Obama greeted by largest crowd of his campaign
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Barack Obama was greeted by the largest crowd of his campaign Friday night in Philadelphia.
Some 35,000 people jammed into Independence Park to see the Democratic presidential candidate, four days before this state's crucial April 22 primary.
Frank Friel, director of security at the Independence Visitor Center, made the official estimate.
The crowd exceed the 30,000 who greeted Obama and Oprah Winfrey in December in Columbia, S.C.
Obama told the crowd the United States is at a crucial moment in its history, much like what the founding fathers faced in Philadelphia.
"It was over 200 years ago that a group of patriots gathered in this city to do something that no one in the world believed they could do," Obama said. "After years of a government that didn't listen to them, or speak for them, or represent their hopes and their dreams, a few humble colonists came to Philadelphia to declare their independence from the tyranny of the British throne."
The Illinois senator called Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton a "tenacious" opponent but said it was time to move beyond the politics of the 1990s.
"Her message comes down to this: We can't really change the say-anything, do-anything, special interest-driven game in Washington, so we might as well choose a candidate who really knows how to play it," Obama said.
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Clinton says '08 campaign has broken barriers
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton put aside her differences with her Democratic presidential rival Friday night, saying both she and Barack Obama have been inspirations for every American child to believe he or she can be president.
Appearing at Wake Forest University with poet Maya Angelou, Clinton said the 2008 presidential campaign is helping the country in "letting go of not only the heavy burden of ignorance, but of prejudice and discrimination, sexism as well as racism."
"What is exciting - and for me humbling - is that this contest that I'm engaged in with Senator Obama exemplifies that," she said. "And because of what we are doing, I honestly believe we have broken one of those invisible barriers that never again will any little boy or girl in America not believe that he or she
- black, white, brown, whatever - cannot grow up to be president. Because that is now over. We have created that possibility in this moment of time."
Angelou has known Clinton since she was first lady of Arkansas and delivered a poem at Bill Clinton's first inauguration. She is backing Clinton, but also spoke warmly of Obama, and Clinton dropped any criticisms of her opponent for the evening at the university's Wait Chapel.
"Certainly Barack and I are instruments of this historical happening, but it is much deeper and broader than both of us," she said.
Clinton's campaign billed the event as a "conversation," and Angelou told the audience just to consider it like two friends talking.
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Reich, Nunn and Boren endorse Obama
BOSTON (AP) - Former Clinton Cabinet member Robert Reich on Friday endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
