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When Governor Deval Patrick sent an email to supporters last week announcing his endorsement of Illinois Senator Barack Obama for president, he got 2,000 messages back offering help.
"That's what he needs," Patrick said in an interview earlier today. "That's what we want to help him bring to New Hampshire. That's what we want to try to inspire in Iowa and elsewhere by example."
That inspiration began tonight as Patrick hosted a massive rally for Obama in Boston Common. The event was the culmination of a long courtship of Patrick's endorsement by both Obama, a close friend and kindred political spirit, and New York Senator Hillary Clinton, whom Patrick knew even before he worked for her husband's administration.
At the rally, which Obama's campaign said drew 9,500 people, Patrick offered a forceful argument for Obama, casting the presidential election as one of historic proportions in which merely a change in party would be insufficient.
"We need a leader who is ready to call in our times for our service, and our sacrifice," Patrick said. "You see, this election is not just about who we want. It's about who we are. I want a president who understands that. I want Barack Obama."
The rally was the latest in a series of huge campaign events Obama has hosted around the country, and it was something of a role reversal for the two men: In the heat of last year's governor's race, Obama headlined several large events for Patrick in Boston.
"I am grateful to Deval, because not only has he stood by me through thick and through thin, but also because he is somebody who has consistently stood for the kinds of politics that I believe in and you believe in and America believes in -- the kind of politics that begins with the grass-roots," Obama said.
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