By Marino Eccher
As Illinois Senator Barack Obama left the stage after speaking at a downtown rally Tuesday morning, the speakers blasted Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run.
Maybe The Boss knows something the rest of us don't.
Stumping for Wisconsin Democrats, Obama touched on themes of bipartisanship, perseverance and hope, but did not address the possibility of a presidential run in 2008.,”
As Illinois Sen. Barack Obama left the stage after speaking at a downtown rally Tuesday morning, the speakers blasted Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run."
Maybe "The Boss" knows something the rest of us don't.
Stumping for Wisconsin Democrats, Obama touched on themes of bipartisanship, perseverance and hope, but did not address the possibility of a presidential run in 2008.
He may have been the only one at the rally who did not do so. Signs bearing slogans such as "Run, Obama, Run" and "You are our hope" peppered the crowd of a thousand-plus in Pere Marquette Park, with some chanting "'08!" as Obama stepped up to the microphone.
The other politicians in attendance also got in on the action: "I want to do a little poll," said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. "How many people here would like to see the good senator from Illinois, Sen. Obama, run for president?
"I just want to make sure you're warmed up for him," Barrett told the cheering crowd, "Because he has brought so much excitement to this country about his potential candidacy. It is something that I think we haven't seen in decades."
And Gov. Jim Doyle said with Bill Clinton coming to town Friday for another rally, Milwaukee might be hosting a former president and a future one in the same week.
"When you see Barack Obama, you know that this country is going to be in good hands for a long time," he said.
Wisconsin Attorney General candidate Kathleen Falk, United States Rep. Gwen Moore and U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl also attended the rally. Falk, Moore, Kohl and Doyle are all up for election next week.
Falk touted her experience as Dane County Executive and tore into Republican opponent J.B. Van Hollen, whom she called a proponent of an "extreme, right wing agenda."
"My opponent was handpicked by George W. Bush. Need I say more?" she said.
Moore praised Kohl's work, calling the longtime incumbent Wisconsin's "playmaker" in the senate.
She implored the crowd to imagine what her party could accomplish if it were to take control of the House and Senate.
"I can't help wondering what it would be like if we could take back America," she said.
But Obama was the clear centerpiece of the rally, attracting a small mob of people seeking handshakes and photos as he entered with the others.
The junior senator from Illinois offered his support for the other politicians present, even managing to forgive Kohl, the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, for a spot of Bucks-Chicago Bulls trash-talking that he said had broken out earlier.
Drawing from the title of his latest book, Obama also spoke of the "the audacity of hope," a phrase he said he borrowed from his pastor.
"Sometimes, when you look around, it seems as if the world has fallen apart," he said. "What requires a boldness of spirit is to hope, to believe that somehow things can be better than they are right now."
He said modern Democratic ideas aim to strike a balance between personal and shared responsibilities.
"Despite our belief that everybody's got personal responsibility," he said, "we also believe that everybody's got a stake in each other."
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