50,000 crowd onto CSU Oval to cheer Obama

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FORT COLLINS - Sen. Barack Obama ignited a crowd estimated between 45,000 to 50,000 on the Colorado State University Oval Sunday with his familiar theme of change.
- Obama rallies crowd estimated at more than 100,000

Working the crowd to sounds of Brooks & Dunn's "Only in America," Obama reiterated common themes of tax cuts, affordable health care and the promise of the future.

"I ask you to believe in yourselves, in each other and the future. Together we can't fail," he said, interrupted several times by chants of "Yes, We Can."

Thousands stood in line for hours - some lined up at 5 a.m. - to hear Obama during his first visit to Northern Colorado, many crowding in at the last minute. Secret Service dispensed with security checks to get as many in before the start of Obama's 35 minute speech.

He talked about jobs in the new energy economy, in wind, solar and new biofuels such as those being created in Colorado, and of building a new infrastructure to accommodate it. "Gov. Ritter is doing it here in Colorado ... we can do it."

"Change won't be easy and change will not happen overnight," he said. "This administration has dug a deep hole." And, change won't happen without everyone pulling his or her own weight, Obama said. "I can put more money into education and energy but I can't be the parent who turns off the TV" or unplugs the video games ..."I can't do that."

He called on Americans to do their part, to turn off the lights and insulate their homes to help decrease the U.S.' dependence on foreign oil. "It may sound like small stuff but it adds up," he said.

Obama reiterated his plan to give tax cuts to 95 percent of Americans, contrasting his plan with challenger John McCain's plan that would give tax cuts "only to the wealthiest Americans and the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies."

Before Obama's arrivals, a Colorado field organizer told the crowd: "If Fort Collins didn't matter, I don't think Barack Obama would be here today."

Standing in more than a mile-long line just after 11 a.m., three generations of Debby Hersperger's waited to get into the Oval.

Hersperger, a self-employed bookkeeper, brought her daughter, Elizabeth Keller, and 2-and-a-half-year-old grandson, Malcolm Akey, for the historic event.

Hersperger couldn't get a ticket for Obama's presidential acceptance speech at INVESCO Field at Mile High in August but wasn't going to miss him when he came to Fort Collins. "It's historic," Hersperger said. "This way we can tell him he saw the president of the United States."

"What do you say to Obama," Keller asked her son. "Yes, we can," Malcolm said with a little prompting.

Neither Hersperger nor Keller has health insurance, a critically important issue to both.

Keller, 28, an assistant director of a child-care center, said she makes too much - by $50 - to qualify Malcolm for the Colorado Children's Health Insurance Plan. He is covered under his father's plan, but Keller worries for herself. "If I get sick, I can't take care of him," she said.

Keller and her mother want Obama to talk about his health care plan that will extend coverage to most Americans.

"McCain's plans are not going to help other people," Hersperger said. The Republican plan includes a $5,000 tax credit so workers can buy their own health insurance.

Bob Anderson and seven family members and friends, drove from Cheyenne, Wyo., to see Obama.

The retired Air Force veteran said he wants Obama to end the war as soon as possible. Anderson's two sons have done a combined three tours in Iraq. Like most Americans, Anderson said he felt the U.S. needed to take action after 9/11. But, "we got off course," and sent troops to Iraq rather than focusing on the search for Osama bin Laden. "If we had stayed on course I think we would have been OK."

Anderson's wife, Denise, said the economy, health care, taxes and "ending the war responsibly" were at the top of her agenda.