Dem. wives make a push for registration, turnout in Southwest Philadelphia

Michelle Obama stood before a crowd of about 2,000 in southwest Philadelphia yesterday, and asked them to engage in something her husband knows all about: community organizing.

"Everybody in this crowd knows 10 or 20 people who are not paying attention" to the election, said Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"Maybe they don't think their vote matters, they've lost faith in the political process," Michelle Obama said. "We need you to reach out to those voters, because this time it's different."

Jill Biden, the wife of Barack Obama's running mate Joe Biden, also spoke at the rally at the Francis Meyers Recreation Center, 5803 Kingsessing Ave.

She urged local citizens to "help get out the vote" and spoke briefly about her childhood in Philadelphia.

Although polls indicate that Barack Obama will easily win Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a swing state and his campaign is taking every opportunity to make sure Philadelphians actually fill out a ballot on election day.

Volunteers from Obama's campaign and several non-partisan voter-registration groups mingled with the crowd, registering new voters on the spot.

Mayor Michael Nutter and Gov. Ed Rendell introduced the women, and further emphasized the need to mobilize voters.

Rendell gave the audience two assignments: to make sure everybody they know is registered to vote, and to encourage those people to vote on Nov. 4.

"I don't want to see a 60-percent turnout in Philadelphia, not even a 72-percent turnout," he said. "There is no excuse for us not breaking 80 percent."

A volunteer at the rally, Philadelphia resident Phyllis Powers, thought Obama and Biden were in town mainly to promote voter registration and turnout.

Powers said she believed Obama and Biden appeared in southwest Philadelphia as a way of showing "people in this neighborhood that their votes are just as important as the votes from Center City."

College freshman Elisabeth Jacknis said she went to the event because she supports Obama's candidacy and wanted to hear his wife speak "in person, not through the news."

Obama spoke at length about the personal experiences that underlie her husband's political stances, such as watching his mother "worry about whether or not the insurance companies would cover her illness" prior to her death from ovarian cancer.

"Don't you want a president that actually knows what it's like to feel the heartbreak caused by a broken health care system?" Obama asked the audience, to cheers. "Don't we deserve leaders who get it, who understand what's happening on the ground? Well, Barack Obama gets it."

Another Obama supporter at the rally was Hassan Freeman, president of Men United for a Better Philadelphia.

Freeman campaigned in Philadelphia for John Kerry and Al Gore during their presidential runs, and said Obama and Biden's appearance had "more of a town-hall format" than the rallies Kerry and Gore held.

"This is more 'in the neighborhood, I could reach out and shake your hand if I wanted to,'" he said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.