Amherst Democrats gather at SBC to view convention

By Ray Reed

Published: September 3, 2008

Amherst County Democrats’ “Obama watch” party Thursday night got its first spark from an unexpected source: one-line zingers from Al Gore, directed at presumed Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

After he had described McCain’s ideas as originating with President Bush, Gore’s quip, “I believe in recycling, but that’s ridiculous” drew a round of laughter.

It broke the ice in a room of about 75 people — almost evenly divided between Sweet Briar College students and local party regulars — who had been quiet and a little tentative.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s speech early in the evening to the Democratic convention in Denver had attracted only a little response from the crowd in the Invesco Field football stadium, and none at all from the local Democrats.

The “watch party” mood grew more relaxed and enthusiastic as the time for Barack Obama’s speech accepting the party’s nomination drew closer.

When Obama finally took the stage in Denver, the Amherst crowd applauded his speaking points almost in unison with the crowd at the stadium.

Marvin Gilbert, a retired teacher, said he came to the watch party to support all the Democratic candidates, starting with Obama but including the 6th District congressional candidate, Sam Rasoul, who spoke briefly to remind the crowd he is, at 27, “the youngest congressional candidate in America” and a small-business owner.

“He’s got it all together, at a young age,” Gilbert said.

Sandra Jackson-Opoku, of Chicago, came to the party with some friends from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts in Amherst. “I’m feeling very good,” she said, “being in like-minded company with people who support the cause.”

“Barack Obama is my senator,” Jackson-Opoku said, smiling.

Bea Gates of Accord, N.Y., said she was present for Obama’s appearance last week at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg. “It was inspiring to see the mix of black and white, old and young” people among the approximately 2,000 in the school gymnasium for Obama’s visit, Gates said.

Although Hillary Clinton is Gates’ senator, she said she favors Obama because he opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning.

Roscoe Fitts, treasurer of the Amherst County Democratic Committee, said he’d been pleasantly surprised to learn from the president of Sweet Briar College’s Young Democrats that she expected half the campus would vote for Obama. That would represent a big change in the student body of the small private college, he said.

David Burford, vice chairman of the county’s Democratic Committee, urged the crowd to turn its enthusiasm into work on behalf of the candidates. The committee needs volunteers to staff voter-registration efforts at football games and shopping centers for the next month, Burford said.

The registration drive is vital, Burford said, because the Obama campaign has identified Virginia as a key state for his election, and it has further identified Central Virginia as being key to his chances of winning Virginia’s electoral votes.