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On a crisp fall day in 1988, my father picked me up after school and brought me with him to a very important event. We were going to listen to a speech given by George H.W. Bush at the Stevens Point train depot. The soon-to-be forty-first president of the United States was making a campaign stop in our town of 23,000 people, and the traffic was backed up for miles.
I don't remember where my father parked the car, or what I wore that day, but I can still feel the cold air as it stung my cheeks. The excitement was intense. Thousands of people gathered in the large square outside the depot, waiting for the train to arrive. I was only nine years old and rather short, so my father hoisted me onto his shoulders to witness the moment the future president stepped off the train car.
Once the speech began I became distracted by other things. I was still too young to understand the issues this presidential candidate was speaking about. When it was all over my father said to me, "You're a very lucky girl. I don't know many third-graders who got to hear the next president speak."
In a mock election at school a few weeks later, I voted for Michael Dukakis because I thought it was fun to say his last name. My father lectured me when I told him. He said, "Dana, you have to research the issues. If everyone else made choices based on the sound of one's name, Elvis Presley could have served four terms."
The following January, George Herbert Walker Bush was inaugurated and I was amazed that my father correctly predicted who our next president would be. Even more magical was the fact that I got to witness a bit of history. I still hold fond memories of that autumn day. Perhaps it was that I cherish the time I spent with my dad, and also because he felt it was important to share his passion for politics with me. Twenty years later, that passion is alive within me.
Wisconsin's primary is this Tuesday, February 19th, and the campaign spotlight is shining brightly on my state.
From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel online:
When you're the 38th state to vote, your presidential primary is not supposed to matter. But the same frantic calendar that threatened to marginalize Wisconsin's Feb. 19 contest now may inflate it beyond anything the state has seen in decades.
"Many people believed months and months ago that this race would be over on February 5," said Robert Gibbs, spokesman for Democrat Barack Obama. "But it looks much more like a continued slog for delegates, which puts Wisconsin in a unique situation."
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are preparing for battle in the Cheese State this week.
Chelsea Clinton has visited Milwaukee:
Chelsea Clinton urged students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to vote in next week's Wisconsin presidential primary, hopefully for her mother. Her mother, Senator Hillary Clinton, is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. More than 150 people attended Chelsea's appearance on Monday, from avid Clinton supporters to curious undecided students to a fourth-grade class from nearby Hartford University School.
Michelle Obama visited the campus of St. Norbert college in De Pere (near Green Bay):
Obama told the Walter Theater audience of more than 700 that her husband, Sen. Barack Obama, had already shattered expectations in this campaign “(winning) in places no one thought he could win.” Obama, who talked for just under an hour, didn’t touch on specifics of what her husband's presidency would do. Instead — to great applause from the audience — she promised it would be a different brand of leadership. "Imagine a president who understands cultures different than his own … who understands global poverty,” Obama said. “We have not seen a president in my lifetime with that kind of sensibility.”
Barack Obama will be speaking tomorrow in Oshkosh. From UW-Oshkosh Today:
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is scheduled to speak at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Kolf Sports Center Feb. 15. Doors open at noon. The visit is funded by Obama for America and is sponsored by UW Oshkosh’s College Democrats. The event is open to the general public, as well as the campus community.
On top of campaign stops,
