Obama in Bend, Or.

My nephew and niece attended a rally last night in Redmond which is very
near Bend and which had Obama as the candidate speaker.
This was with very little notice (one day in the paper) and the same for
publicity.
Even so about two thousand people showed up to hear him speak. The tickets
where free but had to be obtained for admission to the hall. So their was
two occasions for a long line and waiting. And it's cold in central Oregon.

Apparently his 'stump' speech was very intelligent and seemed to cover the
issues that where on peoples minds.
He is now clearly stating the relationship between the middle east 2-3
trillion dollar wars and the collapse of the economy here at home. He is
drawing the parallels to our diverted manufacturing base and the loss of
good paying jobs, health care and the crunch in education funding and
student loans.

After the statement speech which was very well received he opened the
program to questions from... anyone who raised a hand and his answers where
well received and their seemed to be none of the usual planted and
preplanned questions. He just talked to people as though they also might
have a functioning mind.

Their where no negative remarks directed toward Clinton and he acknowledge
she is a very strong competitor... bar none.

His remarks concerning McCain where centered around his statements and his
senate voting record. He stated McCain is fundamentally planning on
continuing Bush's strategy in the middle east and that he is proposing tax
cuts here at home to stimulate the economy.

They both came away very impressed by Obama's intelligence and seasoned
reasoning which he especially demonstrated in the questioning part of the
program where he especially demonstrated his grasp of complex and painful
issues.