It was billed as a celebration, but Sunday’s Obama RadioNation event in Lisner Auditorium was equal parts political rally and discussion.
Fans of progressive talk radio gathered to hear from six different radio hosts and several other liberal luminaries. Hosted by longtime commentator Bill Press, Obama RadioNation was broadcast live on C-SPAN and radio stations across the country.
Press and talk show hosts Randi Rhodes, Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, Joe Madison and Errol Louis reflected on last fall’s election and the role it played in Obama’s win.
“There’s a new sheriff in town,” Press said. “We made a big difference in 2008, and we’re here to stay.”
They all agreed of the need to “hold [the Obama administration’s] feet to the fire” and ensure that they follow through on the promises they made during the campaign. Schultz said Obama’s ability to triumph over seemingly impossible odds gives him faith that he will be a good president.
“When this guy says he has a plan, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to trust him,” Schultz said.
In addition to the radio hosts, the event also featured Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, labor leader Terry O’Sullivan and civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton.
Introduced by Press as “America’s favorite cowboy” and wearing his signature blue jeans and bolo tie, Schweitzer lashed out at those who give President Bush credit for having prevented another terrorist attack.
“While he was president, the Golden Gate Bridge did not collapse, Arizona did not invade California, and the Detroit Lions did not win the Super Bowl,” Schweitzer said to loud applause.
O’Sullivan, president of Laborers International Union of North America, recited a long list of grievances against the Bush administration, which he called “the most anti-union, anti-worker administration in the history of our country.”
Sharpton, who appeared via phone after getting stuck in the city’s inauguration traffic, said that while Obama’s victory was a great achievement, it does not mean America is free of racial problems.
“Those who say Civil Rights is over are those who said there was never a civil right problem in this country to begin with,” he said.
Guests at the event included visitors from Seattle, Detroit, Chicago and Boston. The crowd was told to show their enthusiasm and they gladly indulged, loudly cheering at remarks they agreed with. Praise for Obama and Senator-elect Al Franken (D-Minn.), himself a former talk radio host, received the most applause, along with negative comments about Sarah Palin and a call for members of the Bush Administration to be tried for crimes they allegedly committed in office.
“In this country, no man is above the law,” Press agreed to further applause.
The event was often informal, with Rhodes pulling her boyfriend on stage, Press and Miller dancing to the live music provided by the Capitol Hillbillies and all of the commentators posing for photos and signing autographs during commercial breaks.
The forum participants laughed and joked with each other throughout the program.
“I’m so drunk already,” Miller joked at the outset of the show. She later provided some of the show’s more ribald moments, joking about her “Obama thong.”
GW Vice President of Communications Michael Freedman introduced Press and spoke briefly about the University’s politically active student body. Mentioning the revelers outside the White House on election night, Freedman said “an awful lot of them” were GW students.
Jeri Hammond, a middle school teacher from Orlando, Fla., who made the trip to Washington with her husband Jim, said she enjoyed being around people who were equally as enthusiastic about Obama and the progressive movement, in contrast to her hometown. A veteran of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, Hammond said that for her, Obama’s election has been a reawakening of everything that was lost forty years ago.
“It was like this light went out in the country,” she said of the assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King. “And now it’s like the lights are coming back on.”
