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So excited' about Obama Advertisement Terry Bibo Terry Bibo NEWS COLUMNIST Wednesday, October 4, 2006 A lot of Peorians may find this offer irresistible today. "Would you like to meet Barack Obama?" Chillicothe's Joan Snyder asks me. No and yes. Journalists meet all kinds of politicians. The thrill is pretty much gone. It's just work. On the other hand, Illinois' freshman senator has approached rock star status. Theoretically, he's so hot that he's got to run for president in 2008. No one can stay at this level until 2012. Just last week, a Chicago Tribune columnist fretted that Obama might be over-hyped. Even last spring, "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart asked if he feared being over-exposed. "Well, Jon," the relaxed-looking senator said thoughtfully, "the only person more over-exposed than me . . . is you." Ba-da-bing. Whether it's comedy or politics, timing is everything. Four of five years ago, after Snyder met then-state Rep. Obama at a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, she predicted Illinois would produce America's first black president. Thirty years ago, Snyder would have spent weekends scheming to get backstage with some scruffy rock band. Now polo-shirt-clad political roadies hold front-row seats. Like Evans, Snyder has Parkinson's disease. That bond led her to campaign for him, and now for Evans' longtime aide Phil Hare, who is running in Evans' stead. The 17th District race between Hare and Republican Andrea Zinga has been declared one of the most important in the nation, so Obama was called upon to lend a charisma transfusion last weekend. As Snyder cannily suspected, I am intrigued. So we stuff her collapsible wheelchair in the tiny trunk of the red convertible and take off for Moline. "I am so excited," she says. As it turns out, she's not alone. We get there at noon. Hare and Obama don't come to the podium until 1:30. With a crowd of 100 or more, nobody's complaining, even when a CD that has to be titled something like "Politics Rocks NOW-27!" enters its third or fourth round. Our front-row seats were reserved, but the dapper older gentleman sitting alone next to us apparently flagged his when the doors opened at 11:30 a.m. "Are you an Obama fan?" Snyder asks the man, who identified himself only as Stanley. "I don't know," he says. "That's what I came to find out." Me, too. I had purposely worn my most journalistic outfit - a safari shirt and photographer's vest - to keep from being accidentally blinded by the rising of a new political star. As it turned out, that is not a worry. The surprise is that Hare appears note-free and charmingly self-deprecating while introducing the guy he knew everyone came to see. But Obama himself looks exactly like he does on television - slender, bookish, razor-sharp - blessed with the best camera-ready teeth since Farrah Fawcett joined "Charlie's Angels" 30 years ago. Other politicians can riff on a crying baby in the back of the room. Obama deftly turns that into a plank in Hare's Democratic platform: education for the future. The 17th includes Western Illinois University, and college aid for stuff like student loans has been cut. "The politics in Washington doesn't match up with our needs," Obama says. "It doesn't match up with our values. It doesn't match up with our ideals." The crowd surges forward, brandishing picture-taking cell phones like lighters. I don't actually meet Obama. He's smooching Snyder. Such irresistible good instincts may bring the spotlight to Illinois -- Joan Blessington Snyder 54/16 [log in to unmask] www.calipso-pd.org “Hang tough……..no way through it but to do it.” Chris in the Morning Northern Exposure ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn