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This story has been updated: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 9:31 a.m.
Final Count for UNM Rally: 40,000
Sunday, October 26, 2008
'I Know We Will Not Let Up,' Obama Tells 45,000-Plus Albuquerque Crowd
By Jeff Jones
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Politics Writer
Barack Obama took to the stage Saturday night before a huge crowd in Albuquerque, urging a sea of banner-waving, chanting backers to help keep the political wind at his back as the presidential race rolls into its final days.
"New Mexico: In 10 days, in just 10 days, you have the chance to elect the next president. You'll have the chance to bring the change we need to Washington," the front-running Democratic presidential candidate told an estimated 45,000-plus supporters who filled floodlit Johnson Field at the University of New Mexico and spilled across the campus and onto surrounding streets.
"We can't let up," Obama told the fired-up crowd. "And I know — seeing this crowd tonight — we will not let up."
Obama, wearing a suit and tie after campaigning earlier Saturday in Nevada, took several pokes at Sen. John McCain of Arizona, faulting his Republican rival and supporters for a torrent of negative campaigning. He was apparently referring to Republican efforts, through automated phone calls and mailers, to paint him as a close pal with former '60s radical Bill Ayers.
There have been "ugly phone calls. Nasty mail and TV ads. The careless comments," Obama said.
When boos rolled through the crowd, he said, "You don't have to boo. You just have to vote."
The nighttime rally capped a hectic day of presidential politicking in New Mexico that included two appearances by McCain and a southern New Mexico stop from Obama backer Hillary Clinton.
University of New Mexico Fire Marshal Vincent Leonard estimated the crowd size at about 35,000 people inside the perimeter of the field, with an additional 10,000 to 15,000 outside the gates.
The line to get onto Johnson Field stretched around the edge of the campus, along Central and up University to Lomas. It took a Journal reporter nearly half an hour to walk the length of the line, but people waiting seemed unruffled.
"We love Obama," said Rebecca Ennis, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and was in Albuquerque to visit her mother, who was with her at the end of the line. "We want to feel some of the energy."
Obama focused much of his half-hour speech on the free-falling U.S. economy and said his economic plans are the better path to recovery.
"At this race, the question isn't just, 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' " Obama said. "It's, 'Are you better off than you were four weeks ago?' "
Obama fired back at McCain's assertions that Obama's tax policies smack of socialism.
"He wants to give tax cuts to Fortune 500 CEOs. I want to put a middle-class tax cut in your pocket," Obama said.
"John McCain hasn't been a maverick. He's been a sidekick when it comes to George Bush's economic policies," Obama charged. "When it comes to the policies that matter to middle-class families, there's not an inch of daylight between George Bush and John McCain."
Obama closed with: "This is our moment to seize our destiny... you and I together, we're going to change the country — and change the world."
Top New Mexico Democrats were on the scene Saturday night: Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Gov. Bill Richardson, Rep. Tom Udall and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish were among those taking turns at the microphone before Obama showed up. Comedian George Lopez warmed up the crowd.
Richardson poked at McCain, noting that Obama's rally attracted a much larger crowd than McCain's event at a much smaller venue at the state fairgrounds in Albuquerque earlier in the day.
"I would say we have probably 300,000 people," Richardson joked about the Obama crowd. "There will be official estimates, but that's my official estimate."
Some of the crowd members said they believe Obama is closing in on victory a week from Tuesday. When asked if she believed she was watching history, Cecile Labore of Santa Fe said: "Damn straight."
"When I was born, people were denied the right to vote based on the color of their skin," Labore said. "This is the moment between the past and the future."
Journal staff writers Colleen Heild and Haley Heinz contributed to this report.