Local supporters are captivated by Obama’s speech

Marsha Scutvick of Mill Creek became a Barack Obama fan last year and had no qualms spending six hours under a hot sun in a Denver football stadium to hear him speak Thursday night.

When the Illinois senator finished, she felt inspired and emotionally drained, like so many in the crowd of 80,000 people.

“He didn’t let us down on emotion. People were going crazy, people were in tears,” said Scutvick, an alternate delegate at the now-completed Democratic National Convention. Scutvick spoke by phone from Denver.

“He also got to specific points that some people keep saying he’s missing. I thought he was bold and feisty and the crowd just loved it,” she said. “I thought it was a terrific balance.”

Deanna Dawson, an Edmonds City Councilwoman and delegate for Hillary Clinton, called it a “very moving speech.”

“I was really happy that it was such a positive message. He had just the right level of specificity and at the same time gave people a vision for America,” she said from Denver.

In downtown Snohomish, a group of Obama faithful gathered to watch the speech on television. Their reaction might have been predictable but was heartfelt nonetheless.

“Powerful,” said Eleanor Walters, 53.

The speech, said 39-year-old Chris Chisholm, “had history with new words and new phrases, not just quotes from the past. It’s nice to finally have that in my generation.”

Obama, who gained national prominence at the 2004 Democratic national convention, is the first African-American to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party. As of Thursday, in nationwide polling he narrowly led Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican Party nominee.

Obama’s 44-minute address marked the first acceptance speech delivered at an outdoor venue since John F. Kennedy addressed delegates in the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960.

In his acceptance speech, Obama enumerated in general terms domestic, foreign and social policy positions he will pursue and which will provide a basis for debate with McCain in the coming weeks.

Former Secretary of State Ralph Munro, a Republican and leader of McCain’s effort in Washington, said Americans still learned little about the Democratic candidate.

“Now that the fireworks are over and the huge multi-million-dollar stage is being dismantled we are left with questions. What does Senator Obama really stand for?” he said.

Obama’s call for a tax cut for working families and increased support for returning troops and the wounded are longstanding positions of McCain, he said.

“Like Bill Clinton, I think he is moving toward a Republican agenda. But we will beat him at his own game,” Munro said.

Convention delegates James Trefry of Everett and Snoho­mish County Executive Aaron Reardon offered the opposite view from inside Denver’s Invesco Field.

“I think he laid out a game plan to undo the damage of the last eight years of Republican control of the White House,” Trefry said.

Reardon said Obama “removed any doubt about his readiness for the job.

“He provided a clear contrast of where he wants to take this country, where we’ve been under President Bush and where John McCain wants to continue,” he said.

That feeling echoed among 60 people watching on a big-screen TV in the Snohomish home of Karen Guzak and her partner Warner Blake.

During the speech, the group cheered and clapped in many of the same places as those in person in Denver.

One of the biggest cheers erupted when Obama said, “If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament and judgment to serve as the next commander in chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.”

Mike Sheehan, 46, of Everett, said it was good to watch the speech with other like-minded people.

“We clapped, and they couldn’t hear us,” he said of the crowd in Denver. “But we could all hear each other.”

Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.