Barack Obama speaks to a crowd in Sioux Falls on Friday.
Story Created:
May 17, 2008 at 1:42 AM CDT
Story Updated:
May 17, 2008 at 7:16 AM CDT
About 7,000 people packed the Sioux Falls arena Friday to see democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, and his speech may have swayed some of the undecided voters in the crowd.
Bernie Larsen was one of several people who came to see Senator Obama without knowing whether she would back Barack or Senator Hillary Clinton.
"You'll hear it," Larsen said before the speech. "I'll know what I hear tonight, and I'll know if he's the guy or not."
University of Sioux Falls student Jon Bohlen took time to see Senator Clinton speak last week before turning out to see Obama, yet, before the speech, he told us he wasn't even sure he'd vote democrat.
"It's really down to every candidate," Bohlen said. "I'd still like to hear what McCain has to say. It'd be great if he'd come to South Dakota and talk to us."
Like the thousands of others in attendance Larsen and Bohlen both wanted to see Obama because of the excitement he has generated across the country, but they also wanted to hear his stance on key issues.
"What he's going to do about energy, housing, really just about the economy in general," Bohlen said.
"I think you can see all around us that (the economy) is not very good," Larsen says. "And people are talking about it. This is the worst I remember seeing it."
When Obama took the stage, he talked about the need to tap into South Dakota for both renewable energy and job creation, he also addressed change in Washington beginning with regulating special interests. Obama also addressed education and the energy crisis by offering tax credits to working families and scholarships to students to attend college. It didn't take long for those themes to win over both Larsen and Bohlen.
"He's going to bring wind energy to South Dakota, get corn energy, Biofuels..." Bohlen said after the speech. "Yeah, I did like that a lot."
"It feels good just to hear somebody offering all that, and you have hope in somebody like him." Larsen said. "And that's what I think I feel."
Both Larsen and Bohlen said the speech also helped them make up their minds.
"He really was a positive influence," Bohen said afterward. "I think I really will cast (a vote) for Barack."
"Yeah, I'm going to vote for him," Larsen said.
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