In the throngs of followers, Obama has power to unite
By KEN BLACK, TIMES-REPUBLICANIs Barack Obama more popular than Disney World? Maybe not, but the lines to see him are a great deal longer than anything you'll find at the theme park.
Dr. Abie Chadderdon, a Marshalltown optometrist, just finished a week at the Democratic National Convention. While there, he attended events with the likes of Spike Lee and Susan Sarandon. But the highlight of the week was the last night of the convention, when things to moved to Invesco Field.
"It was really pretty amazing to see," Chadderdon said. "There were over 80,000 people there and it was packed out everywhere."
Though Chadderdon may not have wanted to know what happens when 80,000 people wait in the heat with no water or toilet facilities to get into a stadium, he certainly found out.
"There were no Port-A-Potties or water," he said. "People were struggling to get in there."
But what they saw when they got in there was one of the greatest political spectacles ever to be brought together.
"Watching on television, you don't know how orchestrated everything is," he said. "How the signs and flags are handed out and how they tell you when you are supposed to use them."
Chadderdon said he was able to learn a lot about politics and how things really work at these big conventions and he was even able to connect with one of his patients.
In the mass of people, and quite by coincidence, he ran into a former Marshalltown resident who now works for the Secret Service, Walter Mulder.
He had talked to Mulder when he was visiting Marshalltown recently, saying that he would be at the conventions. Mulder said he was going to volunteer to go there for security reasons.
It was a stroke of luck, but on the last night, at Invesco Field, he happened to be in Mulder's security line.
I look up and there is Walter Mulder. We just kind of laughed and shook hands," Chadderdon said. "He was telling all his friends, 'This is my eye doctor from Marshalltown.'"
See? The Democrats are already reuniting some of us.
-Ken Black
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borderpatrol
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08-30-08 6:48 PM
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LET US NOT FORGET 9/11...AFTER WW2 WOULD OUR FOR FATHERS HAVE VOTED FOR SOMEONE WITH A NAZI PAST AND A NAME SIMILAR TO HITLER....NO WAY!!! WHAT BETTER WAY TO DESTROY YOUR ENEMY, THAN TO LEAD THEM INTO DESTRUCTION. THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE!! DONT BE FOOLED BY THE MEDIA
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UNCOMMONSENSE
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08-30-08 12:29 PM
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Only the Libertarians have the power to UNITE. Both Democrats AND republicans have begun to join in large numbers! Bob Barr 2008 The REAL straight talk express!
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