I worked to elect Barack Obama President because I saw him speak at Ira Allen Chapel in 2006

Philip Baruth

Back in 2006, I heard that Barack Obama – then the junior Senator from Illinois – would be coming to UVM to campaign for Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch.  Obama was pretty well known at that time, at least among political junkies, but he wasn’t nearly as famous as he is today.  Still, what I’d seen of him I liked a lot – his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention had knocked everyone’s socks off.  So I decided to swing by the Chapel when my last class let out, and catch Obama’s act.

Now, what I hadn’t counted on was that about 2,700 other people would have the same idea.  The buzz around the event had obviously been bigger than I knew.  By the time I walked out of Old Mill to head to the Chapel, there was a line stretching all the way down the street.  Big buses were parked at the curb; clearly, folks from elsewhere in the state had gotten the word as well.  One look at that line told me that most of the people in it wouldn’t be getting in to see Obama.

But I had two advantages that no one else in line had: 1) the security detail contained two of my ex-students, and 2) I wanted to get in badly enough that I was willing to cheat a little bit, if absolutely necessary.  Am I proud of that today?  No.  Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat.

Turned out it was absolutely necessary.  But one of my ex-students managed to get me access to a well-guarded side door, and before long I was in a pew about twenty feet from the stage.  And I’m here to tell you, it was one of the most amazing events I’ve ever attended in Vermont.  Not so much for what Obama said or how he said it – although he said wonderful things in very persuasive ways.  No, it was more the reaction of the crowd, inside and outside.

For one thing, the crowd outside never left – even after being told that there were no more seats.  They clustered around the building, maybe a thousand of them, pressed against the windows.  In fact, as Obama was speaking – I can recognize the speech now as a very early version of his 2008 stump speech on Hope and Change – one guy stood up outside one of the Chapel’s tall, tall windows and yelled and banged on the windows when the speech hit a true high moment.  Inside and outside people were going crazy, but in the best way, crazy together, without worrying about whether their craziness made sense or might be laughed at by a more cynical person.

That’s when I realized that this skinny guy at the podium was what we needed, at that particular moment, in a country that hadn’t had a lot to cheer about for a good long while.  A few months later, although Obama still wasn’t yet a candidate for President, some friends and I formed a group called Vermonters for Obama to try to convince him to enter the race.  And by the time the junior Senator from Illinois did throw his hat in the ring – on February 10, 2007, my birthday actually – we were ready.

The rest, of course, is history.

— Philip Baruth, Writer & Professor, University of Vermont