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BY IAN YARETT

In print | Published April 10, 2008 — Updated December 05, 2008 09:57

On Wednesday, April 2, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke at a rally held in the gymnasium of Strath Haven High School in nearby Wallingford, Pa. The event took place on the last day of Obama’s six-day bus tour of Pennsylvania. According to Vice President Maurice Eldridge ’61, the Obama campaign had considered Swarthmore College as a possible venue for the event.

Eldridge said that the college was contacted less than a week before the event occurred. ‘’[The campaign] wanted space for at least 1500 people very quickly — we couldn’t handle it logistically," he said, citing a variety of constraints, including space, security and parking limitations.

“I’ve actually been trying to get Senator Obama to come to Swarthmore for years, but as his popularity grew, it became harder and harder,” Eldridge said.

According to an Oct. 12, 2006 article in The Phoenix, the college declined to host an event that would have brought former President Bill Clinton to Swarthmore to speak in support of Joe Sestak’s bid for Congress, citing short notice and bad timing for students as a result of mid-term exams.

However, two years before, in 2004, the college agreed to host Howard Dean, who was then running for the presidency. “During the Howard Dean event, LPAC was packed,” Eldridge said. “The college bussed people from the mall — but there was more notice, and fewer security issues. This time [with the Obama event] there would be much more Secret Service.”

Eldridge also said that politicians are always shopping around for venues, and that the campaign considers a variety of venue options to choose what best suits their needs. “It probably is worth it [to hold an event of this nature] if you think you can pull it off,” Eldridge said. “It isn’t our decision — [the campaign is] shopping around.”

Ultimately, the Obama campaign chose to hold the event at Strath Haven High School. Strath Haven seniors, and some juniors, were given the opportunity to attend the event. “I think it was great to have it at a high school — it’s a great political experience for juniors and seniors,” Eldridge said.

Professor of Economics and Vice President of the Swarthmore-Wallingford School Board Mark Kuperberg said that he was contacted by politicians in Delaware County who are close to the Obama campaign about the possibility of hosting the rally at the high school. “They contacted me the Sunday night before the Wednesday event,” he said. “I then contacted the superintendent, who contacted the principal of [Strath Haven High School]. The woman who called me had said that 12 [potential venues] had turned her down — I think Swarthmore was one of them,” Kuperberg said.

According to Kuperberg, an advance team from the Obama campaign conducted a walk through of the venue to see if it was appropriate. Later on, the Secret Service did another walk through to ensure that adequate security could be maintained, and to determine appropriate locations for the metal detectors as well as other logistics.

On Tuesday, an Obama team came in to set up, which included putting up the banners, creating the podium and establishing a wireless Internet connection for the news crews. “We gave them the space, and they took over,” Kuperberg said, explaining that the school had to do no more than pull out the bleachers, and the campaign handled the rest. “The Obama people, when they go into a venue, have a whole team that puts everything together,” he said.

“We weren’t in any way endorsing Obama,” Kuperberg said. “From my perspective, it was … only about free speech and having students see pretty amazing people.”

Several other Swarthmore faculty and students, in addition to Kuperburg, were able to attend the event. Professor of Political Science Carol Nackenoff was seated on the stage along with Richard Wicentowski, associate professor of computer science. “Rich and I were asked if we wanted the last couple of seats on stage. Perhaps they thought I was in the Hillary demographic,” Nackenoff said. “It also seemed like they were trying to get an age and race mix on stage.”

As a political scientist, Nackenoff noted Obama’s readiness to throw money at virtually every problem and his delivery of lots of promises to lots of constituents. However, she said she was impressed with the amount of time Obama spent discussing policies.

Cristina Herrera ’08 was very excited to attend the event. “We were really close — only 35 or 40 feet away from [Obama],” Herrera said. “We were all pretty star struck. He had us on our feet clapping, and was really inspirational.”

Herrera questioned Obama about his policies on Iraq, explaining that she was concerned about leaving Iraq too quickly, in terms of the stability of the region and in terms of the safety of Iraqis. “He gave a long answer and beat around the bush, but said that he wants out in 16 months,” Herrera said. “He said that we need to up humanitarian aid, and that military occupation will not create peace so we must create political stability.”

Nackenoff said that Obama gave a good response to a question from a high school student who said that socialized medicine had killed his grandmother and asked about Obama’s plans for healthcare reform. “[Obama explained] that he was in no way proposing socialized medicine, and handled this student’s and most questions pretty well,” she said. “He spoke like a professor,” Nackenoff said. “He sounded like an academic, but a fairly exciting one nonetheless.”

According to Herrera, Obama gave nuanced answers to very complicated problems, but did not shy away from giving the hard truth at certain times. For example, someone told Obama that they were laid off and their job was shipped to Mexico, and asked him what he would do about this problem. Herrera said that Obama was very honest that some of these jobs were not coming back, but that we can invest more in infrastructure, which will open up many jobs that cannot be moved abroad. “A lot of questions were very ‘this is my problem in life and how can you fix it,’ but he was clear about what he can do and what he can’t,” Herrera said.

“He was charismatic, humble, very bright and very confident,” Herrera continued. “He said that there are so many things that we can do, like buying ‘squiggly light bulbs’ for energy efficiency. He called them ‘squiggly light bulbs’ — people loved that. He was very good at making people believe in him.”

Herrera also said that she is still a huge supporter of Obama. “Every candidate has flaws—[Obama] is not perfect, and to an extent he is a politician—he knows everyone is sick of the war, everyone knows some people who have died. I really do think that he wants to have a government that serves the people.”

Adora Andy, a deputy press secretary for Obama in Pennsylvania, declined to provide any details regarding the choice of venue for the Obama event that was held at Strath Haven last week, but said that the Strath Haven event was very successful and provided Delaware County residents with the opportunity to hear Obama’s plan. " [Obama] said it was very fulfilling for him to interact with [the attendees]," Andy said. “All of Pennsylvania is very important — not just cities but also areas outside of the cities such as Delaware County.”

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