The "Grand" Opening of Obama's Utah Headquarters

Driving home from work on Friday, I was incredibly excited to hear that the Grand Opening of the Obama headquarters would be held on Saturday afternoon. Feeling (naively it turned out) that Obama's 50-state initiative was real, and that he would be making just as hard a push in Utah as Pennsylvania, I promptly entered the occasion into my Blackberry, moving back all of the things I actually needed to do that day.

As I approached the headquarters Saturday afternoon, I became excited by the big crowds and news camera milling about. By the time I actually got into the headquarters, however, the veil started to lift, and the complete bedlam and plain lack of funding began to set in.

In regards to the state and age of the building, it is due either to the aforementioned lack of funding, or the extreme cleverness of the Obama campaign. My first thought as I toured the headquarters was, "This place seems like it hasn't been updated or renovated since the Kennedy administration.” Now, in 1960, Utah did favor Eisenhower by only 9.6%, so maybe this is a tactical move. However, I'm pretty sure the antediluvian feel was not exactly intentional. On top of this, the building was small and the event was, overall, poorly organized.

Unfortunately, this afternoon was more a harsh reminder of just how hollow the rhetoric of politicians can be, rather than the inspiring and catalytic event it could have been. While Obama's "50-state strategy" sounds great, I'm guessing the purpose is more to impress voters in swing states, than actually increase his chances in die-hard red states. After all, by having a 50-state strategy, a Pennsylvanian will project the effort in Pennsylvania 50 times over, since this is the only mental image the Pennsylvanian has of the campaign.

I suppose none of this is earth shattering, or mountain moving. Rather, it was an apt reminder of my favorite phrase from 4 years of high school Latin, "Facta non verba," deeds not words.