obamarillo by morning

There were a surprisingly large number of people at the Obameeting at a far-flung brunch of the Amarillo Public Library tonight. The crowd of about forty to fifty included a number of the usual suspects as well as new faces.

I was impressed by the organization of the campaign. This organization was tremendously reassuring, as I had formed an opinion early on that the candidate was getting some bad advice at the national level.

But that's an advantage that comes from this long of a campaign, I guess. Four years ago, the primary season was a distant fading memory. Four years ago the organizers went to Iowa and... well, Iowa, basically. I guess they half-heartedly went on to New Hampshire. But then candidates starting screaming and Democratic powers-that-be started demanding that we all get "John Kerry for President" tattooed on our foreheads. By this time in 2004 the Oaths of Eternal Allegiance has all been signed and notarized and Dean, Gephardt and the rest had been sealed in a time capsule, only to be released after the election.

The fact that this one has been a fight seems to have given the organizers some practice and positively influenced their ability to organize.

Veronica Fuentes, a local leader of Amarillo for Obama organizer and the President of West Texas A&M University Democrats^1, and George Norrell, and John Larue, who had most recently worked for the campaign in Kansas, weren't completely of one voice. One topic they spoke of in slightly different terms, was something we have mentioned here-- the possibility of the candidate appearing in the Panhandle.

None, however, said it was beyond the realm of possibility. In a conversation after the meeting, more of the story also emerged regarding the possibility of WTAMU as a possible venue. It turns out that the campaign would have required a window of seven days-- which did in fact conflict with a U.I.L. basketball tournament.

If enough support exists here that the unimaginable happens and a major political candidate decides to speak here, other venues will emerge. WT built the Event Center to replace The Box, anyway, and, in my experience, the place hasn't shown much utility for anything other than basketball. Henry Rollins ranted from a soapbox in the corner of the room, Elie Wiesel was nearly unintelligible on a crappy sound system, and Willie Nelson and Pat Green played under blaring fluorescent lights because the freakin' Event Center staff didn't think the freakin' lights needed to be turned down at a freakin' concert. Obama doesn't need that, anyway.

The Senator doesn't need WT's infrastructure, but Amarillo could be helpful. And here's my plan:

Amarillo has been Republican even longer than Texas has. And they've stayed Republican all of these years over a perceived slight a thousand years ago. Amarillistas claim that President Lyndon Johnson closed the Amarillo Air Force Base in 1964 after Potter and Randall county voted for Goldwater. In reality Potter-- where the base was actually located-- voted for Johnson; only Randall went for the guy who wanted to bomb countries back into the stone age. Even so, the two counties added together went for Goldwater by less than 500 votes.

But Republicans, in the years that followed used the myth that LBJ closed the base as payback to increase that 500 vote advantage tenfold...and then a hundredfold.

One perceived slight...by one guy...that happened before many of us were born. How petty.

But Obama can use this pettiness. The myth betrays Amarillo's dirty little secret-- her seething inferiority complex. I've seen the pictures of business leaders shaking Governor George W Bush's hand in offices all across this burning prairie. To win the Ciudad Yellow's undying loyalty, all any candidate would need to do is give her a little attention.

Senator Obama, show up at the Civic Center-- or wherever-- and just say "Gosh, that's the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen." You'll win here by a landslide.

spacedark

¹ Yeah, seriously.