Obama supporters: "It's getting hot in heeeere..." All photos | Joe Eskenazi
Blood, sweat and tears – but mostly sweat – as 71 would-be S.F. delegates vie for three spots. Yes, we’ll tell you who won.
By Joe Eskenazi
As hundreds of perspiring Barack Obama supporters braved the amusement park-worthy line and filtered into SEIU headquarters’ own Black Hole of Calcutta, more than one organizer of San Francisco’s Obama delegate caucus was heard to exclaim that “this is what democracy looks like.”
Unfortunately, this is also what democracy smelled like. Sunday’s confluence of Arizona-type weather, the stress of a contested election and scads of tightly packed bodies led the caucus floor to be permeated by the pungent mixture of sweat and Old Spice. The temperature in the cramped room was such that one would have expected to see elderly gentlemen in seersucker suits lazily fanning themselves while enjoying sweet tea. In short, it wasn’t just hot, it was Atticus Finch hot.
Who would have thought a caucus to select the Congressional District No. 8 representatives to August’s Democratic National Convention in Denver would become the city’s hot ticket (in every conceivable way)?
A full 90 minutes before doors opened at the Service Employees International Union’s Potrero Hill headquarters, the first voters began lining up, like Star Wars geeks camped out for Phantom Menace tickets. In most years, the role of a delegate requires little more than wearing a boater hat and waving a placard. Not so in 2008. Fear of closet Clintonites led the Obama campaign to scratch a draconian 900 would-be delegates off the California rolls. That decision was reversed on Thursday, April 10, which led to massive delegate races and unprecedented numbers of voters (roughly eight times as many ballots were prepared in San Francisco this year than in 2004).
The notion that the national convention might feature turncoat maneuvers worthy of a professional wrestling match -- “Oh my God! Is that Hillary Clinton’s music?” -- brought out the voters.
The comment in question, which Obama gave here in town on Sunday April 6, related to the frustration of working-class voters with economic conditions:
"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Obama has apologized if his comment was poorly phrased or caused offense, as reported in Saturday's Chronicle, but also stood by his remarks (after clarifying them):
"So I said, well you know, when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people, they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country."After acknowledging his previous remarks in California could have been better phrased, he added: "The truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. That's what sustains us. But what is absolutely true is that people don't feel like they are being listened to."
The Chron quotes former state Democratic Party chairman and current Clinton adviser Tom Hendrickson saying rural voters don't need "liberal elites" telling them what to believe.
Clinton made the following quote before factory-workers in Indianapolis:
