Obama “Welcome to Sunshine Florida”


May 24th, 2008

From the Washington Post Senator Obama made a classic performance mistake, not knowing where you are:

How’s it going, Sunshine? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everybody. It’s good to be in Sunshine!” Obama declared on taking the stage this afternoon for a rally at the BankAtlantic Arena in Broward County, Fla., just west of Ft. Lauderdale.

But then he said it again, and again — “When we are unified sunshine, nobody can stop us!” — and it became clear: Obama thought he was in Sunshine, Fla. But he was not. He was in Sunrise, the name given to this particular swath of South Florida palm trees, bungalows and outlet stores.

If the 16,000 in attendance noticed, they didn’t make it known. There was no dropoff in applause as Obama experienced recently when he opened a speech in Sioux Falls, S.D. by declaring, “Thank you, Sioux City!” before realizing that he had named the Iowa city by mistake. Perhaps the crowd here also thought the “Sunshine” might be a figurative reference, or perhaps there is simply less local possessiveness when it comes to a Sun Belt exurb with vaguely defined borders and an even more vaguely defined identity, especially given that many of those in attendance came from elsewhere in the county.

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