This week’s Loose Lips column gets into how much Mayor Adrian Fenty’s support for Sen. Barack Obama in Tuesday’s presidential primary means to the candidate. DeBonis also follows it up with a City Desk post today highlighting the main reason Obama has Fenty’s devotion: the Illinois Senator has been a steadfast supporter of voting rights for the District.
The Obama train certainly seems unstoppable in the District, given the city’s demographics — apart from a small Hispanic population, we’re all either black or college-educated or both, all of which are Obama’s bread and butter. The results of our totally unscientific reader poll also shows overwhelming support for Obama.
We bring this up because it’s important, but also as an excuse to finally get to use some quotes friend-of-DCist and American Prospect blogger Ezra Klein scored for us back when Fenty went up to New Hampshire to stump for Obama (and to lobby the state to express its support for our voting rights). If you believe that Mayor Fenty is plugged directly into Barack Obama’s brain, and there is some evidence this might be true, it looks like Obama is a big fan of the impending switch to taxi meters. Here’s the back and forth with Fenty Ezra sent us after the New Hampshire primary:
What brings you down here?
I’m out here to support Barack Obama and bring a great new president to the country.
It’s not because this is the tightest concentration of your constituents outside the District right now?
There are a lot of D.C. residents out here. They also know he’s the best person to run the country for the next four years.
Were you out there campaigning for him?
We went to several precincts today, very enthusiastic crowds, record turnout. It’s a great thing.
What do you think of these results?
It’s never possible to really predict what will happen when people go into the voting booth. But I think if you asked this campaign two or three months ago how they’d feel about a win in Iowa and a close second in Hew Hampshire, they’d have said, “that would be music to my ears.”
How does Barack Obama feel about the crucial issue of meters in cabs?
We haven’t talked about it, but I bet he’s a meter guy.
