Obama's bus stop tour starts in Oakland
Hundreds of college students and supporters were in Oakland this morning to rally behind Sen. Barack Obama before the Democratic presidential candidate's visit at Soldiers & Sailors Military Museum and Memorial.
"This is history in the making," Estrella Brooks, the East Liberty Democrat Committee chairperson, said while waiting for the doors to open. "The American people want a change, and we believe he is the best person for the job. He wants to make a change throughout the entire country."
The rally, which was scheduled to start at 11 a.m., marks Obama's first campaign stop in Pennsylvania since his speech on race in America, which he delivered March 18 in Philadelphia.
"Proof that Obama is a uniter is in the diverse faces of everyone in line," said Robin Lane, 18, a Pitt freshman
The line went from the doors of Soldiers & Sailors to the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue and wrapped around the building.
"He speaks for everybody," Lane said. "That all these people are here for one person is really amazing."
The Clinton family, during Obama's absence here, has been making good on Bill Clinton's March 10 promise to cover the state "like a wet blanket."
Bill Clinton swung through Eastern Pennsylvania yesterday and March 19; Chelsea is campaigning in Philadelphia today; and Hillary Clinton made appearances on March 18, 24 and 25, when she met with Trib reporters and editors.
Obama will travel by bus across the state, starting in Pittsburgh and ending Wednesday in Philadelphia.
He has a lot of catching up -- on the ground and in the polls. Clinton leads Obama by between 10 and 26 percentage points, depending which poll you read. The state's demographics -- older, mostly white and full of blue collars -- favor Clinton.
Brooks said she wasn't worried that Obama is down in the polls.
"Pittsburgh is primarily elderly people. They're the ones going to go out and voting for Hillary," she said. "That might be true in Pittsburgh, but it's different in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is going to make the difference."
Pennsylvania's April 22 primary is the largest of the 10 states that have yet to vote for a Democratic nominee.
Obama leads the national race for the nomination by about 155 delegates, according to The Associated Press, but it's unlikely he can win the remaining states by big enough margins to clinch. Clinton has little chance of catching up, even with her lead in Pennsylvania, but she's promised to stay in the race until the last state votes.
Obama's campaign said they expected a capacity crowd of about 2,400 to fill the Soldiers & Sailors auditorium.
Separately, Obama suggested he would have left his Chicago church had his longtime pastor, whose fiery anti-American comments about U.S. foreign policy and race relations threatened Obama's campaign, not stepped down.
"Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying at the church," Obama said yesterday during a taping of the ABC talk show, "The View."
-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
