Obama backers remaining positive

By Deb Kelly
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE May 07, 2008 12:15 am

— Volunteers with the Barack Obama campaign were not crying in their beer Tuesday evening as results of the Democratic primary came in across the state.
While Sen. Obama managed to secure just 41 percent of the votes in Vigo County, overall in Indiana, the senator from Illinois continued to close the gap between himself and opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton.
After polls closed, volunteers with the Obama campaign headed over to Beef O’Brady’s restaurant in Terre Haute to watch election returns on CNN, where Indiana results were closely monitored throughout the evening.
Several dozen volunteers packed a back room of the restaurant, and the atmosphere was one of victory, even though their candidate appeared to have lost the state.
The television, which proclaimed Obama had won North Carolina, continued to show Indiana “too close to call,” until late into the evening.
Casey Chatham, 29, a volunteer from Terre Haute said, “I’ve expected the state to be close, and I’m prepared for either result, but the bottom line is, I am extremely proud of the effort we’ve made these last few days.”
As the gap between Clinton and Obama decreased from 10 percentage points to just four in Indiana, supporters cheered and clapped one another on the back, raising glasses of beer.
Chatham, a nurse at Union Hospital, had been volunteering as a nurse in Kenya “up until a week and a half ago,” he said.
“My absentee ballot was sent from Nairobi,” he added. “It cost me $57 to Fed Ex that ballot!”
Chatham said while the cost shocked him, “this is the first time I’ve been this passionate about politics, and this is the first time Indiana has mattered in my life. If this is what it costs, I thought, so be it.”
Chatham said that if Obama ends up on the ticket in November, he will campaign for him.
“As long as he’s in the race, I’m in it with him,” Chatham said.
Deb Kelly can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.kelly@tribstar.com.