Obama appears at Electric Factory

Singing "Happy Birthday" and demanding the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility were on the agenda for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama during his first campaign visit to Philadelphia on Tuesday.

In front of a packed house at the Electric Factory on Spring Garden Street, Obama delivered a speech that touched on his background and many of the main political issues confronting him and his fellow candidates in the 2008 presidential election. The Democrat was positively received and supporters interjected several times with enthusiastic applause and cheering.

Seeing the candidate in person reaffirmed Penn student Erin O'Brien's opinion on him.

"I liked him before, and I like him now," the first-year Education student said.

O'Brien added that she especially liked that Obama discussed improvement in education, her professional interest.

"We have an education system that, despite the slogan, is leaving a lot of children behind," Obama said in his speech referring to the No Child Left Behind education program championed by President Bush.

Obama continued by stressing the need to "respect the person in front of the classroom" by increasing teachers' salaries.

Some people came seeking answers about Obama's positions but didn't get the specificity they were looking for. Recent College alumnus Jonathan Retseck sought clarification on the candidate's position regarding environmental issues.

"I wanted to hear his stance on the environment," Retseck said, citing that he was not satisfied with Obama's answers regarding this issue from the debate earlier this month.

Before the senator's speech, several Philadelphia entertainers performed for the crowd. The program was highlighted by local celebrity Timmy Kelly singing the national anthem.

Obama, who was introduced as "the next president of the United States," informed the audience that it was Kelly's 13th birthday and proceed, along with the crowd, to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

Many people cited Obama's youthfulness and charisma as their reasons for coming to hear the speech.

College alumna Emily Rothschild came wanting to hear an uplifting message.

"I appreciate the criticism of the Bush administration," she said. "But I want to hear some forward thinking."

While Obama did offer a positive message regarding health care and education, he characterized the current administration's foreign policy as a failure.

"When George Bush steps down, the entire world will breathe a sigh of relief," he said, calling the Iraq war "one of the biggest strategic mistakes in our military history."

While Obama mostly spoke about national issues, he referenced the rising amount of gun-related deaths in Philadelphia.

"Children in Philadelphia are killing each other and dropping out of school, and that impacts all of us," he said.

College senior Famid Sinha, one of the founding members of Students for Barack Obama - a national organization that has since been officially adopted by the campaign - said that he would "leave the door open" for the possibility of Obama visiting Penn's campus because he "wants to meet people."

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