Obama: Darling of Facebook
Late on the day that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee, Farouk Olu Aregbe logged on to Facebook.com, the popular online community where college students post profiles, share photos and blog. On a whim he created a group called "One Million Strong for Barack." "I remember thinking, there's got to be more supporters out there," said Farouk, 26, who advises student government at the University at Missouri at Columbia. Farouk's group had 100 members in the first hour. In less than five days, 10,000. By the third week, nearly 200,000. This week, a month after he created the group, it had 278,100 members. There are more than 500 Obama groups on Facebook. One of the first, "Students for Barack Obama," was created July 7 by Meredith Segal, a junior at Bowdoin College who first heard of Obama when he gave the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.
How Obama went from 'uh, uh' to a polishedspeaker
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama stepped to the podium and began to speak, his voice more professorial than preacher. During the next 17 minutes, hardly a sentence goes by without at least one "uh" dribbling out as Obama collects his thoughts and plows ahead. The crowd does not interrupt with applause even once, giving it up only after he's done, and even then it's a bit tepid. Seems difficult to believe, but that exact scenario played out as then-state Sen. Obama delivered the commencement address to Chicago-Kent College of Law's graduating class in May 2003. Scarcely more than a year later, Obama would give a star-making speech at the Democratic National Convention, the electric Boston crowd of partisans delirious at their discovery. .
Obama staging rally in Austin on Friday
AUSTIN -- Obama-rama sweeps Austin today as Democrat Barack Obama brings his 13-day-old presidential campaign to the Texas capital for a rare political do next to Town Lake. The gates at Auditorium Shores will open at 12:30 p.m. for the 3 p.m. speech by the U.S. senator from Illinois, following a private fundraiser. The gates near Riverside Drive and South First Street might part earlier if a crowd builds. The capacity is 20,000. Texans for Obama has fielded at least 16,000 online requests for tickets to the rally. A ticket is not required, spokeswoman Amy Everhart said, but it could ease entry. "To get a good spot close to the stage, they need to get there as early as they can," Everhart said. "Anybody against the stage will get to shake hands with him." Obama, 45, is believed to be the first presidential aspirant to rally voters at Auditorium Shores, typically home to concerts, since President Reagan did in July 1984.
Barack Obama And The war In Iraq
Barack Obama, the junior US senator from Illinois, formally announced his candidacy for US president in a speech in Springfield, Illinois on Saturday. Obama, who has emerged as a leading contender for the Democratic nomination in 2008, has already attracted a coterie of leading Democratic strategists, and insiders say there is little doubt that he can raise the tens of millions of dollars required to mount a "serious" campaign. Because of the overwhelming antiwar sentiment of Democratic voters, Obama has attempted to strike a critical pose toward the war in Iraq—as have the other putative frontrunners, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Like his counterparts, however, he is a tried and true defender of the geo-political interests of corporate America. If elected, he would not hesitate in using military force to secure US domination of the Middle East, Central Asia and the world.
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