Secrets of the City

Local bloggers report on their experiences with Obama’s Saturday speech at te Target Center:

Bekiyrah offers a photo. (More)
Aaron also offers a photograph.
Jennifer Larson shows some Obama supporters.
House of Procrastination with photos and observations.
Urban Sketchers draws the protesters.

Brauer says informed sources say yes: The topic makes sense; Obama will give a national address on health care reform to Congress Wednesday night. The local stop could be part of a high-profile national swing to rally public support behind whatever specifics he endorses. Obama has often praised Rochester-based Mayo Clinic, so perhaps he’s leveraging that medical institution’s home state.

Lisa Jack, a professor at Augsburg College, and Barack Obama were classmates at Occidental College in the 1980s. An exhibit of photos she took then are now on display in Los Angeles at the M+B Gallery, West Hollywood. [via LATimes]

Jack rummaged for the long-ignored negatives in her Minneapolis basement early in 2008, after it became clear Obama was a serious contender for the presidency. The callow kid kicking back on a couch in a living room near L.A.’s Occidental College, where he and Jack were students, may not have been the image the Obama campaign wanted to project. “I’m sure Hillary would have paid a fortune for them: ‘Is this who you want picking up the phone at 3 a.m.?’ ” Jack said from Minneapolis, her discourse earthy, humorous and freewheeling, sometimes salty.

Just kidding! But it is a matter a fact that the Electoral College, not the popular vote of citizens, elects the President (and Vice President) of the United States. In Minnesota, that vote happens at noon today, in the Capitol Rotunda. The event is free and open to the public.

I have spoken out against the Electoral College and in favor of direct popular voting for the Presidency, but even I think this would be cool to watch happen. My wife works in Saint Paul and she might get to the Capitol today to see some history.