8:06 PM: Obama campaign fires up crowd
It just wouldn't be a University of Wisconsin event without "the wave" -- or a few chants.
The crowd took care of the wave on its own, but the Obama campaign worked in a few chants to get things going.
After leading a couple, Krishnan Subrahmanian, Obama's Madison regional field director, told the crowd how he was a high school teacher and asked his students to fill our job applications to practice. One student asked him what the point of the exercise was since there weren't any jobs waiting for them after high school.
Subrahmanian said too many young people suffered from that sense of hopelessness. He then recounted how a skinny guy with a funny name stood up in 2004 and said he believed this country had a place for him.
"I thought to myself for a moment and said, 'Wait a minute, I'm a really skinny kid with a really funny name who believes that this country has a place for him," he said.
He then urged students to volunteer for the campaign over the weekend to help turn out the vote and to sign up via text message to sign up for updates on the campaign.
-- By JR Ross
Labels: 2008 spring primary