75,000 Attend Obama Rally In Portland

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<p>Some 75,000 people flocked to Portland’s waterfront Sunday to watch Barack Obama speak, making it the biggest rally the campaign has held to date. Thousands stood on the lawn, dozens watched from boats and from the bridge stretching across the Willamette River. A few kayakers held their paddles and tried to keep their kayaks straight as they watched the candidate, who stood on a makeshift platform. </p>

<p>Obama hailed Clinton as a “formidable candidate," saying she “has been smart and tough and determined and she has worked as hard as she can and she has run an extraordinary campaign.”</p>

<p>He added a few lines to an otherwise typical stump speech, attacking presumptive GOP nominee John McCain for his ties to lobbyists, an issue the campaign is pushing and one the candidate spoke about with reporters earlier in the day. “John McCain now has had to get rid of five of his top advisers because it turns out they’re all lobbying, many of them for foreign governments. That’s because he practices the same kind of politics that we’ve grown accustomed to in Washington,” he said, adding that his campaign did not take money from PACs or federal lobbyists and saying he would have meetings on C-SPAN rather behind closed doors with lobbyists “in their Gucci shoes.”</p>

<p>He also criticized President Bush for comments he made in Israel last week comparing those who would engage in direct diplomacy with governments like Iran to those who appeased Hitler. Obama’s campaign has interpreted the comments as a hit against him and today he called such tactics “Karl Rove” politics.</p>

<p>[75,000</a> attend Obama rally in Portland - First Read - msnbc.com](<a href=“http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/18/1036703.aspx]75,000”>http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/18/1036703.aspx)</p>

<p>Picture- <a href=“http://my.barackobama.com/page/-/blog/Portland75K.jpeg[/url]”>http://my.barackobama.com/page/-/blog/Portland75K.jpeg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>A very sad and scary day indeed.</p>

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<p>Not surprised to hear how bit the crowd was in Oregon. I was there the week before last at Obama’s speech in Eugene where about 8,000 showed up.
I hope that Hillary will concede this week so that the Democrats can concentrate on beating McCain in Nov.</p>

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<p>Yes, we do have a strong liberal constituency in Portland. Kerry had one of his biggest rallies of the campaign at the exact same place.</p>

<p>I would have been there myself today had I not had prior obligations.</p>

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<p>I was one of the 75,000!</p>

<p>It was very nice to hear him speak again.</p>

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<p>Eh, he’s still gonna lose in November :)</p>

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<p>It was the first warm weekend of the entire year. People would have come out to see Tiny Tim just to enjoy the sunshine.</p>

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<p>I would not call temps in the 90’s warm. ( it also wasn’t the first weekend it was so warm according to my D- but nice try) :wink:
I would call that hellish and time to sit inside and suck down a couple Frappachinos</p>

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<p>oh you know the old reliable die hards will come out here in this thread (theyre here already)and try to spin this historically sized rally as a bad thing.Can’t wait to see how this thread disintegrates into bashing of the candidate.
I like the sound bite they showed on CNN with the crowd scene and Obama just saying “Wow” and the “Wow” again.
S saw him in SC appearance with Oprah (at his school, the real USC,the venue was moved from an indoor arena to the football stadium to accomodate crowds) and thought that was a big turnout!</p>