West Michigan Rising: The Phoenix Rises from the Ashes After The Catastrophe
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It was an amazing night in Grand Rapids. Something special happened, the primary ended and the general election began in front of 12,000 screaming Michiganders.
Most of y'all know I was a huge, I mean huge, John Edwards supporter for the last five years and always will be, so maybe I overestimate his power, but what he gave tonight was a eulogy for Hillary Clinton and he gave an endorsement which signals the end of the Barack v Hillary campaign and the beginning of the Obama v McBush race. And it was a eulogy. There was praise for Senator Clinton, but the subtext was that it was praise for the dearly soon-to-be-departed.
Indeed in speeches that was a mutual love-fest between Edwards and Obama. Edwards praised Obama as the man who will build One America and Barack continually refered to John in his speech and must have said "John is right" about half a dozen times. I think that we may not only have our nominee, we might have seen our ticket tonight:
Obama-Edwards 2008
And did y'all notice that Edwards came on stage to Bruce Springsteen's song "The Rising." That's because I recommended it (it is our WMR's themse song afterall) to Johnny yesterday morning when he called me to let me know about about the coming endorsement -- he's a huge fan of West Michigan Rising and came to GR mostly so that the two of us could hang and have beers with Barack. [we no return to reality]
"And the reason I am here tonight is because the Democratic voters in America have made their choice, and so have I. There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the change, the lasting change, that you have to build from the ground up. There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two. And that man is Barack Obama."
I did indeed get into the press area -- thanks to the Obama campaign for being so open to bloggers -- and have video and some news as well. I got there around 4:30 pm and sometime about 5:30 the rumors started that outlets were reporting that Edwards would endorse Obama, then it was Edwards would endorse at 7:00 pm, then ... duh ... Edwards was in the building and was going to endorse Obama right here in Grand Rapids. However, there were a good number of folks in the crowd who were inside before it broke and didn't get the news. For them, it was a complete and utter suprise (honestly, I wish I hadn't surmized it beforehand). FOr me personally, it was a way for me to pass the torch in my home town. What a long strage trip it's been.
Everyone I talked was mighty impressed by Team Obama's ability to put together this event with three days notice and the strategy that went into the rally. Clearly, from the introduction from a Lear Jet factory worker whose job is about to be shipped off to Mexico, to the setting in Michigan, to the endorsement by John Edwards and the speeches by Edwards and Obama, the theme of the evening was our Democratic nominee reaching out not just to the state of Michigan but targeting the demographic which has alluded him -- Midwest and Southern, working-class, white males.
I did get a chance to shake John's hand again at the rope-line after the rally and since he stopped, I even had a chance to toss him a question:
"John, are you going to do more stops with Obama soon?"
Edwards answer:
"Note sure, we don't know just yet."
It would be one hell of a smart idea to send them on a little tour of Kentucky together.
By the way, last night on WOOD-TV reporters made it pretty clear that Edwards made his decision and informed Obama this morning. They did not travel together to Grand Rapids, Obama landed first, probably around 4:30 and then headed to The Van for a private reception. Edwards came in on a private jet around 5:30 and did not get in early enough to attend the reception.
And all this was done in the now-former heart of Michigan's Republican belt.
http://www.michiganliberal.com... was my first trip to Grand Rapids. With so many things named Van Andel, Devos, and Amway, I was a bit creeped out. But then irony of the first African-American Nominee for the Democratic Party being endorsed by a Big Friend of Labor right inside the Van Andel Arena (which was packed with enthusiastic supporters) made it all better. Amway co-founder Jay Van Andel must be spinning in his grave.
I'm guessing this picture was taken at about 5:50 pm. The Van was packed at 6:05 and I heard that at 6:10 the Fire Marshall was turning folks away -- word is there were at least a thousand more that couldn't get in.
I chatted a great deal with Rich from MichiganLiberal, got to meet wizzardkitten of BFM for the first time, talked with Todd from Michigan Messenger, and even had a chance to have a few words in person for the first time with WMR's own Lisa.
Lots of VIPs there: Fred Johnson (did an interview with him that I'll have a little from tomorrow; also talked a long while with Bill Kim, his campaign manager), Mike Sak, Brandon Dillon, Carol Hennessy, Roy Schmidt, Bruce Hawley, Armand Robinson (3rd district delegate to the national convention), Jim Vaughn, etc.
FYI: Howard Dean was just on The Tonight Show and told Jay Leno that the Michigan delegation would be seated "in some way" that would be fair to the voters of Michigan, the candidates that played by the rules, and the 48 states that played by the rules. So, I'll expect something like Marcy's plan to seat the pledged delegates that came out of the District Conventions but penalize the PLEO delegates and superdelegates from Michigan (as Dean said "the cause of the problem wasn't the voters of Michigan and Florida, it was in the political leaders in those states").
Here's the homemade MSNBC video I originally put up Wednesday night:
Michigan State House Candidates
59, 61, 63, 78, 79, 80, 87, 88, 72, 73, 74, 77, 89, 90, 100, 101, 104 District 60 (Kalamazoo) Sean McCann
Chris Praedel District 61 (Kalamazoo) Thomas Batten District 75 (Grand Rapids) District 76 (Grand Rapids) District 80 (VanBuren)
Tom Erdmann District 91 (Muskegon)
Ben Gillette
Branden Gemzer District 92 (Muskegon)
Marcia Hovey-Wright
L. Scott McNeill
Charles Nash Scott Nesbit Sean Mullully
Steve Markel District 101 (Northwest) Dan Scripps
