Diving into politics for the first time since Jesse Jackson’s bid, Pamela Bivens (at left in top photo) and her son hopped on a bus full of students heading for a climactic Super Tuesday-eve arena show starring Barack Obama.
Bivens is a counselor at the Connecticut Mental Health Center in New Haven. On the eve of an historic presidential primary, she cut out of work early for a rare chance to see Democratic Obama headline an electric mass rally. She joined a crew of Yale students on one of several buses rolling up to Hartford from New Haven Monday afternoon.
“I’m so excited!” brimmed Bivens as the Obamo-bile rolled up I‑91.
The last time Bivens got into a campaign was in 1984, when Jesse Jackson was making a White House bid. Jackson’s campaign inspired a new generation of activists in New Haven that year and won the city.
Twenty-four years later, the young Illinois senator has pulled Bivens back into politics.
“He’s got the most integrity I’ve ever seen,” said Bivens of her new candidate. “He can unify the country.” Bivens said she’s been spreading the word to everyone, including buying a tiny Obama tee for her grandbaby.
Her son, Gregory Bivens (at center in the photo with fiancée Karen Nepomucano) donned an Obama hat.
“Wow,” they exclaimed as the bus pulled up to the XL Center (formerly known as the Civic Center). A line wrapped around the entire building and folded across the sidewalk.
Bivens and several New Haven busloads joined the line.
“He’s the only person I’d stand several hours in the freezing cold to see,” said Lindsay Cothrine (at right in picture), a junior at Yale. Cothrine worked on Obama’s campaign in her native Chicago this summer. She recruited a bunch of friends to stand with her.
Her friend Kledia Myrtolli (at center) said she liked how Obama has kept a consistent and positive message throughout the campaign. Preparing to vote in their first presidential race, the pair (and Heather Butler, at left) slipped off Yale hoodies to reveal their Obaman pride.
Inside, about 17,000 fans, leaving barely any empty seats, roared with rock-concert like fervor when Obama took the stage.
In a 48-minute speech, Obama outlined a few proposals, promising to create a new health care plan by the end of his first term. He said he’d roll back No Child Left Behind and Bush tax cuts and raise the minimum wage every year to keep up with inflation.
The speech hit a personal moment when someone close to the stage fainted. Obama called for EMTs and tossed his water bottle to the ailing fan.
To his usual “audacity of hope“ theme, Obama added a special to focus to two areas: The economy — “people are scared and they are anxious” about the foreclosure crisis and ailing stock market — and John McCain, who’s expected to sew up the GOP endorsement Tuesday.
Click on the play arrow to watch and hear Christine Stuart’s slide show of the speech. (Click here for her account of the evening.)
“We have a real choice to make,” Obama told the crowd. “It is a choice not between black and white, not between genders and regions or religions, but a choice between the past and the future. And if I’m running against John McCain, I want to be making the argument for the future, not for the past. I want to be going forwards, not backwards.”
Obama said he’d create a starker contrast with McCain than Hillary Clinton would on matters of foreign policy. “John McCain won’t be able to say, ‘Well you supported the war just like I did,’” Obama said. He added he hasn’t given President Bush “any benefit of the doubt” on Iran.
The message seemed to resonate up in the bleachers, where the entire stadium did not hesitate to give standing ovations. Three local U.S. congressmen basked in the rock concert limelight alongside Obama: John Larson, Rosa DeLauro, and Chris Murphy. Ted Kennedy and his niece Caroline Kennedy also gave introductory remarks.
“Obama was just soaring; he was transcendent,” gushed Larson on his way out of the arena. He welcomed the new attention as Connecticut becomes a national battleground: “I’m so proud that he was able to come here.”
Back in the bus, Gregory Bivens said he was struck by the diversity of the people who showed up for the show. “The fact that he wants to change the politics of the White House” won him over.
“I’m totally blown away,” said Pamela Bivens. She said she was sold on his health care pledge, decreasing dependency on oil, and on not being beholden to special interests.
“I won’t be able to sleep tonight,” Pamela Bivens said, charged with a fresh injection of hope. Before her lay a day’s labor — working at the polls on what promises to be a high-turnout, high-suspense Super Tuesday.
Westville’s Jack Paulishen sent in these photos of the rally:
