Note: out of space considerations, as well as respect for those with slower browsers, photos and a rough transcript of the President's remarks are below the fold.
There I was, waiting in the media line for my computer and camera to be screened by the Secret Service, when a text message comes in from David Dayen, erstwhile colleague of mine at Calitics and currently the proprietor of FireDogLake's Newsdesk:
Adam Nagourney is right in front of you.
And that's when it hit me: a few serious people were here too--scattered among a very enthusiastic crowd of 37,500 who had crowded onto the campus of the University of Southern California near downtown Los Angeles to see the president fire up his base to turn out the vote for Democrats in California.
The president had quite the welcoming committee on hand: Speaker of the California Assembly John Perez, the first openly gay speaker in California history; Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Also on hand, of course, were some of the principal beneficiaries of the president's visit: gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, Attorney General candidate Kamala Harris (who is seeking to become the first African-American and the first woman to hold the office of attorney general), and Senator Barbara Boxer.
As David Atkins described in his liveblog on Calitics, the diversity of California was well on hand in the introductions. The invocation was given by Denise Eger, a lesbian rabbi. The masters of ceremonies were actors Kal Penn and Jamie Foxx. And the afternoon's entertainment was provided by the Latino culture-mash rock group Ozomatli. The faces on the stage--as well as the faces in the crowd--stood in sharp contrast to what you might see at a Sarah Palin rally or perhaps a Tea Party convention, if they could ever get one organized.
But beyond the diversity and unity represented by the crowd and the speakers, the main message of the afternoon was a sharp contrast between what was being offered by the Democrats who are seeking to retain power, as opposed to the Republicans who are seeking to wrest it from them: a contrast not just in political results and ideology, but morality as well. There was an urgency, a simplicity, a clarity to the message of Democratic accomplishments. Speaker Perez said it in the most basic terms possible:
We saved the auto industry. We saved the economy from a complete collapse.
Yes, people are frustrated that not enough progress has been made. When people look around and see that their neighbors are still without a job, or that they themselves are facing foreclosure, or that they have no idea how they'll pay for college for their kids--yes, there will still be some dissatisfaction. But in today's world of short-term memory, Speaker Perez did a very good job of reminding the crowd, and anyone who may have been listening through the filter of the media, about exactly how high the stakes were, and just how deep the hole was that we were in.
And when President Obama finally took the stage, he continued this same theme--but not before receiving a massively enthusiastic and adulating welcome that would have made anyone think that it was still the fall of 2008. If there is an enthusiasm gap among Democrats, it certainly wasn't evident among the tens of thousands on hand.
The tenor of the president's speeches has changed ever so slightly. This was not a policy talk, or even a "get out the vote" talk; it was an overt polemic. On occasion, some progressive media commentators--including this one--have complained that President Obama seemed to keep on trying to take a drink from the well of bipartisanship despite so many pieces of evidence that the Republican Party had absolutely no interest in cooperation. The tone of this speech seemed to indicate that those hopes are a thing of the past.
It wasn't just what he said; there was also a flash of indignation and even a little bit of anger in the president's voice as he discussed the utter lack on the part of the Republicans of anything resembling a willingness to compromise, or even a desire to focus on the good of the country as opposed to their own political ambitions.
Their whole campaign strategy is based on amnesia. And so you need to remember that this election is a choice between the policies that got us into this mess and the policies that got us out. A choice between hope and fear. Moving forwards or going backwards. And Trojans, I want to move forward.
...
It's the same agenda that turned a record surplus into a record deficit. Same agenda that nearly destroyed our economy. I don’t bring it up to reargue the past, I bring it up because I don’t want to relive it. It’s not as if we haven’t tried what they’re selling. We tried it, we didn’t like it, and we’re not going back to it.
All in all, the president was in fine form, and he hasn't lost his mojo. He can still draw a hugely enthusiastic crowd. And even more importantly, Friday's event seemed to give an indication that he's done playing nice.
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