Race to Washington

Back to Kissimmee

There’s a touch of Groundhog Day in the air tonight. I’m back at the Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, site of the Silver Spurs arena where I saw Sarah Palin last Sunday.

Tonight, the Barack Show has come to town. And Bill Clinton is tagging along. They have had to move out of the arena and into the surrounding park to accommodate the expected crowds.

As we pull off Route 192 into the park, I spy a sign beside Watson Realty. ‘Stop in for a Free List of Foreclosures’.

For my money, that single sign explains the strength of Barack Obama’s campaign as much as anything I will witness tonight.

A movement not a campaign

It is easy to take things for granted as a reporter but there are moments like these, on a chilly, dark Florida night when you are reminded that you are witnessing a moment in history, whatever the outcome next Tuesday.

Here in Kissimmee, I am sitting in the midst of a remarkable outpouring of humanity. The queues outside the security perimeter go on for miles.

Inside, the young and old, black and white, male and female, are running towards the intimate central cordon where Obama and Clinton will speak in a few hours. The wide expanse of green field beyond that cordon will soon fill with tens of thousands of Americans, no longer supporters of a campaign but members of a movement.

Out there across America, there is doubt and fear and distrust of Obama among those who stand to lose from change. But here there is nothing but certainty and celebration. A profound sense of ownership of the future.

Within spitting distance of Disney World, they are living out a dream, but not yet a reality.

Not another beautiful day

Sometimes you hear a song you love so much you end up hating it. After hearing U2’s Beautiful Day for the sixth time tonight I will probably never willingly listen to it again.

The actor

Jimmy Smits is on stage. He played the dream presidential candidate, Matt Santos, in the West Wing.

Tonight he is warm-up man for a president and a potential president.

‘Disney World: where dreams come true.’ He says, ‘My dreams are going to come true next week’

Disney don’t do presidential elections but if they did …

The arrival

Obama’s not the president, at least not yet, but he has a presidential-scale motorcade. He arrives shortly after 11pm with a detachment of at least 50 outriders.

The introduction from the podium is short and to the point: ‘The 42nd president and the next president.’

Clinton and Obama come to the stage, they grasp hands and hold them aloft.

Clinton’s speech is a well-argued endorsement of Obama’s leadership qualities, but it is not the warmest or most personal speech he has ever made.

When Obama takes over, he returns the compliment, lauding Clinton’s achievements.

Obama has clearly learned from the older man’s ability to express complex and essentially centrist economic arguments in a folksy, populist style.

But the best parts of his speech tonight are his responses to attacks from John McCain.

The McCain Campaign has used the word socialism to describe Obama’s attitude to wealth.

‘They found evidence that I shared my toys when I was in school,’ Obama jokes, ‘That I split my peanut butter sandwich and gave half to a friend.’

Clinton rocks with wild laughter beside him.

Obama cites the bible to justify his economic outlook, a smart move in any American political speech.

‘The bible tells me that I am my brother’s keeper.’

I am struck by the difference between this populist Obama of the common man and the professorial, earnest almost smug candidate I saw back in the snowy wilds of Iowa back in January.

As we reach the midnight hour, Obama wraps up with a warning against over-confidence.

‘I don’t believe for a moment what I see in the polls,’ he says. ‘Power concedes nothing without a fight’.

And then as he walks away from the podium a song blares from the loudspeakers: ‘Signed, sealed and delivered’ by Stevie Wonder.

No one seems bothered by the irony. This is not a night for irony.

For more on the US Election go to RTÉ.ie/uselection

Posted at 10:57AM Oct 30, 2008