Published: August 26, 2008 11:26 pm            

Convention on local Democrats’ minds

With Barack Obama’s historic run for the U.S. presidency on center stage this week at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Whitfield Democrats were abuzz Tuesday night at their monthly meeting in downtown Dalton.

Much of the chatter before and during the business session was about Monday evening’s main speakers, Michelle Obama and the cancer-stricken Ted Kennedy, the second-longest serving member of the U.S. Senate whose speech was called “a tearjerker.”

“(Mrs. Obama) came across as a very professional lady to me, with a good head on her shoulders,” said Mavis Hackney, a native of Great Britain who has been in America since 1984. “She was inspiring to me in the sense that she’s letting her husband pursue his dreams even with the obvious issues against him, the No. 1 issue being his race, of course.”

Tom Phipps, a retired teacher, was impressed with the varied lineup of speakers on opening night.

“One of the things I liked was that they had a lot of speakers who were not well known, not celebrities,” he said. “The party went to different states and got a diverse group, with Hispanics, blacks, and a lot of young people also. One of the officers of the party is Japanese, and I like to see that diversity. There are a lot of average workers in the party.”

Local Democrats running for office also appeared at the meeting, including incumbent Sheriff Scott Chitwood, Whitfield Tax Commissioner candidate Jim Miller and state House of Representatives District 3 candidate Ralph Noble.

“I’ve been doing a lot of campaigning door-to-door,” Noble said when he rose to speak. “What I’m hearing is a lot of people telling me how bad things are right now — a carpenter who’s laid off and hoping his wife keeps her job, an elderly lady who can’t pay for her medicines, and a mother whose son is in and out of jail from using methamphetamine, but he can’t go to rehab because funds for treatment have been cut.

“In Georgia, powerful people are doing favors for powerful people, and legislators are asking to keep their pork.”

Noble said Barack Obama, Kennedy and other speakers at the convention will help “rally people together.”

The Whitfield Democrats mentioned a Young Democrats forum at Dalton State College they plan to support on Sept. 25.

        

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