| Governor Doyle endorses Barack Obama for President Listening to young voices |
By Jonathan Gramling Ever since he began appearing for other political campaigns after his political “coming out party” at the 2004 Democratic convention, U.S. Senator Barack Obama has been generating an excitement with the crowds that he has spoken before on the national stage. He has had an especially close relationship with Wisconsin, his “next-door neighbor,” having appeared in Wisconsin four times since 2004. One of those times was on behalf of Governor James Doyle back in October 2006 during the heat of Doyle’s reelection campaign. Obama has been surging ever since. Since he entered the Democratic presidential nomination fight, Obama has drawn huge crowds wherever he goes and continues to draw new voters under the Democratic tent. According to Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, Obama demonstrated strong appeal in Iowa. “In Iowa, Barack demonstrated appeal throughout the demographic and geographic lines,” Plouffe said during a telephone interview. “We won men and women. We won in union households. We led in all income levels in the state of Iowa … What Barack was able to do on Thursday night was attract support from across the political spectrum and engage people in democracy.” Obama also attracted the support of Governor Doyle, who officially endorsed Obama during a telephone interview. “I am here with my wife Jessica and our two sons Gus and Gabe,” Doyle said. “Gus is 32 and Gabe is 29 years old. They are a lot of the reasons I feel strongly that Barack Obama should be elected president. When I see the kind of excitement that younger people in this state and in this country feel about this candidacy, it just gives me and many, many people a real sense of hope and optimism that with Barack Obama as president, we can move on in this country.” While Doyle cited many qualities that led him to support Obama — including being president of the Harvard Law Review and his community organizing work in the south side of Chicago — it was Obama’s ability to unite people from different backgrounds that was most attractive to Doyle. “Through this campaign — and we certainly saw it in Iowa — he is a person who can build coalitions and he can inspire people,” Doyle said. “He can bring more people into the political process. I believe very strongly that he will be able to govern like he can campaign. I don’t know if there has been a time — certainly in the 40 years since all of the divisions of the Vietnam era — that this country has been more badly in need of a uniter, someone who can get past some of the long time partisan divides and really focus on what people in Wisconsin and across the country really want.” And what helped Doyle decide to come out for Obama so early in the nomination race was Obama’s impact on young people, including his two sons. “My sons helped me understand how a younger person sees the world,” Doyle said. “You could see this in the votes in Iowa. When a younger person looks at Barack, what they really see is that this country is moving into the future. And the future can be a good one. It can be a future that isn’t just the old fights that have been going on that younger people haven’t had any part of. With Barack, you move beyond them. So it’s not like they have been yelling and screaming at me to do it. But I take to heart very much how they see the world and how they look at things. I think anyone under the age of 35 is going to look at the Iowa results.” While Obama went on to lose the New Hampshire primary with many parts of the traditional Democratic base swinging toward Senator Hilary Clinton, Obama continued to draw new voters into the Democratic fold. He won 60 percent of the 18-24 year old vote, 41 percent of the Independents and 47 percent of those voting for the first time. And while Doyle expects the Democratic nomination to be decided before Wisconsin’s primary on February 19, he does feel an Obama candidacy would help the Democrats take battleground states like Wisconsin in the November general election. “Wisconsin truly is a battle ground state,” Doyle said. “This is where the fight has gone on. John Kerry won this state by about 5,000 votes out of three million that were cast. And Al Gore won this state by only 11,000 votes. So this has been a very hotly contested state. I believe Barack Obama is the candidate who is going to be able to draw not only Democrats, but also Independents and Republicans to his side. In a state like Wisconsin which has been one of the 4-5 most hotly contested states, I think Barack Obama is the candidate that can win it and win it very strongly.” And the election will also tell us whether or not a generational shift has occurred in American national politics, led by young voices like Barack Obamas. |
| Sen. Obama at Gov. Doyle's reelection rally in Milwaukee in October 2006 |