Obama visits the Star

Posted by Matthew on April 26, 2008 at 10:38 am

Yesterday candidate Barack Obama visited the building where I work in downtown Indianapolis, at The Indianapolis Star. He was there to meet with our editorial board. I didn’t get to see him unfortunately, since he came in through a back entrance and was quickly whisked away to the board room, and an internal memo asked us all not to crowd the hallways so he could quickly get in an out. But it was cool that he was there, and there was a live video stream of the meeting. I left work while he was still inside, and got to see his entourage and security force. They were everywhere…and yes, some of those secret service agents look absolutely scary. When the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, I looked up and saw a giant in a dark gray suit and an earpiece staring down at me through dark slitted eyes. I almost didn’t get out of the elevator.

Obama was visiting because for the first time in my memory, Indiana matters in this election. The primary is so close that both Democratic candidates need our electoral votes to seal a victory. Polls show Obama up slightly here, although Clinton is practically within the margin of error. Every poll ever conducted on the subject, though, shows that Obama provides much more competition for John McCain than Clinton would, so from a purely numbers standpoint I have to wonder why Democrats wouldn’t just choose the candidate that has the best chance against the other party. I guess we’ll find out soon enough — there’s not many primaries left.

Tags: Personal, Politics

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