US Democratic Party’s primaries scheduled for February 5 should be decisive, as they will be held in 20 states simultaneously. California, which was historically considered the state inclined to democrats, is the first address attracting attention of presidential candidates. It has several causes. First of all, California will send most delegations to the congress of Democratic Party. Secondly, about 600,000 Armenian voters have been registered in this state. There are not so many Armenians in other states. Taking into account that the territory of California – the Golden State of the US, is approximately five times larger than Azerbaijan, we can understand why 47-year-old Illinois senator Barack Obama opened five offices here. Two of the offices are located in the south of the state – Los Angeles and San Diego, the rest three in the north of the state – Auckland, Sacramento and Palo Alto. Besides, Obama has field offices in California. APA’s US bureau correspondent prepared a special report from one of these field offices in the City of San José, Capital of Silicon Valley.
Barack Obama’s field office in the center of San José, had been the library of Spanish and local Hindu writers. Obama rented the office a month ago. As you approach the office you see Obama’s slogan “Changes start with youâ€. One can see posters with this slogan in some other places of the office. The field office is decorated with Obama’s photos and U.S. flags. Any person entering the field office – can acquaint himself with the achievements of Barack Obama beginning from his childhood till the latest results of his election campaign. Special stand covers the senator’s program on the presidential elections that will be held in November, 2008. The program is all-round and makes clear all the issues that interest an ordinary voter. It covers the issues such as U.S. foreign policy, Iraq war, policy concerning youth, religion, rights of women and nations of Spanish origin, and even human and animal cloning.
It is interesting that there is not word neither about Azerbaijan, nor Caucasus in the program of foreign policy of Obama. But potential president promises that they will withdraw 2 military brigades from Iraq every month and return American soldiers to their motherland till the end of 2008 after he achieves supreme post. The black-skin candidate noted that raising foreign influence of US as one more purpose of foreign policy is priority. Taking into account, if Obama is elected president, 3 months will remain to the completion of 2008 and it will be impossible to remove 120,000-army from Iraq within this period, it is not difficult to perceive that senator’s statement will be of populist character. Nobody answered to questions given in the office regarding it. You can see support letter of Congressman Zoe Lofgren who was elected to Lower House of the Congress from San Hose among reports posted in the favor of Obama. Congressmen and other influential persons’ supporting candidates is one of the election traditions in US. The main momentum which attracts attention in the letter of Mr. Lofgren is to strike out his main rival from Democratic Party Hillary Clinton along with blowing up Obama’s achievements. Congressman said in his letter that Obama has functioned in the Congress for a long time and he is 5 years elder than John Kennedy’s presidential age. (Mr. Kennedy was elected president when he was 42). These facts reply to statements on Ms. Clinton’s rival’s being young and inexperienced. The main attention is paid to negative attitude to Ms. Clinton more than Republican candidates in Obama’s office. Volunteers in the office sound epithets “fascist of modern periodâ€, “George Bush’s liberal version†and “doll of large corporationsâ€.
As to those who work in the office, all of them are volunteers. Nobody knows the exact number of the volunteers, they have no exact program and strategy. The main purpose is to meet a lot of people and phone them. That is why phone sets in the office always work. Volunteers phone nearly 100 people every day. They start to work in the evening, as potential electors are at home that time. Each of the democrats has phone numbers and addresses of the electors supporting Party on each state. The important message they give in the meeting with people is slogan “Barack Obama will not change U.S., he will give you, especially youth chance to do these changesâ€.
John Kennedy used this slogan once. Obama tries to compare himself with John Kennedy.
Teacher Helen Sims, working in the office explained her love for Obama. She said that he did not receive material endowment form larger cooperations and understands what Americans want. Asked how he knows about it Obama said that he gave free legal advices in southern Chicago where Negroes lived, before entering faculty of law at Harvard University. Ms. Sims believed that he will bring a new breath to White House. Therefore she noted that people standing behind Hillary Clinton are those who took higher posts during Bill Clinton’s tenure.
“I was bored to see old faces in the policy,†Ms. Sims stressed.
22-year-old Taylor Wood, studying psychology at San Jose State University stated that he is a head of community at the university that supports Obama. He decided to support Obama after reading his book Courage of our Convictions. Mr. Wood noted that, unlike other politicians, Obama is very sincere person and never changes his position. Young student supports Obama’s position on immigration, Iraq conflict, especially Darfur (Sudan) genocide. But how is his position to Obama’s last statement on Armenian genocide? Wood stated that he has never heard about Armenian genocide. Other volunteers also repeated the same words in the office. Jizel Shmitz, heading offices noted that he has heard about 1915 events little. He is also unaware of who fought during these events. They got information from me about Obama’s last statement on Armenian genocide. Ms. Shmitz stated that though Armenians live in the northern California, there is no special interest for them. There is a special interest for Spanish voters. Therefore, Spanish volunteers work in the offices. They thought that, 36 %(12.5 million) Spanish voters will change the situation in Obama’s favor in California.42 % electors of California will vote for H.Vlinton,28% Barack Obama and 13% for John Edward according to latest survey./APA/
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