For some reason this hasn't been diaried or front-paged yet, but twenty-two thousand people rallied for Obama for America this afternoon.
Obama-mania is still sweeping the nation.
Let's place this in some context. On June 10, 2003, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean was received at a rally by a crowd of 3,200. Dean for America blogger Matt Gross described the crowd as follows:
This was a truly amazing night. 10:30 pm, end of a very long day here in Burlington... Nicco and I had just spooled up Trippi's email about the Declaration parties on June 23rd... and all of a sudden Burlington HQ just starts to hum with excitement as word filters in about what is happening in Austin. 3,200 people showed up for a rally for Howard Dean in Austin, Texas tonight! It's hard to put perspective on just how massive an event that is, and how such a turnout is simply unheard of.
The rally was a stand-alone for Howard Dean-- the people were there to see him. The event was organized locally by volunteers.
Has this ever happened, six months before the first vote is cast in a primary? 18 months before the general election, 3,200 people rally for an opposing candidate in the capital city of a sitting President?
In fact, later that summer, Dean would have his largest crowd -- 15,000 in Seattle.
Obama has beaten that benchmark -- twice.
It's about time that we stop calling the public's response to Obama a "phenomenon" and we start calling it a nascent movement. Dean's movement might properly be called a activism movement; Obama's, at this early stage, can be described as a hope movement.
I find myself amazed at the scale of the purpose and faith being invested in Obama and his campaign.
There's a scene in the Matrix, where a minor villain, Cypher, is chewing the fat with the hero Neo. After sharing some futuristic moonshine, Cypher turns to Neo and says with a skeptical awe:
So you're here to save the world. What do you say to something like that?
I'd like nothing more than to ask the same of Barack Obama right now. For a guy who three years ago this month was in third place in a US Senate primary, it's quite stunning.
Click here to watch a local news report about the rally.