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Obama sets his sights on Texas
29/02/2008 11:10 - (SA)
Fort Worth - Democrat presidential frontrunner Barack Obama is seeking to conquer Texas, the conservative home ground of President George W. Bush, hoping to permanently derail rival Hillary Clinton's run for the White House.
Democratic voters, an endangered species in Texas, are on the move for the Illinois senator, who wherever he goes draws huge crowds of enthusiastic followers, often times political neophytes.
Recent polls put Obama ahead of Clinton in Tuesday's Texas primaries, which if they hold true would deliver a near mortal blow to the former first lady's presidential ambitions, many experts concur.
'Energised and ready'
Ahead of an Obama rally in Fort Worth late on Thursday and a Clinton rally next Saturday in the same city, Texas Democrats are energised and ready.
"It's the most attention we've had since Lyndon was running," said former state lawmaker Bob Barton, referring to former president Lyndon Johnson who succeeded president John Kennedy after his 1963 assassination in Dallas, and in 1969.
Unlike Johnson, a native Texan, Obama, an African-American, was born in Hawaii and was raised partly in Indonesia. His father is from Kenya and his mother from Kansas.
Barton, who publishes the weekly Hays Free Press, south of Austin in Hays, boasts of always voting Democrat since 1956 and of being an Obama follower. He says the enthusiasm he generates reminds him of Robert Kennedy's run for the presidency in 1968.
"Of course, Bobby Kennedy had that, but he got killed before he got to Texas," he said alluding to his assassination in California that same year.
The hall where Obama's rally is held in Fort Worth is a stone's throw from the hotel where President John F. Kennedy spent his last night before he himself was killed on November 22, 1963.
'Ancient history'
But the young Obama crowd doesn't really care about ancient history.
For Brian Henretta, a student, Obama "represents ... the idea that these stuffy old ways of doing things can change".
On Wednesday, around 12 000 mostly young people like Henretta went to hear Obama speak at the University of San Marcos campus, between Austin and San Antonio.
Obama has generated a buzz among young voters with his soaring speeches.
"The fact that we have such an energised electorate is a very good thing," said Carol Wilder, chair of the San Marcos Area Democrats.
"I haven't seen anything like this in years. In fact I don't think I ever have."
Texas Democrats can take part in two separate votes on Tuesday.
First they head to regular voting stations to choose 126 delegates to nominate a candidate at the party's convention in Denver in August. In the evening, caucuses will be held to select a further 67 delegates.
A young man, tired of waiting in line to access the university meeting point, tried to talk his girlfriend out of attending.
"I'm sorry, babe, this is not Star Wars," he said. "I know, it's better than Star Wars," she responded showing no intention of leaving.
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