Obama Rocks Roanoke

Yesterday, Barack Obama made his fourth stop in western Virginia drawing over 8,000 people to the Roanoke Civic Center for a midday rally. A wildly cheering crowd, many with homemade signs like Hokies 4 Obama, and Roanoke Loves Obama filled the center with noise and enthusiasm. Apparently many students, teachers, officer workers, and others took a skip day to be part of making history.

Senator Jim Webb asked the crowd when was the last time the Republican nominee had been to southwest Virginia. McCain hasn't been to the region since 2007 when he visited VMI. Representative Rick Boucher told the crowd that the past week has seen "tremendous movement on the part of southwestern Virginians" toward the Obama/Biden ticket.

The video clip is from the part of Obama's speech where he talks about the need for change. Clips of his discussion on health care, the economy, and more can be found here.

Obama later stopped by a downtown hair salon and greeted the proprietor and customers. 

Meanwhile, across town at Young's Towing, a half dozen Republicans held a counter rally. Not sure why this was even newsworthy, but I'm glad The Roanoke Times ran the story which is full symbolism and irony. Delegate Morgan Griffith and a couple others spoke the garage's battery load tester which served as a podium. Actually, it was a disguised defibrillator for a campaign on life support. The tow truck left immediately afterwards, looking for McCain's car which is stuck in the mud they are spewing.

Of course, Republicans can never resist that mudslinging which only serves to get them deeper in the ditch - Delegate Ralph Smith of Botetourt County accused Barack Obama of being a Chicago gangster when he dropped the name of Al Capone, as if the criminal who died in 1947, was a close Obama advisor.