Krishna Esteva, a senior at State College Area High School, said he shook hands with Obama.

“It’s almost a religious experience,” he said. “We knew it was going to be big, but I was just looking out on this sea of faces that extended into the distance.”

Article from the Penn State Collegian

Obama spoke at Penn State today, drawing one of his typical huge crowds. Afterwards, he boarded his campaign bus and gave an exclusive interview to the Penn State Collegian.

To outsiders, this tour bus looks as though it is carrying a rock star to his next venue. Instead, a soft-spoken presidential candidate, who has gained a rock star status among college students, is inside.

In a 6-minute one-on-one interview with The Daily Collegian on his bus, Obama discussed the involvement he has seen in his campaign from college students.

“What we try to do is reach out to young people and tell them we don’t want them just to vote, we want them to be involved, we want them to be active, we want them to take leadership positions in the campaign, we want their ideas about issues,” he said, “and it’s that kind of involvement and ownership of the campaign that I think has attracted a lot of young people.”

Article from the Penn State Collegian

The New York Times has a great piece today about the kick off of Obama’s bus tour of Pennsylvania. According to them, Obama can do well in Pennsylvania by mimicking Ed Rendell’s strategy. Get turnout in Philadelphia as high as possible, and mitigate the damage everywhere else.

If past elections are a guide, Mr. Obama’s success will lie in how much he can increase the turnout in Philadelphia and its surrounding suburban counties, with their pockets of affluent, educated white liberals. The suburbs are expected to be a major battleground.

It was Mr. Rendell’s near-total reliance on the Philadelphia media market that won him the primary for governor in 2002, and many analysts here see Mr. Obama copying that strategy, which is interesting because Mr. Rendell is such a big cheerleader for Mrs. Clinton.

The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News’s blog has a fun post about the kick off of the bus tour too. Apparently former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis “the Bus” came out to support Obama, who carried a football out on to the stage.

The rumor was that Obama would toss a football with Bettis or stage a hand-off. But rather than risk a costly gaffe, Obama emerged from the Soldiers and Sailors Hall, where he’d been speaking, carrying a football. And he never gave it up.

Another former Steeler and current Obama supporter, Franco Harris, was also in the picture. He did not board the bus for the ride to the next stop. But Bettis did. So, the Bus is on the bus.

Instead of Obama, we will have Lawrence Lessig. According to a post on his blog this afternoon, and confirmed by the Penn Dems, Lessig is planning on speaking at a rally in Penn’s Huntsman Hall this Saturday.

For those of you who don’t recognize the name, Lawrence Lessig is a Wharton alum and current Stanford law professor, wrote Free Culture, the class of 2010’s reading project book, and gave a speech during the class of 2010’s NSO as well. And now, he’ll be back on campus for a rally for Obama.

Lessig has previously endorsed Obama in video form.

Edit: Contrary to what I originally posted, Obama himself will likely not be on campus. The event is happening, but according to Burdette, it will just be Lessig, not Obama himself.

Although currently taking some time off from the campaign trail by vacationing in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Sen. Barack Obama will be back on the campaign trail and spending some serious time in Pennsylvania this weekend and next week. He plans to kick off a six-day bus tour of the Keystone State in western Pennsylvania this Friday, and will remain in the state until next Wednesday.

(more…)

Today while I was writing one of my articles at the DP office, a fellow beat reporter came into the newsroom and told me that there was someone in the front office looking for a political reporter. A little confused, I followed him into the main office, and he pointed out a man waiting by the door.

I was still a little confused. It’s not often that we get people actually coming into the office with news tips, and this is the first time anyone has asked specifically for a political reporter (that I know of, anyway).

Then, the man proceeded to introduce himself. His name was Ed O’Donnell, and told me he’s running for President of the United States. (more…)

Hall of Flags, Houston Hall —

In a speech at Penn this morning, presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) delivered a major address on the economy, specifically outlining solutions for the housing crisis.

She defined the troubles in the “critical” housing market as a “crisis of confidence,” and outlined a four-point plan to combat further erosion.

Some points in the plan include:
1) A foreclosure moratorium on subprime, owner-occupied homes.
2) A freeze on the monthly rate on subprime adjustable rate mortgages, with the freeze lasting until mortgages have been converted into affordable, fixed-rate loans.
3) Working with homeowners threatened with foreclosure to restructure their mortgages and providing foreclosure prevention services at the local level.

Additionally, Clinton said that if the Fed can give $30 billion to help out Bear Stearns (as it did last week), then it can create a “one-time emergency, $30 billion fund to purchase foreclosed or distressed properties” from homeowners.

The speech was closed to the public, but check The DP’s media tab for the full video.

Hillary Clinton, who is trying to win the Democratic presidential nomination, will speak at Houston Hall on Monday, her campaign announced today.

She will give what the campaign calls a “major policy address” in the Hall of Flags at 10 a.m. Further details on the speech weren’t initially available.

Clinton’s stop on campus makes her the final member of the Clinton family to visit Penn over the past few weeks. Chelsea Clinton campaigned at Wynn Commons on March 5, and Bill Clinton delivered the opening address at the Kerner Plus 40 symposium in Irvine Auditorium on Feb. 28.

The Penn Dems might have endorsed Clinton’s opponent, Barack Obama, but the Clinton family is definitely trying to make Hillary’s campaign known on campus.

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be holding campaign events in Philadelphia tomorrow.

Obama will be giving a speech on race and politics at the National Constitution Center tomorrow. This event begins at 10:15AM.

Clinton will be holding an event at City Hall starting at 1:30PM. The Clinton event is a “Campaign Event with Leading Voices For Bringing Our Troops Home,” in the Mayor’s Conference Room.

Exciting stuff.

The Clinton campaign organized a conference call this morning between Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, Philadelphia Mayor Michale Nutter, campaign consultant Mark Penn, spokesperson Howard Wolfson and a drove of reporters.

Despite the presence of Nutter and Rendell, fully half the questions were still about what would happen to delegates from Florida and Michigan. Looking at the numbers, Michigan has 128 pledged delegates, Florida has 185 and Pennsylvania has 158.

So I guess it makes sense for Florida and Michigan to outshine Pennsylvania to some extent. Combined, they have about twice as many pledged delegates as Pennsylvania and the decision of what to do with them will make a huge impact.

After the jump, Nutter sure loves sports analogies!

(more…)

It’s getting more and more crowded here at Temple University’s McGonigle Hall in the time leading up to the start. One side of the bleachers now is almost full of people, all of course carrying Hillary signs. The media pen has been full, with more reporters from more different places than I imagined even possible.

Everyone and their mother is on this story I suppose. Earlier I had thought there would be no wireless connection here, but someone has set up a network, aptly named “SoapBox.”

The “enclosure” I guess I could call it, the cordoned off area closest to the stage is full of middle aged people in IUPAT shirts. It stands for International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. There are some other union shirts around, and the crowd is distinctly not college aged. Lots of “ordinary folk,” parents with little kids, etc. There’s pre rally music of course. I don’t recognize it, and two Temple sophomores also performed for a while.

Once again, I have to comment on the timing. The fact that they put this rally here over spring break means to me that the Hillary campaign really is not making a huge effort to attract college students. To them Temple is just a convenient location.

One interesting metric for me is to count the number of home made signs versus campaign passed out signs. Right now I’ve seen three homemade signs. The rally hasn’t started yet, so that will likely grow.

Edit: 5:55pm

I know I’m just a lowly student journalist but this is the most cameras and video camera I’ve ever seen together in one place. And it’s a whole different feeling sitting on the other side of the tensa barrier. But it also makes you wonder at how much duplicated effort there is here. All of these cameras are essentially going to get the same shot because they’re all set up on the same platform.

Edit: 6:49pm

Clinton just told one of those little stories about healthcare about a woman with two diabetic daughters who couldn’t get insurance. Followed it up with this little tidbit. “We are not going to allow health insurance companies to discriminate against sick people!”

Edit: March 12th, 1:30pm

Video is now on our homepage, www.dailypennsylvanian.com

Direct link here.