HILLARY CLINTON ROUSES 6,000 OBAMA SUPPORTERS TO THEIR FEET - SAN FRANCISCO AND SILICON VALLEY VISIT
1 August 2008
Hillary Clinton stumps for Presidential hopeful Barrack Obama in front of 6,000 delegates at the 38th International Convention of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, aka AFSCME, delegate conference in Moscone West, San Francisco. Clinton urges voters to put a Democrat in the White House, or otherwise she believes it will be business as usual.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
BY JOSH RICHMAN
The Oakland Tribune
It’s kiss-and-make up time in Silicon Valley for Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s major fundraisers.
Some of the Sillicon Valley’s biggest Obama backers co-hosted a Los Altos Hills fundraiser with Clinton on Thursday afternoon to help the former Democratic presidential candidate retire her more than $20 million campaign debt.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
“Time is healing the wounds,” said Lorraine Hariton, a major Clinton backer at whose home the cocktail-hour event was held.
“I’m very pleased with how well the Obama people are getting their people out,” she added.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
Because many Clinton supporters have already donated the federal maximum, Obama backers are needed to help erase the debt.
Hariton expected about 150 people to attend the fundraiser. Guests are being asked to contribute between $500 and the federal limit of $2,300.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
In San Francisco, Obama and Clinton brought thousands of cheering union members to their feet with messages of Democratic solidarity and strength.
Clinton appeared in person to address the national convention of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, while Obama addressed the convention a short while later, live via satellite from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
“‘Change’ is a president who walked with you on that picket line, who doesn’t choke when he says the word ‘union,’ who doesn’t denigrate public service by privatizing jobs every chance he gets,” Obama told the crowd of about 6,000 delegates and more than 1,000 guests at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco.
Referring to presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, Obama said the differences between the Arizona senator and himself aren’t personal, but rather are about policy.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
McCain has differed from fellow Republicans at times in the past, but hasn’t done so as a presidential candidate, Obama observed.
That means McCain now offers only “four more years of Bush economic policies” which have hurt working families, the Illinois senator said.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
About an hour earlier, Clinton received a hero’s welcome from the union, which endorsed her last October.
“You never let me down “… You were a relentless force for my campaign in state after state,” Clinton said. “You stood with me and I will always stand with you.”
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
She added: “The Bush administration and its allies have led an unyielding, uncompromising, unrelenting campaign against our government,” viewing it with “disdain, even with contempt” as part of a “narrow, radical ideology” aimed at diminishing it to the point that it “can’t run a two-car parade.
“That’s why I will work with all of you to ensure we have a Democratic victory in November,” she vowed, praising Obama’s passion, determination, grace and wit.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
“When we finally have that Democratic president and a bigger Democratic majority in the Senate, we’re going to get back to making our government more effective “… and once again be respected as a leader of the world.”
As for McCain, Clinton said he “is an honorable man who has served our country with honor and distinction, but he represents the same failed policies and we cannot take four more years of that.” She noted that “the entire world will breathe a sigh of relief when that moving van pulls away from the back of the White House” next January.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
“Let’s go win an election,” she said, before departing to attend fundraisers in San Francisco and Los Altos Hills aimed at retiring her more than $20 million in campaign debt.
Obama returned the praise about an hour after Clinton departed.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
“For 16 months, she and I shared the stage as rivals and I couldn’t be happier that we now share the stage as allies,” he said.
He spoke of a cancer-stricken union activist from Chicago supported by her co-workers through tough times, and said tales like that speak to his “fundamental belief that we all have a stake in each other, that I am my brother’s keeper.”
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
“We don’t have to wait for the history books to tell us the Bush administration has been disastrous for working families,” he said, adding that he would help the nation rebound with a stimulus package aimed at families struggling with rising food and energy costs and $10 billion to help states and localities to maintain crucial public health care, housing and social services.
Health care reform will be high on his agenda, he vowed, just as it’s on AFSCME’s.
“We will win that battle not 20 years from now, not 10 years from now, but by the end of my first term as president of the United States,” Obama said. “If we put an end to the politics of division and distraction “… and unite this country around a common purpose, there is no obstacle we cannot overcome.”
Obama exhorted the union to lend its boots on the ground and voices on the phone to his campaign’s cause.
“We are less than 100 days away from the change we seek,” he said.
Obama plans a $2,300-a-head fundraiser at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel on Sunday — a stop his campaign reportedly said could be his last in the city before November’s election.
A Public Policy Institute of California poll released Wednesday found Obama leading McCain 50 percent to 30 percent in the state; the telephone survey of 1,401 likely voters was conducted July 8 through 22 and had a three-point margin of error.
Photo by Jason Steinberg Imagery © 2008
See Related: WORLD POLITICS
Jason Steinberg
San Francisco Photojournalist
Jason Steinberg is a San Francisco based photographer whose photojournalistic style (San Francisco Sate University- B.A. Journalism-photo emphasis) documents the Bay Area scene while capturing those fleeting moments of grand emotion that last. Jason has a sense of ease that transforms his clients’ apprehensions and anxieties about having their image made. Additionally, his personality enables him to move amongst the crowd, to capture hidden moments. Visit Bay Area events at Steinberg Imagery’s Galleries. For a complete selection of photos, click here. Email the photographer at: jason@steinbergimagery.com.
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