"Barack Obama’s Stop in Seattle (w/ Audio)"

Eli Sanders in Slog (The Stranger political blog):

Much more on this tomorrow, on Slog and Lineout, but for now: Barack Obama’s stop at Showbox SoDo tonight was an impressive show of Seattle strength for a candidate who’s been surging in a number of states this month.

The place was packed, and organizers said 1,000 tickets had been sold, with adults paying $100 and students paying $35. Add in two fundraisers earlier in the evening that were closed to the press and that’s probably a pretty good haul for a man who’s already raised far more money than any other presidential candidate in Washington State this year.

Since I was just in Iowa watching Obama work a crowd there, I was interested to see whether his approach, and the crowd reaction, would be any different here in Seattle. More on that tomorrow, but I’ll say one thing right now that Seattleites may not like to hear: The crowd in Des Moines, Iowa—Des Moines, Iowa—was way, way more diverse than the crowd tonight at the Showbox.

Don’t believe me? Think that zoomed-in picture is lying? How about this:

If you’d like to hear audio of tonight’s speech, click here. Warning: If you’ve heard Obama’s stump speech in the last few months it will sound very familiar.

But if you haven’t, or if you just like hearing him say the word “Seattle” a lot, then check it out.

Howie P.S.: I know you are all waiting for my personal on-the-scene jewels of knowledge on this. Here's what I got for you:

1. Paul Loeb rode his electric bike to event (he is leaning towards Edwards, but like Obama, too. Thank god he put on his orange vest before heading back to West Seattle after 11pm. He got quite a few folks coming up to him to thank him for his piece about Hillary's divisive impact on the dems, if she is nominated.

2. Some audience members found Stone Gossard's band "Brad" a downer after a more rockabilly set by the high energy group the "Dusty 45s." Their trumpet player had some kind of flame-flower on the end of his horn.

3. I met Obama's old school buddy from the Punaho School in Honolulu, Dean Ando, who now lives in Seattle. He was just as down to earth and full of "aloha" as he says Obama still is, every time they talk. Dean said Barack told him back then he was going to head for the mainland and take on some bigger challenges.

Barack Obama