Barack Obama Outdoor Rally in Oregon Attracts 75,000 People!
Barack Obama addresses huge crowd in Portland! Barack now leads by 194 delegates. He needs 112 more and is likely to get 50 to 55 more tomorrow.
Los Angeles Times, Online, May 19th 2008
Jenny Booth
Barack Obama yesterday addressed his biggest political rally to date, a spectacular outdoor gathering on the banks of the river Willamette near Portland, Oregon.
The Illinois senator smiled down on a sea of 75,000 faces on a fine, sunlit afternoon.
“Wow! Wow! Wow!” were his first words as he surveyed the crowd, which included people in kayaks and small pleasure boats on the river on an unusually hot day.
It is “fair to say this is the most spectacular setting for the most spectacular crowd” of his campaign, he told the audience.
He expects to win Oregon when the state holds its primary contest tomorrow, edging him a fraction nearer to his goal of winning the Democratic presidential nomination. Leafy Oregon is strongly environmentally aware, and its population is seen as particularly susceptible to his message of change.
Hillary Clinton, his rival, was meanwhile on the campaign trail in Kentucky, which also votes tomorrow. Although she is set to win there, it appears statistically impossible for her to overtake him in delegate numbers now, with only three more primaries to go before party voting ends on June 3. Click here to read more about energized Democrats in the Los Angeles Times coverage of the Portland rally.