January 23, 2008
"Fired Up! Ready To Go!" Lady Makes S.C. Appearance For Obama, Wants Ticket To Inaugural
GREENWOOD, S.C. -- The "little woman" from Greenwood who inspired Barack Obama to use "Fired Up! Ready to Go!" as his central campaign chant has been part mystery, part myth since the candidate started telling her story four or five times a day on the stump.
But yesterday, "the little woman," Councilwoman Edith Childs, made an in-the-flesh appearance with her favorite presidential candidate. Dressed in a purple suit with her trademark hat, "a church hat" as Obama often refers to it, Childs joined Obama on stage at a town hall here to lead the crowd in her own rendition of "Fired Up! Ready to Go!"
"Fired Up! Ready to Go! Fired Up! Ready to Go!" Childs chanted in a singsong. (Obama's delivery usually has a little more punch.) Childs added a twist to her call this time, getting the crowd to repeat after her, "Obama! Obama! Obama!" and "Will be! Will be! Will be!" followed by "Our next! Our next! Our next!" and finally "Pres-ah-dent! Pres-ah-dent! Pres-ah-dent!"
Obama doubled over with laughter as Childs lead the crowd in the chant and hugged her after she finished.
Childs later held court with reporters, and she corrected some facts about Obama's trail tale of the day the chant was born. There were 38 people who showed up to hear him speak that day, not twenty as he likes to tell it. He was annoyed, Childs said, rather than bewildered when he first heard her chanting slowly and the assembled crowd began to join in. And she joked that he doesn't get her age right; Childs is 59 and not in her sixties as Obama always says.
She also said that she thinks Obama will win S.C. in a "landslide" Saturday and that Bill Clinton is crossing the line with his attacks. And she has only one request for Obama should he win the presidency.
"I want an invitation to an inaugural ball!" Childs said, looking straight into the TV cameras.
(NBC/NJ's ASWINI ANBURAJAN)
Posted at 10:47 AM
Comments
2 explanations. Either the Obama campaign is brilliant beyond belief, "setting up" a relative stranger to "spontaneously" develop a chant that has become a mantra, or... it's actually true, and like any good politician they are milking it for all it's worth. Seems to me that this smacks at being distinctly different from the Clinton camp's habit of "suggesting" questions to attendees as supposedly open town hall meetings. They (both Clintons) are supposed to be the brilliant ones, so I think I'll chalk up the "little woman's" chant to the truth.
Len | 01.24.08 09:37 AM
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