About 8,000 Barack Obama supporters from around Virginia and the D.C. region endured brutal traffic and sweltering heat Thursday to cheer the newly anointed Democratic nominee at a rally in Prince William County.
Obama delivered his well-worn message of unity and change to deafening outdoor crowds at Bristow’s Nissan Pavilion.
Eugene Williams, 66, a high school teacher from Upper Marlboro, arrived wearing an Obama hat and carting a binder filled with Obama-themed vocabulary games he made for his students.
“I almost tell my students, ‘If you like him, keep his commandments,’ but I can’t go that far,” Williams said, laughing. “So I say, ‘If you like him, do what he did as a young person — learn and read be determined.’”
At the rally, the candidate seemed determined to unify the party after a destructive primary season, and cast distinctions between himself and the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.
Although the crowd booed and jeered when Gov. Tim Kaine, who helped introduce Obama, called for applause for Sen. Hillary Clinton, they were more forgiving by the time the Illinois senatortook the stage.
“Whatever differences exist between myself and Hillary Clinton, they pale in comparison to me and the other side,” he said to loud cheers, after commending her determination.
Leslie Byers, 52, coordinator of Georgetown University’s women and gender studies program, was happy to hear the message.
“There’s Clinton fatigue big time,” she said. “Obama is such a hopeful guy, and he has no baggage. And I think he’ll win in Northern Virginia.”
While the crowd was rocking inside the Nissan Pavilion, the county’s Republican leadership sat in wait, hoping his tide of enthusiasm will wane before November’s general election.
“Right now there are a whole lot of people drunk with the charisma of Obama,” said Corey A. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. “But when the party is over and the hangover comes, people are going to be more critical and ask more questions,” he said, adding a “soft” stance on illegal immigration would hurt Obama in Virginia.
Whether the party ends before November, Stewart said, is “the question that remains to be answered.”
But at the rally, at least, the party was still going strong.
