a show of diversity, but to pick up people and to reseat them, I didn’t know it would be so outright.”
Mrs. Obama was introduced by Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of former Democratic
presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry (D–Mass.), who endorsed Mr. Obama’s candidacy in South Carolina last January. Heinz Kerry stressed the similarities between Mr. Obama and her late husband John Heinz III, the popular senator from Pennsylvania. She remarked that she has become friends with Mrs. Obama, mainly from exchanging messages on their Blackberries.
Mrs. Obama spoke about her husband’s triumphs over adversity throughout his life, focusing on the decisions he had made that, she said, set him apart from his opponent, Hillary Clinton. As the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, Mrs. Obama said, Mr. Obama could have been successful in the private sector, but chose to go into community organization instead.
“When you’re given the gift of advocacy, you don’t sell it to the highest bidder,” Mrs. Obama said.
Mrs. Obama stressed how her husband has relied on “regular folks” instead of big donors.
Instead of thousand-dollar donations, the Obama campaign has raised millions on small checks of $20 to $50. Mrs. Obama sees this participatory attitude as a new trend.
“Folks have been engaged in a way they have not been before. People sit around the TV with their 5-year-olds watching debates.”
Mrs. Obama was careful to note that the Obamas, both of whom are Harvard-educated lawyers and who together own a million-dollar home in Illinois, grew up under difficult conditions.
“In my house, there were no miracles. All I saw was hard work and sacrifice,” Mrs. Obama said, speaking of her youth. “My father did not complain and went to work every single day.”
Most of Mrs. Obama’s statements were met with cheers and enthusiastic support, especially the televised crowd, many of whom were long-time fans of Mr. Obama.
One attendee, Joanne Plummer, a resident of Wilkinsburg, has been waiting a long time for an Obama presidency.
“Four years ago, when I first saw him speak for Kerry, I just knew — this man will be president,” Plummer said.
Everyone does this it's not news. This university is laughable. Carnegie Melon? You wish you were Ivy.
Academic respect will never be achieved as long as you wallow in subterranean yellow journalism. The tabloid Tartan...sounds accurate to me.
Hahahahahahha!
You Americans deserve everything you get.
This typical of BO's entire campaign -- calculated and cunning, with not an ounce of substance. And as usual, the Obamaphiles are out in force trying to spin this and blame the messenger (ie, calling the staging of whites 'hearsay'). BO is an empty suit, and the only people who would vote for him (guilty whites or afro-centric blacks) will vote for him is because he black.
But if he does get elected, look out America. All of your taxes will go towards a massive income redistribution in the form of de facto reperations to the likes of Rev. Wright and his ilk.
As for Iraq, BO will pull out so fast that the last troops will have to hitch hike to Israel.
Oh, and speaking of those darn Jews, scratch beneath the surface of any Obamaphile and you will find a anti-Semite who would love to see the Arabs destroy Israel. BO is already planning to hang out the the holocaust denier that runs Iran.
Bottom line, if BO gets elected, get ready for high taxes, urban blacks feeling empowered to violently go after "whitey" (after they marinate in Rev. Wright's speeches), and U.S. troops getting dragged through the streets of Iraq in the midst of a humiliating withdrawl.
Stuti
In response to 32: not everyone posting is a cmu student. Regrets if I misunderstood the comment,
Best,
Stuti
Lynn
My goodness and I thought Carnegie Mellon was full of intelligent, promising young people. At least that's what I remember as a student there.
The responses on this blog, with the exception of a few, display an ignorance of politics and the world. Listen more in class and spend less time in bars.
If you kids (and that's how you're acting) actually believe what you are posting, then maybe it's time to raise the voting age.
More Typical White People coming up!
Marc
So now Michelle Obama is making the election about race, after accusing the Clinton's of the same thing...mmm
heyharvey
hey, KMD
you forgot the weathermen.
also, the socialist candidates always must pander to the women voters, black voters, hispanic voters, gay voters, but never to white male voters (this is the largest 'group' of voters)
go figure.
adios,
Harvey
Lancaster, Mexifornia
dial 1 for english
p.s. Jesse said he was nervous if he heard footsteps behind him when he walked thru the 'ghettoized' neighborhoods. so did grandma.
heyharvey
were any whitey grandmas in the crowd who feel endangered when young black men approach her in the street?
Jesse Jackson said that he felt uncomfortable around young blacks and crosses the street.
adios,
Harvey
Lancaster, Taxifornia
dial 1 for english
ro
Why hasn't this made national news? This is media once again protecting Obama and camp.This is very different than say Hillary or McCain escorting a small number of people spread out at a rally or townhall into one group for better room capacity; they are not running on a message of being able to attract crowds. Obama's message is one of being a unifier and of attracting all races, especially the white race. Therefore, to purposely put the white folks in front rows of any rally for Obama is very disingeneous, deceitful, and pandering for the white folks' vote.Event Coordinators work on behalf on the client, Michelle Obama, and would have been following her instructions. Had McCain or Hillary done something like this, it would have been front page news everywhere. If this is brought to the attention of Pennsylvanians, who are people who like to keep it real, Obama's support in PA will plummet and Clinton's will skyrocket! Ro
Michelle said in her speach that their supporters are giving $20-$50 each. If you look up their donations, many of their supporters are giving $2000+ per person. She can lie just as well as her hubby.
If you read Michelle's graduate theosis paper, she is racist from the get go, and you can't change a leopard's spots for a campaign.
She said she was proud to be an American for the first time in her life after her husband was campaigning was no slip of the tongue.
Everyone and every family has tough times, but the Obama's times are extra tough because they are well educated, have accumulated wealth, are connected with Rev. Wright, Oprah, Rezko, Ayers, the Black Panthers.
Oh, and they are going to have an even tougher time, because they are showing their true colors now, and their lies are coming home to roost (to borrow a phrase from Rev. Racist Anti-American Wright.
And I truely believe Barack's hope speech is only for the blacks - screw everyone else.
He is a divider, not a uniter.
bohoo
" own a million-dollar home in Illinois"
...$600,000 of which was paid for by the now indicted Tony Rezko.
boozy
yous bets grrrfrien....yous be gettin a lot of whities outs whens wes votes...hopefully we are not forced to vote for McCain...but push come to shove...he beats the hell out of socialist.......
David
This is news? Every single campaign does this. For example, with McCain, he needs to make sure the crowd behind him is not all seniors. For Obama, he needs to make sure the crowd behind him is not all students (unless it's at a University, etc). And you always want people to be equally represented. You can't have 10 blacks, 1 asian, and 1 white. It's got to be more balanced.
Fork_T
Negroes only care of themselves and the rest of us need to understand this. Their preacher, Barrack's mentor, and their church doesn't state pro-America, pro-human, or pro-diversity in it's mission statement read it for yourself it states Africa and blacks. They don't want an open dialogue on race, they suck, they commit more crimes proportional than other races, way more this isn't a racial lie this is the truth google it. Us Orientals have had a much harder life in the last century watching our countries getting destroyed by various wars such as WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and not including the various other communism ones the west didn't get involved in yet we don't commit wanton crimes or rape, violence, and humiliation none of which can be attributed to wealth or the lack of it. I get sick and tired of negroes whining about "discrimination" when it's really about them being lazy, expecting things to be handed to them, and wanting life to be fair, reality check life isn't fair.
I feel worse for all you Whites who think you'll buy yourself absolution for crimes your ancestors supposedly did for slavery, oppression, and other acts of racism. Negroes sold their own into slavery and had slaves before the White people had an opportunity to own them, Arabs sold slaves way before the White people did, oppression is what you see in Africa in Rwanda, South Africa, and any place White farmers are having their lands stolen and getting raped and killed. Racism, negroes are such offenders that they have their own special kind called "colorism" please look it up. I hate to disappoint all those who think voting for Obama will relieve them of their "White guilt", it won't stop, negroes will keep demanding more, and it won't stop until they make you extinct, it's not about equality for them, it's about preferential treatment, and in their case wanting White genocide, and if you have the time please google Africa and let it be your guide when savages are brought to the modern era and are not able to let the supposed crimes of your ancestor's go (their lives were much better in their care than when it was guided by other negroes). Remember you're not the ones committing the crimes, abandoning their children, and doing the drugs, they are.
Katy
The idea that one of the organizers said "get me more whites" is hearsay. What is most offensive about the inclusion of inflammatory hearsay by the author, is the response from the people posting who focused only on a weak negative, while ignoring the examples of factual diversity as reported, i.e., Steve Sovern, a (a white lawyer I happen to know) from Iowa went to Pennsylvania to support Obama as have so many others across the country. In fact, arranging people on the stage is valid, in Obama's case, and a means to accurate reflection of the diversity of the crowd in attendance. He brings all ages, and races together.
Blacks are the disease that needs to be cured in this country. Obama in the white house is equivalent to using asbestos to treat lung cancer.
And that's only if race was a vital issue now. Only to blacks is race at the forefront of all aspects of life. If whites did as blacks do, then they would consider race first under every circumstance and blacks would indeed have some serious problems. If Hillary or McCain belonged to ANY group that screamed "Exterminate all blacks", they'd be gone in a flash. Period. No apologies or baloney explanations. No excuses. GONE. Why is this chimp still babbling away?
Where's my transgender Eskimo? I need a lesbian Puerto Rican in row 6! And I need more Typical White People!
John Galt
He needs more White Folks?
I'm still waiting for him to show up on the ski slopes. :)
Perfect chance for him to reprise his Gutter Ball ability in full thrashing down hill fashion.
Holier Than Thou
The Democrats and Progressives have used propaganda to exclude White Men for years. The Clinton's love to load the area behind the dais with non whites and white females. They use pictures on their websites that make a point of excluding White Men. White men are rightly resentful and Obama knows this.
The problem here is not the "racist whites" who are commenting on this thread.
Racism (at least, white racism) is dead.
The problem is that Obama, slick character though he is, is very, very racist himself. He is racist against white people, and, as Bruiser above me said, his message of "hope" is directed at blacks, and blacks only.
So why is he trying to present a "diverse" picture now? Because of Jeremiah Wright. Obama's pastor outed him as the racist that he is, which hurt his campaign. So, Obama's trying to rebuild that thin "man of the people" disguise.
The problem for him is, it (and he) is so obviously transparent now that he has NO chance of getting elected.
Good.
McCain '08.
Comment guidelines
If you provide an email address, it will be displayed. This may make you more vulnerable to spammers.
HTML is not allowed. Paragraphs are automatically created by leaving a blank line. Links are created from URLs automatically.
Off-topic or inappropriate (e.g. obscene, libelous) comments are not permitted and will be removed.