Flashback to OBAMA in OREGON: YES WE CAN!!!

Flashback to May 17, 2008, Barack Obama held his biggest rally to date in in Oregon. The Democratic front runner attracted a crowd of 75,000 according to Duane Bray, battalion chief with Portland Fire and Rescue.

Obama held the rally on a grassy mall along side of the Willamette River as hordes of Oregonians packed onto the lawn and even pulled their boats up near the stage to listen to the speech from the river.

Accompanied by his wife, Michelle and their two small daughters, Malia, 9 and Sasha, 7, Obama gave his standard stump speech calling for change in Washington. He accused likely Republican nominee of running for “George Bush’s third term,” sparking applause from the audience.

Portland is known as being a white liberal beacon some pollsters say is tailor-made for Obama. The Illinois senator has built a strong coalition of affluent, educated voters who have flocked toward his message of changing the Washington status quo.

Obama has said he plans to have a majority of 1,627 pledged delegates after Oregon votes on Tuesday. “We think we will have a majority of pledged delegates at that point and that’s a pretty significant mark,” Obama told reporters on Sunday.

When asked if that means he will declare victory on Tuesday, Obama said “it doesn’t mean we declare victory because I won’t be the nominee until we have enough, a combination of both pledged delegates and super delegates to hit the mark.”

He added: “But what it does mean is that voters have given us the majority of delegates that they can assign. And that is obviously what this primary and caucus process is about.”

Before the rally Obama and his family stopped in at the Lew’s Dari-Freeze ice cream parlor in Milwaukie, Oregon. Obama ate a chocolate ice cream sundae and onion rings as a hoard of cameras and reporters swarmed the table (source).

*Thanks Honda* ;-)