Obama packs Field House
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Senator encourages students to caucus
By Kathryn Fiegen
Iowa City Press-Citizen
With less than a month to go before the Jan. 3 caucuses, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama worked to rally students Tuesday night, encouraging them to caucus during winter break.
"You know, I've gotten grief for encouraging young people to caucus," he said. "But I thought participating was our civic duty. And we want everybody to be involved."
Thousands of students stood in the north gym of the University of Iowa Field House at 9 p.m. to hear Obama speak, some of them standing on the second-level track looking down.
The Democratic presidential candidate's words often were punctuated by clapping and cheering. In recent weeks, Obama has taken a slight lead in some polls over other party front-runners Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
Kelly Diggins, a 19-year-old freshman in cinema, said after the event, she thought younger voters would turn out to caucus in 2008, despite predictions that they won't. She said she would go home to Cedar Rapids to caucus for Obama.
"I think (students) are going to come out," she said. "I think this time, they care and know that it's time for a change."
Obama spoke about broad themes Tuesday night, keeping to his theme of "change we can believe in."
He talked about traveling across the country during the past 10 months and having conversations with the American people.
"They understand that next year, they will go to the polling places and select the next president of the United States," Obama said. "And the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot."
Obama kept most of his criticism about the Bush administration, but said that problems in education, health care and the economy existed for decades before the president took office.
"We finally have an opportunity to take these on in a serious way," he said, adding that typical Washington ideologies weren't going to work. "If we are serious about winning this election, we can't live in fear of losing it."
Obama said he wanted to make students a part of "rebuilding the American dream" by making college more affordable. He said there should be more grant money available, increased service opportunities to earn tuition after college and fewer third-party loan companies.
"You shouldn't have $50,000 in debt when you graduate from college," Obama said.
Second-year law student Brij Patnaik, 24, said he liked the energy of the rally. He said this was the second time he has heard Obama speak.
"It's always fun to see the reaction of the crowd," he said.
Patnaik said not only was he going to caucus in Iowa City, but he was going to open up his apartment for students who wanted to caucus but didn't have a place to stay.
He said he was hopeful students would take the opportunity to caucus, but he wasn't positive about what would happen Jan. 3.
"Who can say what students are going to do?" Patnaik said.
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071205/NEWS01/712050348/1079/RSS01
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