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Obama knows how to attract a crowd
In the midst of a book tour, the Illinois senator visited Minnesota to promote DFLers. But his growing star power was the biggest draw.
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ROCHESTER -- Obamamania blew into town Monday.
In the midst of a national book tour and not that many days since he said he has "thought about the possibility" of running for president, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama threw his weight behind the candidacies of DFL Senate hopeful Amy Klobuchar and Tim Walz, the party's candidate in the First Congressional District.
"You've got two people who embody what we want in a public servant," he told more than a thousand of the party faithful who jammed a hall at the Mayo Civic Center. "They're diligent, intelligent and humble. They've got the common touch, and that's part of the reason they're doing so well. They feel real, not blow-dried, poll-tested or sound-bited."
The appearance of a national Democrat with Obama's growing star power is the most recent indication that party officials view six-term Republican incumbent Rep. Gil Gutknecht as potentially vulnerable in a year when they are banking on a Democratic sweep.
"This race must be close, because unless the Democrats are strategically stupid, I think nobody would come in here unless they thought it could make a difference," said Chris Gilbert, a political science professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. "It would still be a big upset if the Democrats win here" in the First District.
Although Klobuchar has maintained a commanding lead over Republican Mark Kennedy in recent polls, Obama's appearance could help inoculate her "against one of Kennedy's characteristic fast finishes," Gilbert said.
More evidence of how high both parties view the stakes in the district: On Wednesday appearances are planned by presumptive 2008 presidential aspirants John McCain (for Gutknecht) and John Kerry (for Walz).
But as enthusiastic as the DFLers were for their two candidates, Obama was clearly the biggest draw, attracting the loudest and longest cheers and being mobbed for autographs. Button hawkers were doing a brisk business, selling Obama for President models such as "Superbama" and "Barack to the Future."
Rochester resident Jackie Marquette was sporting one promoting Obama's new book, "The Audacity of Hope."I think he's the real thing," she said. "He stops to think before he answers questions. ... Even though people say he's too young, we have too many old politicians doing the wrong thing."
Although he performed his assigned task of promoting Klobuchar and Walz, Obama also spent a good part of his 20-minute speech gently riffing on the faith-grounded themes of his new book.
He mentioned the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, "not for the sake of cheap sentimentality but because he found the balance between the politics of fear and the politics of hope, which have always been at odds ...
"When we look around our lives, one of the easiest things to do is find refuge in cynicism. It's tempting for all of us to pull back and say the world is what it is and we can't change it. What's hard, what requires risk, boldness and audacity, is to hope."
For their parts, Klobuchar and Walz ran through their issues and sprinkled in a few red-meat one-liners.
"They need a moral compass," Klobuchar said of congressional Republicans. "Their compass points to W, but when I'm in the Senate, I won't follow the Lone Star. I'll be following the North Star."You people have done nothing short of the miraculous," Walz said, noting that Gutknecht once dismissed his candidacy as "irrelevant."He's right. This has never been about myself, but it's about the people of this district."
In the First District, carried twice by President Bush, the parties are spending heavily to fill the cable and broadcast airwaves with ads.
"Walz is on cable all the time," Gilbert said. "Although you might think Gutknecht should cruise, Walz could be the right kind of candidate for these times, with the right message."
Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184 • vonste@startribune.com
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