For Harbor Park crowd, Barack Obama hits a home run

NORFOLK

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama told a shivering crowd of at least 20,000 people Tuesday night at Harbor Park to not “believe for a second that the election is over” and urged them to get out, knock on doors, convince neighbors and work for the “change we need.”

“If we come together, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, disabled, not disabled,” Obama said, punching out the words like he was calling attendance. “If we come together, our voices are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyists, or the most vicious political attacks, or the full force of the status quo in Washington.”

Obama, after nearly two years on the campaign trail, is delivering a speech dubbed his “closing argument” and he did so to a crowd that may have heard these lines before, but seemed poised to burst with every rhetorical flourish.

Tuesday’s speech was his ninth Virginia appearance, a testament to the state’s battleground status. He will return Thursday for a rally in Virginia Beach, and his Republican opponent, John McCain, has scheduled a Saturday visit to an as-yet unannounced Hampton Roads location.

By the time Obama walked onto the stage just before 9:30 p.m., most of the attendees had spent a few hours waiting, chilled by 48-degree and dropping temperatures and a crisp breeze ripping in off the Elizabeth River.

Billy Milton, 21, boarded a downtown shuttle at 6:10 chanting, “Ba-rack! Ba-rack! Ba-rack!”

“This is what I like to see,” he said, looking around the bus, the crowd thickening as it picked up more passengers destined for Harbor Park. “People of all ages, because they say that Barack only appeals to young people. And people of all races. I’m feeling inspired tonight!”

Milton said he could have supported McCain, particularly when he felt that many fellow blacks were only supporting Obama because of race and not the issues. He said he now believes Obama is the strongest candidate and finds him inspirational, capable of bringing crowds to tears with his words.

“I can’t wait to see who cries tonight,” he said, then yelled, “I have tissues, y’all!”

People filled the 12,000-seat ballpark’s chairs up to the highest seats, then packed themselves shoulder to shoulder down on the ballfield. A few minutes before Obama spoke, they flooded through an opening in the centerfield wall and filled most of the outfield.

Their view of Obama himself was blocked by a media tent and stage, so they turned their heads and watched his speech on the Jumbotron.

They roared approval every time Obama unwound one of his well-practiced setups and landed the blow. One of his biggest themes was the national economy.

“It’s getting harder and harder to make the mortgage, or fill up your gas tank, or even pay electricity at the end of the month,” he said. “At a time like this, the last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired old worn-out theory of John McCain and George Bush that says we should give more to billionaires and big corporations and hope the prosperity trickles down to everyone else.”

Obama jumped from the country’s dire economic condition to a hopeful scenario in which everyone joins together and overcomes it.

“The American story has never been about things coming easy, it’s been about rising to the moment,” he said, pausing, his voice booming, “when the moment was hard. It’s about seeing the highest mountaintop from the deepest of valleys. It’s about rejecting fear and division for unity of purpose.”

He spent plenty of words throughout the speech distinguishing himself from McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. He said the stakes are too high to play political games or to try to divide the country by class, region, or “by who we are and what we believe.”

“There are patriots who supported this war in Iraq and patriots who opposed it,” he said. “There are patriots who believe in Democratic policies and those who believe in Republican policies.

“The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America.”

Obama spoke for 35 minutes, his speech building to a pitch and the crowd’s reactions becoming louder.

“In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history,” Obama said. “That’s what’s at stake, that’s what we’re fighting for.”

Soon after, he was done and Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed and Delivered” blasted over the sound system. Obama shook hands with the people who had watched from the bleachers behind him and disappeared into a mass of spectators.

Lon Wagner, (757) 222-5119, lon.wagner@pilotonline.com

Denise Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com