Meeting Barack Obama

Tonight I finally got to hear the man that daddy has been cheering about for the last 6 months. Barack Obama came back to Iowa City, this time to the Coraville Conference Center, and spoke for about an hour about foreign policy. There I was, cuddled into daddy's arms in the back of the room, hypnotized by the bright lights and thousands of people. I sat and listened, occasionally slurping on my bottle of mommy's milk. Daddy was very impressed with how calm I was. He shouldn't have been surprised- I kept hearing from Daddy and Ada and Gran how great Obama is, but I wanted to listen intently and see if there is any substance to the hype and the charisma. Mommy taught me well to be skeptical and to keep a lookout for the wolf in sheep's clothing. But he seemed sincere to me. And everyone in the room loved him.

The day started out not so good. I awoke early in the AM with a fever, so daddy cancelled his work meetings and stayed home with me. We played, went for a drive, sucked down breast milk and tylenol, and made the best of it. The coolest thing was definitely playing in the bedroom and listening to the rain. Around mid-afternoon, daddy set up my blanket and aquarium toy (an electronic fake fish tank that plays classical music and has pretty lights) on the bed and Skye joined us in her usual corner perch, so she could continue her guard duties. Ihad been feeling miserable all day, but the music and lights from the toy made me laugh. And it was so cozy to watch the rain and nuzzle up against Skye. Mommy came home after a long day of surgery and was too tired to go back out.

The rain got steadily worse, until just after we arrived at the Obama rally they issued a tornado warning! It turns out that the ballroom was a safe tornado shelter, so we were OK. Obama said, "Most of you people just ducked in here to take shelter from the tornado, but found out there were some speeches going on!". Before Obama started, we walked around the ballroom and met our state representative, Dick Myers. He was a funny and personable old man, but he called me "husky"! I guess I can't get away from the fact that I have the body the size of a baby twice my age. I am a true "corn fed" Iowan!

Obama's warm-up act was speech writer Ted Sorenson*, who famously wrote for John F Kennedy. Mr Sorenson said that many qualities about Obama remind him of JFK and many of the circumstances of the election mirror 1959. Mr Sorenson believes that JFK's good judgement got us through the Cuban Missle Crisis safely, by being willing to ignore his general's recommendation for millitary action and by being willing to negotiate with your enemy: "We should never negotiate out of fear, but we should never be afraid to negotiate." Obama created quite a stir when he said he would talk to America's enemies such as Kim Jong Il and Jugo Chavez. But to his credit, he never backed down from that stance, and is serious about being willing to use diplomacy. Obama touts his early opposition to the war as evidence of his good judgment. I can see why daddy likes this guy!

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Sorenson