Barack Obama’s last rally of election eve filled the Prince William county fairground and some. Obama claimed there were 100,000 people there and considering the traffic on the road in that number seems plausible. The key question is how many of those 100,000 were Virginians rather than political tourists from DC and Maryland, Democratic strongholds.
Obama wasn’t on fine form, his delivery was surprisingly lacklustre. But to the crowd it didn’t matter. They were there so they could tell their children they were there. The frantic ‘yes we can’ chants that greeted the beginning of Obama’s speech were gradually replaced with increasingly confident chants. This was a crowd that believes their candidate will win tomorrow.
In a rare nod to history, Obama noted how Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor, had endorsed him on the steps on the capitol in Richmond, the home of the old Confederacy, two years ago. But Obama still, understandably, shies away from talking about the historic nature of his candidacy. I suspect, though, that this reticence will come to an end tomorrow night.
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