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Obama rides momentum into Bergen
(by Mark J. Bonamo - February 05, 2008)
High school classmates Abi Johnson, 14, and Catherine Schneiderman, 15, were the first two people waiting in line outside the Izod Center in East Rutherford the day before the closely contested Feb. 5 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary. Wearing matching black Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers, the pair was matched as well in their desires.
Their first was to see Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois speak the day before Super Tuesday, the day on which 22 states, including the Garden State, held votes that determined whether their delegates to the Democratic presidential convention went to Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
The second could be summarized in one word: change.
“Even if we can’t vote, whoever is elected as president will be supporting us in the years ahead,” said Schneiderman, a New York City high school student. “For as long as we’ve been alive, it’s been Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Bush. I don’t really feel like supporting that anymore.”
Though a relatively small crowd of 3,000 failed to fill the 20,000-seat arena on an inclement, snowy day, those in attendance witnessed a one-two combination of major political and pop culture heavyweights teaming up to back Barack Obama.
Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts; his niece Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, and American film icon Robert DeNiro all spoke in support of the Illinois senator. This last-minute star-power support was designed to deliver damaging blows to Clinton’s campaign in the hectic run-up to Super Tuesday. It also set the tone for the primary campaign on the road to the party’s August convention in Denver, where the Democratic presidential nominee will finally be decided.
Inside the arena, De Niro throws jabs
De Niro, the actor well-known for his role as boxer Jake La Motta in the film classic “Raging Bull”, quickly set a tough-guy tone with his opening line to the crowd gathered at the Meadowlands.
“Barack Obama does not have the experience to be president of the United States,” he said, immediately echoing one of the Clinton campaign’s key criticisms of their main rival. “Remember, he wasn’t experienced enough to authorize the invasion of Iraq.”
“And that’s not all,” DeNiro continued. “It’s clear that Barack Obama also does not have the experience to let the special interests run the government…That’s the kind of inexperience I can get used to. If this election were to be decided just on quantity of experience, Dick Cheney would be our next president.”
De Niro commented on his own relative inexperience in the political arena.
“I’ve never made a speech like this at a political event before,” he said to loud applause. “So, what am I doing here? Finally, one person has inspired me. One person has given me hope. One person has made me believe that we can make a change. That person is Barack Obama.”
Before he stepped off the stage, De Niro, 64, expressed his desire that the younger members of the audience will now choose to jump in the ring.
“Let me just take a minute to speak to you young people here,” he said. “The rest of you can listen – it’s okay. I’ve been concerned that so many of you aren’t voting with such important issues affecting you…No one inspired you. You wanted to vote, you just didn’t have anyone you wanted to vote for. You know what? I felt the same. Until now.”
Kennedy charisma, then Obama’s appeal to voters
With that, De Niro introduced Sen. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy and Obama. While Caroline sat silently on stage, the 75-year-old Sen. Kennedy referenced the other renowned members of his family before Obama started his speech .
“I’m here today to ask the people of New Jersey to cast the same votes for Barack Obama as they cast for John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy in the past,” he said.
Photo by Allison McGevna
Obama took the stage in New Jersey on the same day Quinnipiac University released a poll showing that the 49-32 lead that Clinton enjoyed among likely New Jersey Democratic primary voters on Jan. 23 had shrunk to a slim 48-43 margin. In the wake of the New York Giants’ upset victory over the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, Obama joked about Kennedy being a Patriots fan and referenced his perceived underdog status.
“I think we should take heart, Ted, by the fact that the underdog sometimes pulls it out,” he said. You can’t always believe the pundits and prognosticators.”
Speaking for almost 35-minutes, the 46-year-old Obama made his case to be commander in chief, saying that the country is at a “defining moment in our history.”
“Our nation is at war,” he said. “Our plant is in peril. And the dream that so many generations fought for feels like it’s slowly slipping away…In such a state, we cannot afford to wait. We can’t afford to wait to fix our health care system. We cannot wait to fix our schools…We cannot wait to bring change to America.”
Standing in Sen. Clinton’s backyard, Obama bluntly rebutted the idea that her previous White House experience makes her a stronger candidate.
“I’ve tried to explain to people that you don’t just want to be ready on Day One, you want to be right on Day One,” he said.
Toward the end of his speech, Obama looked beyond his primary rival to his potential Republican opponent in the November presidential election.
“We have a real choice to make,” he said. “It is a choice, not between black and white, not between genders or regions or religions, but a choice between the past and the future. And if I’m running against John McCain, I want to be making the argument for the future, not for the past. I want to be going forwards, not backwards.”
Obama’s Jersey allies speak out
Obama hoped to be propelled forward in the New Jersey Democratic primary by an impressive array of Garden State political supporters. These allies include Bergen County native and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9th district), New Jersey State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-37th district), State Senate President and former Gov. Richard Codey (D-27th district), Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley.
Booker, who unofficially declared his city “Obamatown” in the final days of primary campaigning, noted a “spirit of upset” in the air in New Jersey. When discussing the potential outcome of the Super Tuesday delegate battle with Hackensack Chronicle, the Newark mayor departed from the football analogies being thrown around and slipped into boxing mode.
“When Ali fought Frazier, the great thing about that was that it was a zero-sum game,” said Booker, 38.
“There was one winner, and it was Muhammad Ali. The beauty of this is that Sen. Clinton is a phenomenal leader who has served our nation in its highest capacities for years. I’m proud to be a Clinton supporter in general. But the reality is that we are going to have a president and a senator at the end of the day. And I think that the president is going to be Barack Obama.”
Bradley, a 64-year old Verona resident, served three terms in the U.S. Senate before announcing in 1995 that he would not seek re-election, stating that “politics is broken” and that Americans were losing faith in the political process.
Bradley went on to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, losing to Sen. Al Gore. But despite these bumps in the road, the former Princeton University and New York Knicks basketball star is clearly back in the game. In a conversation with Hackensack Chronicle before his candidate’s speech, Bradley explained why Obama can repair what he believes is broken.
"One of the main reasons I am supporting Obama is that I think that he can fix politics,” he said. “He offers a new kind of transcendent politics that deals with real issues. People want politics to deal with wanting good jobs with good pay, health care for their families, all public schools to be great and not having to go to war all the time because we won’t break our addiction to oil. Obama says those are the issues that we have to deal with. That is why I am here.”
Seeing the dream
As Obama came offstage and began shaking hands with the crowd, he was flanked by the Kennedys and Booker. Sen. Kennedy took a moment to speak with Hackensack Chronicle about how to make sure the excitement surrounding the Obama campaign is translated into votes on Super Tuesday and beyond.
“There is great enthusiasm here, and we’re getting it from all over,” he said. “There is a question of time, but there is still definitely a groundswell. There is no question to me that this is moving all in Barack Obama’s favor.”
Back in the crowd, Bergen County resident Jacqueline Babai had time on her mind as well.
“Seeing Obama is just so electric,” said Babai, 28, a freight carrier logistics sales executive who lives in North Arlington. “I know that I’m witnessing history. My parents are for Hillary, and she’s their president because she represents their last 50 years. I’m looking for someone who represents my next 50 years. That’s why Obama is my president.”
Edith Savage-Jennings, 83, came all the way up the New Jersey Turnpike from Trenton to see the man who she wants to be president. She felt the excitement in the room. But then again, she’s felt it before, having worked for civil rights for over 50 years in New Jersey.
“I helped organize New Jersey for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Savage-Jennings, including setting up one of Dr. King’s first public rallies at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton in 1957 on behalf of the NAACP.
Now, having been around both King and Obama, she likes both what she saw and what she sees ahead.
“I hope this is the dream that Martin had come to fulfillment,” she said. “I think that Obama is the person to fulfill that dream. He’s the next person that I have witnessed in my life that could bring about what Dr. King was about, and that’s social change for America. We’ve been talking about it for 50 years.”
“I’ve been to the White House under five or six presidents, and none of them that I knew was ready when they walked through that door. Now is the time of Obama. He’s just as ready as anybody is, and I think more ready than Hillary. Let him walk through that door.”
Email: bonamo@northjersey.com
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