Shanghai, China, Tuesday night:
Left-leaning Shanghai expats braved an electricity crisis and trampled through a week's worth of grey slushy snow to show their support for Barack Obama at URBN, the new carbon neutral hotel just north of the city's historic Jingan Temple.
The chic, boutique hotel has yet to open to the general public -- rumor has it's still waiting on it's license -- but the lobby bistro dubbed, "roomtwentyeight," is primed for gatherings. Chock full of conceptual appeal, this space tantalizes the diehard democrat with its natural, eco-friendly elements. AOO Architecture took an energy-guzzling old factory and converted it into a modern, green accommodation using recycled materials like old Shanghai bricks.
In the midst of the pollution, grime and waste that often characterizes Shanghai, the country's first carbon friendly hotel seemed a blessed and apt sanctuary to hold this rally for "change."
Barack Obama is the only candidate to generate any momentum in China. Whilst nary a peep has been heard from Hillary or Edwards supporters, Barack has been buzzing for months here at diners and mixers.
This year, some of us six million Americans living overseas found our tongues lolling when we heard that Democrats Abroad had developed the first ever, global primary. This election, instead of relying on some foreign postal system to deliver paper ballots in time, we could cast votes on the Internet. Computers set up at last night's rally encouraged us take advantage of the innovation.
I imagine the conversation at this rally resembled that of Obama conventions throughout the homeland. Voters discussed how Obama has out-twittered Hillary and the effectiveness of his website's font (gotham). Exchange, "how many hours a day do you study Mandarin" for "where did you find a nanny who speaks Mandarin" and Shanghai could very well have been New York City.
Meatballs, cheese balls, and pungent liver segued into the South Carolina victory speech splashed across a film size screen. Those of us who had yet to hear the oration because we don't have illegal Filipino cable, or our Internet is on the fritz perked up mightily.
Barack is no stranger to the first person plural pronoun and a speech aimed to make everyone feel included actually connected with those of us on the opposite side of the globe. Looking around the hundred or so rapt faces I thought maybe "we are ready to believe again." And by the time Obama finished telling me about some grizzled old lady who wrote a check for $3.01, I had no plans to tell him "we can't change."
Steering clear of the smear, Obama willingly praised his competitors -- an act that seemed as foreign to me as eating dog. When he roared that we must "end the disastrous policies of the current administration," he reminded me of the same thing China does on a daily basis: I am lucky to have a vote, to be an American.
Whether he's channeling Dr. King (and he is) or funneling democrats' eight years of resentments through gifted rhetorical devices, Obama delivers the message of change with a goose-fleshed panache that John Kerry couldn't have feigned to muster had he run against someone as fumbling as, well, George W. Bush.
And for the record, Jon Favreau is one kickass speechwriter.