Barack Obama Draws Thousands to Columbia, Missouri

That was the message at Thursday night's rally in Columbia, Missouri. According to the Columbia Missourian, between 35,000 and 40,000 people converged on the University of Missouri's Carnahan Quadrangle to see Barack Obama speak about his vision for America, and the importance of the upcoming election.

Crowds began to gather early in the day for the rally in spite of a 7:30 p.m. gate time. Two students, Amanda Newell and Chris Conway, arrived at about noon to get in line. "It shows how important Missouri is," said Conway, who also saw Joseph Biden speak in Columbia in September. Both Newell and Conway are optimistic about an Obama win on November 4^th, though Newell was unsure about Missouri.

Later arrivals gathered in a long queue to chat, sing songs, or play card games. Some attendees ate dinner on the sidewalk, while vendors set up booths to sell $5 and $10 Obama t-shirts, or walked the crowds with boards of campaign buttons.

One group of Obama supporters, calling themselves Rednecks for Obama, handed out bumper stickers and invited rally goers to take photographs with their banner. One of them, Tony Viessman of Rolla, said that Obama himself had approached them enthusiastically an earlier campaign stop, and that early runs of stickers and shirts also went over well at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, which they also attended.

Not everyone in evidence was excited about Obama's message. Denver Moore, another Mizzou student, wore a yellow McCain 2008 shirt, and looked on from nearby with a handful of other anti-Obama protesters. "It's hard to support McCain on campus," he said, and felt it was important to represent his candidate. Protesters held a red banner bearing a hammer and sickle, and decried Obama's polices as socialism.

While most attendees braved lines which stretched well over a quarter mile, other onlookers chose instead to congregate on the top two levels of a nearby parking garage.

Security was tight initially, but relaxed as the more central areas of the Quadrangle were closed off. As the evening wore on, latecomers were allowed to congregate on the Northern edge of the quad with only minimal security, where they could watch the speech on an enormous projection screen.

The crowd was treated to a short performance by local band John Henry and the Engine, before state political luminaries like Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (daughter of the late governor Mel Carnahan, for whom the quadrangle is named) and Missouri Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Jay Nixon took the stage to speak to the crowd about the importance of voting.

Senator Obama took the stage just after 9:20 p.m. to raucous applause, and seemed genuinely delighted to be there. "Five days," he told the crowd. "We are five days away from fundamentally changing the United States of America."

Obama spoke about the present financial crisis, which he described as the worst since the Great Depression. He shared his belief that America was founded on an ethic of hard work and sacrifice, and his intentions to protect the middle class and improve health care. Some of the loudest cheers came when the senator announced his intention to end the war in Iraq, and to stop throwing money at the problem.

"George Bush has dug a deep hole, and he's trying to pass John McCain the shovel," Obama said. He directly addressed other McCain campaign messages, announcing that, "there are no real and fake parts of this country," and that the bigger gamble would be betting the nation's well-being on the shoulders of McCain, whose policies he directly compared with Bush's.

The Columbia stop was one of several this week. Missourians who missed Obama this time will have another opportunity to see him, this time in Springfield, on Saturday.