In Other News, Scientologists Back Hillary
"FAIRFIELD, Iowa — Sen. Barack Obama drew his heartiest welcome of a two-day swing through Iowa in the state's capital of inner peace.
"To the frustration of the cameramen in the Fairfield town square, Obama delivered his remarks facing east, with the setting sun behind him blotting out their shots.
"But here, there’s a power even higher than the television networks: Obama had positioned himself in alignment with the rotation of the earth, in accordance with the teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose followers moved en masse to this small Iowa city more than 30 years ago.
"The Maharishi’s transcendental meditators, along with vacationing pilgrims from the East Coast, turned out in large numbers in the town’s traditional green square to hear the Illinois senator deliver his stump speech on the night of July 3 — more people, Fairfield’s sheriff said, than had come out to greet a sitting president.
“I saw him and I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is somebody who could lead us into a new era,’” said Nancy Watkins, an international student adviser at the Maharishi University of Management.
"The meditators cheered Obama heartily — not at his occasional gestures toward political red meat, but at the lines that sometimes leave other audiences in silence.
They were responding to the senator’s call for national renewal that, though perhaps more Christian than New Age in concept, fit comfortably into a town square hemmed by shops with names like “Revelations” and the “Healthy Inspiration.”
“Somehow we have lost the capacity to recognize ourselves in each other,” Obama said, to an intently nodding crowd of at least 1,000. “You know, people talk a lot about the federal deficit, but one of the things that I always talk about is … an empathy deficit,” he continued, to applause."
"To the frustration of the cameramen in the Fairfield town square, Obama delivered his remarks facing east, with the setting sun behind him blotting out their shots.
"But here, there’s a power even higher than the television networks: Obama had positioned himself in alignment with the rotation of the earth, in accordance with the teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose followers moved en masse to this small Iowa city more than 30 years ago.
"The Maharishi’s transcendental meditators, along with vacationing pilgrims from the East Coast, turned out in large numbers in the town’s traditional green square to hear the Illinois senator deliver his stump speech on the night of July 3 — more people, Fairfield’s sheriff said, than had come out to greet a sitting president.
“I saw him and I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is somebody who could lead us into a new era,’” said Nancy Watkins, an international student adviser at the Maharishi University of Management.
"The meditators cheered Obama heartily — not at his occasional gestures toward political red meat, but at the lines that sometimes leave other audiences in silence.
They were responding to the senator’s call for national renewal that, though perhaps more Christian than New Age in concept, fit comfortably into a town square hemmed by shops with names like “Revelations” and the “Healthy Inspiration.”
“Somehow we have lost the capacity to recognize ourselves in each other,” Obama said, to an intently nodding crowd of at least 1,000. “You know, people talk a lot about the federal deficit, but one of the things that I always talk about is … an empathy deficit,” he continued, to applause."
I've fallen behind and I can't get up.
ReplyDeleteEven my own U.S. Rep, Ellison, has been getting great ink this week for his appearance before atheists.