And now, the Barack Obama experience
October 22nd, 2007, 5:01 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Paul Giblin
Barack Obama
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama concluded his 50-minute speech at Arizona State University on Friday with a antidote from the campaign trail. The antidote, and in particular his delivery, summed up the Obama experience. Emotional, but not exactly the stuff that public policy is built upon.
The quick version of the set-up is that Obama was in the small town of Greenwood, S.C., on short sleep, after a 1½-hour drive, on a rainy day, speaking to a group of about 20 people who didn’t appear too happy to see him.
Obama said, “I’m shaking hands, saying hello to everybody. Suddenly, I hear this voice behind me. ‘Fire it up!’ And I’m startled, but the other 20 people from Greenwood in the room, they all act like this is normal. They all say, ‘Fire it up.’ And then I hear the same voice say, ‘Ready to go!’ And the other 20 people, I hear them all say, ‘Ready to go.’ And I look back and there is this tiny woman standing there. She is about 5-3. She’s about 65 years old. She’s got a church outfit on. She’s got a big hat, glasses, and she’s smiling and she says, ‘Fire it up!’”
Obama said, “It turns out that she is a city councilwoman from Greenwood who is famous for her chants. She has been chanting for years like this. In fact, they call her The Chant Lady. And she’s very proud of this chant, so for the next five minutes, she just keeps on chanting, ‘Fire it up!’ ‘Fire it up.’ ‘Read to go!’ ‘Ready to go.’ And it’s really loud now, so I can’t campaign. I’m just standing there. I don’t know what to do. I’m looking at my staff. They shrug their shoulders. But here’s the thing, here’s the thing ASU, after about a minute or two, I’m beginning to feel kind of fired up. I feel like I’m ready to go.”
By that time, some of the people in the crowd at ASU began to shout “Fire it up!” and “Ready to go!” back to Obama. He kept right on talking, his pace and volume increasing.
He said, “So I start joining in on the chant. I start to join in. And my staff starts to join in and we’re all feeling kind of good all of a sudden. Even after we left Greenwood for the rest of the day, everybody I saw, I’d say, ‘Are you fired up?’ and they’d say, ‘I’m fired up boss!’ ‘You ready to go?’ They’d say, ‘I’m ready to go!’ And it goes to show you how one voice can change the mood of a room. And if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city. And if it can change a city, it can change a state. And if it can change a state, it can change a country. And if it can change a country, it can change the world! And so the question I’ve got for you at ASU is very simple: Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?”
By that point, Obama was shouting. He yelled again, “Are you fired up?”
The crowd cried, “Fired up!”
“Ready to go?”
The crowd yelled back, “Ready to go!”
“Fired up?”
“Fired up!”
“Ready to go?”
“Ready to go!”
“Fired up?”
“Fired up!”
“Ready to go?”
“Ready to go!”
“Let’s go change the world!”
Instantly, Motown music blared and Obama dashed off the stage and into the crowd shaking hands, a blur of motion, cameras and sound.
The Barack Obama experience.
Oh, and did I mention that he didn’t do a press conference?
