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DEL.ICIO.USWaiting for Obama in a not-so-Republican pocket of Cobb County
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Insider’s back from a busman’s holiday in D.C., and in the gym of McEachern High School, waiting for Democratic presumptive Barack Obama to come greet a crowd that’s growing and growing and growing.
The school parking lot was already filled at 7 a.m., and a stream of people were already making the trek from the nearby Kroger’s.
This is the district of state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, the Republican chairman of the House Rules Committee. And there are plenty of Republican votes here. Four years ago, President Bush made an appearance at another Cobb County high school only five miles or so away.
But to call this firm GOP territory would be to ignore the changes in Cobb that have occurred over the last few years.
The crowd that’s assembling here is largely black. This may speak to the drawing power of Obama, or the method of ticket distribution. But it’s not a geographic anomaly.
McEachern and its ornate west Cobb campus (the public school has a private endowment) has 2,466 students. Only a few years ago, it was majority white. Now, white students comprise only 34 percent of the enrollment. Over half, 54 percent, are African-American. The remainder are primarily Hispanic.
“The demographics have changed rapidly in the last eight to 10 years,” said Cobb school board chairman Betty Gray, who has a seat near the front row of the Obama rally. (Yes, she is a Democrat, and, yes, she has primary opposition.)
“Certain clusters of schools have come to represent change. Change has come quickly, and we’ve assimilated as necessary,” she said.
David Wilkerson, chairman of the Cobb County Democratic party, is here as well — making good friends by doling out what tickets he has at his disposal.
Wilkerson said the Obama campaign is searching out office space in Cobb. Probably south Cobb, but perhaps north Cobb.
Comments
By American War
July 8, 2008 9:17 AM | Link to this
Conservatism is dead. Stallwart GOP stall wart Sen. Craig sounded taps, with his flag at halfmast.
Obama 08: Just listen. And hear.
By Larry Kitchens
July 8, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this
I see Obama had to go to a Cobb School that is 54% black to draw a crowd. To bad he didn’t pick an North or East Cobb School they would have plenty of empty seats for sure.
By Bella
July 8, 2008 12:17 PM | Link to this
The tickets for this even were gone in two hours. It would not matter if he was at Walton, Kell, or any other Cobb school. It would still have been packed.