Barack Obama Townhall In Las Vegas
by Todd Beeton, Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 09:11:28 AM EST
Yesterday I drove from LA to Vegas and due to a car fire on the 15, I arrived at Obama's townhall meeting an hour and a half after doors were scheduled to open. I knew I wasn't late, though, when I saw the enormous lines of people waiting to get in; the phrase "around the block" doesn't really begin to describe it.
Like the New Hampshire Obama events I attended, this was held in a high school gym with an overflow room to accommodate the masses of people there to see the senator. A couple of differences: this event was a townhall where he took questions from the audience and the racial make-up of the crowd was closer to 50-60% white (if that) vs. the near 100% white crowds of New Hampshire.
Another observation about the crowd: it wasn't nearly as young as the crowds in New Hampshire were and the generation gap, if you can call it that, was evident in the questions that were asked. Two young people (i.e. under 25) who asked questions made a point to thank Barack, one for "restoring her faith in the American dream" and one for giving her "hope again." They were very touching and sincere and typified, I think, the reason young people are so drawn to him. Their entire political life, George Bush has been president and the congress has either been an arm of the Bush regime or ineffective at curbing it. They're not convinced Washington can work, so Obama's sort of vague promises to "change Washington" are very appealing. The older people in the crowd, with more life experience and having lived through more presidents, had really practical bread and butter questions, whether about making joining a union easier, Yucca Mountain, health care and immigration reform. It was a striking difference.
There were more differences between the Vegas crowd and the New Hampshire crowds I saw. This time, when Obama said as a rotating part of his stump speech, "this year, George Bush will not be on the ballot" the place erupted, not only cheering, but clapping and stomping their feet. I was taken aback because the crowds in NH never reacted to this line this way. Chris Bowers wrote about how Obama lost the "angry-with-Bush-vote" in New Hampshire.
However, among the 62% of participants in the Democratic primary who described themselves as "angry" with the Bush administration, Clinton won 39%-34%. And thus, we have Clinton's 2.6% margin of victory almost precisely.
If we assume from the reaction I witnessed that the anger with Bush in Las Vegas is actually more intense than in New Hampshire, it's still unclear whether Clinton has a leg up here or merely that those who are angry are more likely to support Obama. I will say though that Obama seemed to be criticizing Bush more yesterday than I've seen him before.
Also, immigration, as you might expect, is going to be a big issue in Nevada, as it was not in NH. New Mexico Governor Janet Napolitano introduced Barack and sat on stage throughout his entire townhall, silent but a presence all the same. When the immigration issue came up (twice) he referred to Napolitano's leadership on the issue, as if to say, "she's vouching for me." There were two distinct schools of thought represented in the audience, a nativist demo and an immigrant demo and Barack threaded the needle quite ably when he said he supports a path to citizenship but that it's not fair to give them special priveleges, the undocumented population must pay a fine and "must learn English!" That last one got a huge reaction. He also insisted that we must crack down on employers who hire them as well as engage with Mexico and Central America to encourage them to develop policies so people aren't so desperate to flee their countries for opportunities.
A couple final notes on the townhall. The first speaker was a gentleman who was an Obama volunteer who made a point of revealing that he had formerly been a Clinton supporter. The place let out a loud "boo!" which the speaker did nothing to discourage. There was a real anti-Clinton vibe in that room last night, which surprised me. Sure, most of these folks are Obama supporters (which, in the race for the nomination is essentially anti-Clinton by definition) but I found the level of contempt for her surprising. I'll also say this was a far more African-American crowd than a hispanic crowd, which no doubt speaks both to the make-up of Obama's support as well as Las Vegas's racial demographics. Clinton has always polled especially strongly among hispanic voters and if last night is any indication, there is no exodus toward Obama among that community.
Tags: 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama, Democratic Primary (all tags)
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