By Samuel Rubenfeld
University students, along with thousands of others, attended a rally for Democratic presidential hopeful Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, which featured more pointed attacks at his Democratic counterparts than previously observed while on the campaign trail in Washington Square Park on Thursday.
Washington Square Park had been closed for the rally, but after the crowd demanded to see the candidate the campaign relented and people flooded into the park to get a glimpse of him.
Addressing the enormous crowd, which volunteers said was between 20,000 and 25,000 people, Obama said, “We’ve had crowds like this all over the country: 20,000 in Atlanta, 20,000 in Austin, 15,000 in Oakland, 10,000 in Iowa City.”
Students for Obama, a new group on campus started by senior political science and speech communication major Sid Nathan, brought 13 students to the rally, including seven freshmen.
Melissa Henderson, a member of Students for Obama and a freshman political science major in the School for University Studies, has been to an Obama rally before. “He’s like a breath of fresh air,” she said.
Henderson volunteered for the campaign at the rally, handing out water and keeping the supporters who turned out for the campaign event engaged and involved.
As a black woman, Henderson sees Obama as the representative of a large but relatively unknown movement in the United States. “There are a lot of prominent black leaders in America that a lot of people just don’t know about,” Henderson said.
This was the group’s first organized event. “Going to an Obama rally is the best way to get inspired,” Nathan said. “This was a really good opportunity.”
During his 45-minute stump speech, Obama was critical of his Democratic counterparts also running for president, especially New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is leading the national polls to be the Democratic nominee. “There are those in this race for the presidency who are touting their experience working the system. But the problem is the system is not working for us,” he said.
Both Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards are vying for the anti-Hillary vote in the Democratic primary, and are attacking her with increasing fervor.
Obama advertised his familiarity with the region- he is a graduate of Columbia University with a degree in political science. “I used to hang out in Washington Square Park; I know some of the bars around here,” he said.
Obama’s campaign is built around his youth and his zeal to “turn the page”-about which he added: “We can’t just change the parties [in the White House]. We have to change the politics.”
Obama disparaged the president as well. He said, “I’m tired of an administration that treats the Constitution as a nuisance [in order] to justify torture.”
Most of the crowd was between the age of 18 and 29, liberal and anti-war; the crowd cheered at every mention of Obama’s unflinching opposition to the Iraq war.
But the biggest response the candidate garnered from the youthful crowd occurred when Obama suggested, “Let’s make college more affordable.”
The appearance in New York City came the night after a debate at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., during which all the major candidates-Obama, Clinton and Edwards-refused to say they could end the war by the end of their first term in office, if elected.
Obama discussed the inevitable crisis facing Social Security and shot at those candidates who denied a crisis exists. “There were folks on the stage that said ‘Social Security is just fine, we don’t have to do anything about it,'” he said.
Debate moderator Tim Russert, the Washington bureau chief for NBC News and moderator of “Meet the Press,” also asked a lighthearted question about which baseball team each candidate preferred.
Clinton had said that she would be unable to decide whom to root for if both the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees faced each other in the World Series.
During the rally Thursday, Obama chided Clinton for her answer: “Even your senator from New York wasn’t clear about the Yankees,” he said, laughing. “I know who I’m rooting for!”
“I felt like he was talking to old people and to young people,” said Caitlyn Nurthen, a freshman marketing major who went to the rally with friends, independent of the Students for Obama group. “He connects with everyone.”
Supporters cheer Obama’s views on making college affordable.
Obama pointedly addresses supporters at the rally.
One supporter holds his sign as he waits for Obama to arrive at Washington Square Park. (Samuel Rubenfeld)