75,000

Seventy-five thousand Oregonians gathered today in Portland to listen to and lend their support to the Presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. It is the largest partisan political gathering in my memory. While the big events of the 1960's were larger and attracted several hundred thousand (The March on Washington, The Mobilization and The Moratorium) they were in support of ideas and broad principals, not a single candidate. I don't recall any crowds for Robert Kennedy of that scale, unless you include all of the people in New York and along the train tracks to Washington standing in silent vigil during his funeral procession.

The Portland event is a powerful statement of the force that propels the Obama candidacy. Now, if those of us on the left coast don't get too wrapped up in our own underwear, maybe there is a chance we can create the change we yearn for.

It is humorous to me to juxtapose the Portland rally with the report by the Washington Post last week of a Hillary Clinton visit to West Virginia. (It is a fabulous piece by Dana Milbank on May 13. I can't make the link to the article work. A search for the article would be worth your while)
Hillary alighted from her campaign plane and as she came down the steps she waved and pointed to friends she recognized in the crowd. Except, there was no one to meet her, no crowd and certainly no friends in the nonexistent crowd. Hillary only had the television cameras recording her arrival. To the television viewer it would appear as if Hillary was greeting a welcoming throng.

I have felt for many years that the finger pointing by politicians at rally's was a joke. It struck me as a ruse to cause the viewer to think that the politician had friends in the crowd. It creates a false sense of intimacy. I could never prove that feeling I had, until this past week when the Washington Post clearly pointed it out.

Sorry Hillary, the big crowd was in Portland, Oregon, and it was listening to Obama.