Obama Gets “Fired up and Ready to Go” in Greenwood, SC
Barack Obama returned to Greenwood, South Carolina, today to hold a rally. But this isn’t just any town in South Carolina – it’s the home of Edith Childs. Childs has been a staple in Obama’s stump speech all across Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and beyond. Obama often uses his Greenwood tale to rally voters into believing that one voice can make a difference.
Obama’s kicker can run anywhere from five to more than ten minutes, depending on the level of detail he includes. Usually the senator recounts making a promise to a local Greenwood city council member to come visit her town in exchange for her endorsement. As he describes it, he gets into Greenville late after a long day of campaigning. A staffer taps his shoulder to tell him he has to be ready to go by six am because they have to go to Greenville. He wakes up and is more tired than he was when he went to bed. He reads a bad story about himself in the New York Times. It’s raining. His umbrella breaks. He gets wet. They drive and drive and drive to get to Greenwood - which, according to the senator, might just be in the middle of nowhere. Once he gets there, there are only 20 people who showed up - and they all look rained on and not too happy to see him. As he’s shaking hands, he sees a little, older lady wearing a church hat. “Fired up!” she yells. “Ready to go!” Obama is startled. The chant continues. Obama feels upstaged. She continues chanting and the others join in. Suddenly he starts to feel “fired up and ready to go.” Obama and his staff continue to use the phrase. People pick up on it and make T-shirts and signs. The Wall Street Journal writes a story on Childs. Oprah got “fired up” in South Carolina. It’s a phenomenon.
Obama’s traveling press has heard this story several times a day for months now (and can and sometimes do recite it along with him), so most of us were looking forward to this trip to Greenwood and a chance to meet Childs in person. It lived up to our expectations.
Childs, donned in a purple dress, hat and matching purse, watched Obama’s speech in a reserved seat in the gymnasium on the campus of Greenwood’s Lander University, politely clapping at applause lines. As the senator began the story, she stood just off stage, laughing. Senator Obama called her on stage, and, well, take a look:
done
Following the event, Childs was swarmed by the press corps. She was asked about her thoughts on race, religion, and even Hillary Clinton. She also corrected a couple of factual mistakes in Obama’s story. There were, in fact, 38 people who turned out to see him - not 20. And, more importantly, she is not in her 60s as Obama describes her. She’s only 59. “But that’s OK. Men can’t tell age, OK? So that’s OK - just like they can’t tell weight!”
Tags: edith childs, fired up, greenwood, obama, South Carolina, stump speech
Share
I’m Fired up and Ready to go.
Obama ‘08
I love Mrs. Childs. She is just great. South Carolina, go out and vote for this great man on Saturday and make this country proud again.
Obama 08
CIAO EVERYONE. MSN & CNN JUST READ THE SLANDEROUS QUOTE FROM FOX EMBEDS re. 1. Obama is a Mulim 2, when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran. 3, Obama refuses to salute the flag , et. al
Great God Almighty, ALL LIES. ALL LIES. ALL LIES. AS THE ANCHORMAN SAID, “IT DOES PROVE ONE THING, HOW LOW PEOPLE CAN STOOP. WHOMEVER WROTE THE TRASH IS WORSE THAN ANY CHARGE THEY WROTE.
HERE’S HOPING BRILLIANT HACKERS CAN TRACK DOWN THE DESPICABLE TWEEBS & THEY CAN BE TRIED FOR SLANDER. IT FOR SURE WAS NOT “SATIRE” OR “PARADY.”
HELLO. THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS. PERHAPS YOU BELONG WITH THE LIKES OF LENIN, STALIN, JIM JONES . IT REALLY IS–THE WAY YOU PLAY THE GAME THAT TELLS THE WARRIOR HEROES IN THIS WORLD.
YAHOO. IT IS NOT NOT NOT TRUE; ALL WRITTEN BY SOME PITIFUL, TWISTED.
EVER ONWARD AND UPWARD ! EMPOWER AMERICA!
VOTE - HILLARY CLINTON - America’s True Presidential Leader - President ! ! ! ! !
AMERICA NEEDS - HILLARY CLINTON - PRESIDENT ! ! ! !
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MESSAGE to BILL CLINTON:
~~~~Please STUMP for HILLARY CLINTON until you drop ! ! ! ! ! !
~~~~Please STUMP for HILLARY CLINTON until you drop ! ! ! ! ! !
~~~~Please STUMP for HILLARY CLINTON until you drop ! ! ! ! ! !
AMERICA NEEDS - HILLARY CLINTON - PRESIDENT ! ! ! ! !
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YOU GO GIRL!!!!!
YOU GO GIRL!!!!!
YOU GO GIRL!!!!!
YOU GO GIRL!!!!!
Mr. Obama
What happened to your website that was up and running a few days ago? You know this one http://www.islamichope.com ? Could it be because you claim to want to unite all colors and religions but yet there was not one white or latino person shown on your website? Now, you have brainwashed americans to think that you are going to be a leader for all colors and religions and our country is headed for another 4 years of pure hell. You have NO experience with one year as senator and so you have to pull the racial card. You are a joke!
Put your website back up and let everyone look at it, if you have nothing to hide. Oh, thats right, you ran behind the curtain again yesterday when you were asked a hard question that you obviously could not answer.. so I guess you will find another hiding spot when your asked the above question.
Theres your presidential candidate everyone…catch him if you can. But then again, don’t waste your time or breath cause he will just lie to you anyway.
How soon everyone forgets how this country flurished while the Clintons were in the white house. I bet you wish he was still there now that your wallets are suffering with the Bush administration. Obama will be the same…
Go Obama!!
People that are spreading lies about Obama, are from Hillary campaign.
It’s dirty politic.
Hillary, and her Husband are very competitive liars.
Hillary campaign can’t get nothing on Obama so they start spreading lies.
A friend of mine, Jon Bergevin called me up a few days ago and asked if I could help with a recording event he was producing. He and his brother Joe had written a song the week prior. It was inspired by Edith Child’s “fired up and ready to go” moment which Joe had seen online. That call lead to a bunch more phone calls and everyone asking, what can I do to help?
Monday (MLK Day), a group of friends (over 60 people), some old, some new, assembled at the Columbia City theater in Seattle to join in helping record and document the recording of the song “Fired UP, Ready to Go”. Organized in less than ten days (from the first notes put to page written to the last notes sung on stage), the all-day recording session included Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam), Arturo Rodriguez and Seattle’s mighty Pastor Pat Wright and her Total Experience Gospel Choir.
Matt, Pastor Wright, her Choir, all the musicians, studio engineers, photographers, video team, theater owner, caterers… gave to this project freely, without condition. Pretty cool, all on the shortest of notice. I was excited with how immediately, unconditionally and fully everyone jumped in. I think the song shows some of that juice.
The first studio cut can be previewed at Bergevin Bros. Music on mySpace.
Eventually we will have a final cut which can be downloaded and shared. Also, a video is in production which we’d like to have done by next week.
Images from the recording session are posted online here.
This moment in the campaign inspired a great musical event here in Seattle. Brothers Jon, Joe and Jake Bergevin, Matt Cameron, the drummer from Pearl Jam, pastor Pat Wright and her Total Experience Gospel choir recorded “FiredUp, Ready to Go“. Pic’s from the event here.
This song is inspired out of that moment and intended to be a rally tune for the campaign. Jon and Joe and friends assembled a the whole event in less than ten days. Everyone gave their time freely and every service was donated, engineers, musicians, video production (youTube video coming this weekend), catering, theater, studio… Everyone called said, yes, what can I do to help. It’s super how people are willing to come together for Obama and create something beautiful.
We got fired up, check out the new song we created with the help of many others at our myspace location
http://www.myspace.com/bergevinbrothersmusic
We were honored to have Edit Childs listen to the music today and express her delightedness at what we created for the campaign.
Check out Obama’s new song, Fired Up Ready to Go, by the Bergevin Brothers and others in Seattle. Enjoy! Inspired by Obama and Childs.
Hmmmm… the guy literally has rock star status - very hard to believe he’d be out on a rainy day, wet, with a broken umbrellan, and only 20 supporters showing up. Spin.
I saw the video and was very inspired. Sent it to a bunch of friends. I wish I could go see him on Saturday in Seattle.
Yes, the rightwing has done an incredible job for the past 16 years of trashing the Clintons. Now they want Hillary to be President???? Ann Coulter even wants to campaign for her??? Rush & Hannity are at a loss, wondering who they will support? They’re going to support Hillary, too???!!!
LMAO. Too little, too late.