We attended the February gathering of Washington For Obama at Piecora’s pizza parlor on Saturday. Organizers said that the Seattle Meetup group is the largest in the country—with about 80 people in attendance. After one member rose and gave a short review of Obama’s life up to his election to the Illinois State Senate (no mention of madrassas), another attendee rose to explain his voting record. In excruciating detail. With quotes from Obama’s books. The lead organizer started giving the progressive’s version of the cut sign–leaning forward with a somewhat doleful expression on his face.

“Just a few more things,” the speaker said. And then he promised to compare Hillary Clinton’s Senate votes to Obama’s and began shuffling through his papers. A solidly-built former Dean campaign staff member rose and stood next to him slightly menacingly. We began to feel protective of our new brother-in-arms.

We thought, “If he gets to Senate bill 3569: The United States-Oman Free Trade Agreement, that man is going to drop-kick him.” After another couple of minutes, the speaker got the message and stepped down.

“That’s the kind of commitment we expect from Obama volunteers,” said the former Deaniac.

Image courtesy of Flickr user vmoney.