Saturday, August 23, 2008
YOUNGSTOWN — Delegates from the Mahoning Valley expect to have a good time at the Democratic National Convention, but most importantly they are going to witness history.
The political party will formally make U.S. Sen. Barack Obama its 2008 presidential nominee — the first time a black person has earned that honor.
“I’m almost, but not quite, bursting at the thought of this,” said state Rep. Tom Letson of Warren, D-64th. “It’s not something we’ll see many times. To be there when history is made is going to be exciting.”
The Democratic National Convention in Denver’s Pepsi Center starts Monday. The convention heads outdoors Thursday as Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for president at INVESCO Field at Mile High. The football stadium can hold more than 75,000.
Letson, an early Obama supporter, is an alternate convention delegate and will be at the stadium for Obama’s acceptance speech. This is Letson’s first national convention.
For Timothy Callion of Champion, a convention delegate and Obama supporter, this is his second. The vice president of Plumber and Pipefitters Local 396 was a John Kerry delegate when the Massachusetts senator was the party’s 2004 nominee.
“I was wide-eyed in 2004,” he said. “I had to pinch myself to believe I was there.”
Callion said the address given by Obama, of Illinois, then a U.S. Senate candidate, was the highlight of the 2004 convention.
“Some people said at the time that one day this guy would be a legitimate presidential candidate,” he said. “I just didn’t think it would be so soon.”
Callion said he’s eager to see the party unite behind Obama after the Illinois senator defeated U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in a hard-fought battle for support of a majority of the Democratic delegates.
For the complete story, see Sunday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.