palmetto drug rehab

Lodi (wrestler)

Bradley Cain[4] (born September 8, 1970) is an American author, personal trainer and professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Lodi.

Cain is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling between 1997 and 2000, where he was a member of Raven's Flock stable and the tag team The West Hollywood Blondes.[4] After graduating from Eastern Randolph High School,[3] Cain attended East Carolina University in 1988, and graduated with a degree in political science in 1993.[2] During his time in college, Cain was both a member of the United States Army Reserve, serving as an operating room specialist, and a bodybuilder.[5] In 1997, Cain trained as a wrestler under Extreme Championship Wrestling alumnus C.W.

Anderson.

He debuted later that year, and began wrestling on the independent circuit either as a singles competitor or with his roommate Curtis White, who competed under the ring name Toad, as the tag team Dangerous Minds.[3] Lodi was a friend of Raven who helped him get a contract with WCW.[6] After being signed by World Championship Wrestling, Cain began training in their Power Plant wrestling school.[3] Prior to debuting on television, he was forced to adopt a new ring name due to his Razen Cain ring name being seen as too similar to the name of another wrestler from the World Wrestling Federation, then WCW's main rival.[3] The name was also turned down due to it being used by an independent wrestler, despite the fact that Cain wrestled under it prior to the wrestler who adopted it began using it.[3] Another proposed ring name, Skank, was also turned down due to an independent wrestler having used it for two years.[3] At World War 3 on November 23, 1997, Cain debuted under the ring name Lodi ("Idol" spelled backwards, which came about due to his perceived resemblance to rock musician Billy Idol).[3][7] Lodi was introduced as a member of Raven's Flock as an injury replacement for Stevie Richards.[4] He accompanied his fellow Flock members to ringside carrying a variety of signs,[4] which he displayed to the audience at intervals (a gimmick borrowed from ECW's Sign Guy Dudley).[8] The signs were generally intended to be humorous and variously furthered storylines, antagonized the audience, promoted the Flock, and made inside jokes aimed at other wrestlers or groupies.

Cain made his in-ring debut on the December 8 episode of Nitro, losing to Chris Benoit.[4][9] Lodi disappeared from WCW television several months later after suffering a fractured ankle in a match against Psicosis.

Upon his return, Lodi would become involved in the feud between Saturn and Raven.

Lodi defeated Saturn in a match on WCW Thunder thanks to Kanyon, which then meant Saturn had to be Lodi's personal assistant till the PPV.

After weeks of making a mockery of Saturn, The Flock disbanded at the September 13, 1998 Fall Brawl when Perry Saturn defeated Raven to win the freedom of the Flock.[1] In June 1999, WCW enhancement talent Lenny Lane persuaded Lodi to team with him as The West Hollywood Blondes, a gay Californian duo with pink trunks and flamboyant haircuts who were later revealed to be brothers.[1][8] The name was a reference to the Hollywood Blonds, a popular tag team of the early 1990s consisting of Steve Austin and Brian Pillman.

The Blondes were highly controversial, and their depiction of homosexuality was protested by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

Entertainment Media Director Scott Seomin wrote in a letter sent to Turner Network Television president Brad Siegel, stating, "The character of Lenny is presented with the intention to incite the crowd to the most base homophobic behavior." Seomen later stated "the audience's reaction [to Lenny and Lodi being physically attacked by other wrestlers] gives permission to viewers to do harm to gay people in a very literal way – it's appalling." TNT quickly capitulated to the demands of GLAAD, removing Lenny and Lodi from the active roster for six months.[10] It is rumored that the bad press caused by the incident was a determining factor in the firing of Eric Bischoff as vice president of WCW by Ted Turner.[11] After the hiatus, Lane and Lodi returned to television under the team name Standards and Practices with Miss Hancock as their manager.

The name was intended to lampoon the censorship of TNT.[4] The gimmick ended when Lane and Lodi stripped off their suits on an edition of Nitro.

In the following weeks, they competed under the tag name 2XS (an abbreviation of "too excess" that was later shortened to XS) as two hard rock partygoers, during which Lodi's ring name was changed to Idol and then to Rave.

This was also short-lived as they failed to get over, and both were released from WCW in 2000.

Cain believes that his addiction to painkillers and drinking problem at this time led to the loss of his job.[8] Lenny and Lodi teamed up again on the independent circuit, wrestling for the World Wrestling All-Stars.[4] They were scheduled to appear with Jeff Jarrett's Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion, but Cain was injured.

He was sidelined from wrestling for nineteen months while recovering from neck surgery, resulting in Lenny forming a new tag team named the Rainbow Express with Bruce serving as a substitute partner.[7][8] After recovering, Cain took a hiatus from wrestling before returning on September 18, 2004 under his Lodi ring name, where he defeated Mike G in a match for NWA Wildside.[12] Cain then continued to wrestle sporadically through the next few years before joining NWA Charlotte in 2009.[12] Upon NWA Charlotte's debut in early 2009, Cain joined the territory as a color commentator alongside Tim Dixon.[13] In addition to commentating, Cain also began wrestling for the territory under his Lodi ring name, most notably against Raven while also competing in title matches for the territory's United States and Heavyweight Championships.[12][14] Cain remained with the territory until its closing on July 3.[15] Following NWA Charlotte's closure, Cain took another hiatus from wrestling before returning on July 6, 2012 under his Lodi ring name, where he defeated Reid Flair in a match for Premiere Wrestling Xperience.[12] Cain then competed in several more matches for both PWX and the Renegade Wrestling Alliance through the next few months.[12] On 7 December 2013 Lodi beat Ryan Edmonds to capture the RWA Heavyweight Championship, but then lost it to Edmonds on 17 May 2014.[16] On November 2, 2014, Lodi and Sick Boy reunited to win the WrestleForce Tag Team Championship from The Bravado Brothers.

The Folk lost the titles against The Bravado Brothers on February 8, 2015.[17] In 2015, Lodi has signed on to teach at a new wrestling school that is being set up by Chris Sore which runs the promotion Prowrestling NOW out of Fayetteville and Concord, North Carolina.

On September 15, 2017, at Palmetto Championship Wrestling in Columbia, SC, Lodi announced his recent third neck surgery has caused doctors to say he would never wrestle again, however, he told the crowd "Never say Never." Lodi currently wrestles for the independent Christian Wrestling Federation.

The CWF is based out of the Rockwall, Texas suburb of Dallas, Texas.

Lodi will be making his debut appearance For Shockwave Wrestling Entertainment as a special guest tag team partner in their anniversary show.

Shockwave Wrestling is an east coast promotion based in North Carolina.

Despite portraying homosexuals on television, Cain describes himself and his former tag team partner Lenny as "pretty much straight as nails." He refers to his fans as "Lodettes" and "Lodites".[8][18] Cain is a recovering drug addict, and was addicted to GHB and painkillers for seven years.

He went into rehab in 2000 and overcame his addictions.[8][18] In addition to wrestling, Cain is a personal fitness trainer, and operates a studio named Your FLEX Appeal in Charlotte, North Carolina.[5][7] On May 17, 2004 Cain lost a number of personal possessions when his apartment building burned down.[7][19] In November 2005, Cain's first novel, Perfect, was published by Dog Ear Publishing.[7][20] 1This Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, while currently operating out of the same region of the United States and having revised some of the championships used by the original Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, is not the same promotion that was once owned by Jim Crockett, Jr.

and subsequently sold to Ted Turner in 1988.

It is just another NWA-affiliated promotion.

Baltimore

Baltimore (/ˈbɔːltɪmɔːr/ BAWL-tim-or, locally: /ˈbɔːlmər/) is the most populous city in the U.S.

state of Maryland, as well as the 30th most populous city in the United States, with a population of 593,490 in 2019.

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the country and was established by the Constitution of Maryland[10] in 1851.

As of 2017, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be just under 2.802 million, making it the 21st largest metropolitan area in the country.[11] Baltimore is located about 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Washington, D.C.,[12] making it a principal city in the Washington-Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the fourth-largest CSA in the nation, with a calculated 2018 population of 9,797,063.[13] The city's Inner Harbor was once the second leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States.

In addition, Baltimore was a major manufacturing center.[14] After a decline in major manufacturing, heavy industry, and restructuring of the rail industry, Baltimore has shifted to a service-oriented economy.

Johns Hopkins Hospital (founded 1889) and Johns Hopkins University (founded 1876) are the city's top two employers.[15] With hundreds of identified districts, Baltimore has been dubbed a "city of neighborhoods." Famous residents have included writers Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Hamilton, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B.

Du Bois, Ogden Nash, Gertrude Stein, F.

Scott Fitzgerald, Dashiell Hammett, Upton Sinclair, Tom Clancy, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and H.

L.

Mencken; musicians James "Eubie" Blake, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Tori Amos, Frank Zappa, Tupac Shakur, Dan Deacon, Robbie Basho, Bill Frisell, Philip Glass, Cass Elliot, and Ric Ocasek; actors and filmmakers John Waters, Barry Levinson, Divine, David Hasselhoff, Don Messick, John Kassir, Jada Pinkett Smith, Edith Massey[16] and Mo'Nique; artist Jeff Koons; baseball player Babe Ruth; swimmer Michael Phelps; radio host Ira Glass; television host Mike Rowe; Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi; and United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson.

During the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Baltimore after the bombardment of Fort McHenry.

His poem was set to music and popularized as a song; in 1931 it was designated as the American national anthem.[17] Baltimore has more public statues and monuments per capita than any other city in the country,[18] and is home to some of the earliest National Register Historic Districts in the nation, including Fell's Point, Federal Hill, and Mount Vernon.

These were added to the National Register between 1969 and 1971, soon after historic preservation legislation was passed.

Nearly one third of the city's buildings (over 65,000) are designated as historic in the National Register, which is more than any other U.S.

city.[19][20] The city has 66 National Register Historic Districts and 33 local historic districts.

Over 65,000 properties are designated as historic buildings and listed in the NRHP, more than any other U.S.

city.[19] The historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives.

The city is named after Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore[21] of the Irish House of Lords and founding proprietor of the Province of Maryland.[22][23] Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate in County Longford on which the Calvert family lived in Ireland.[23][24] Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir, meaning "town of the big house."[23] The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC, when Paleo-Indians first settled in the region.[25] One Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period.[25] During the Late Woodland period, the archaeological culture that is called the "Potomac Creek complex" resided in the area from Baltimore south to the Rappahannock River in present-day Virginia.[26] In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was sparsely populated, if at all, by Native Americans.

The Baltimore County area northward was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock living in the lower Susquehanna River valley.

This Iroquoian-speaking people "controlled all of the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake" but "refrained from much contact with Powhatan in the Potomac region" and south into Virginia.[27] Pressured by the Susquehannock, the Piscataway tribe, an Algonquian-speaking people, stayed well south of the Baltimore area and inhabited primarily the north bank of the Potomac River in what are now Charles and southern Prince George's counties in the coastal areas south of the Fall Line.[28][29][30] European colonization of Maryland began with the arrival of an English ship at St.

Clement's Island in the Potomac River on March 25, 1634.[31] Europeans began to settle the area further north, beginning to populate the area of Baltimore County.[32] The original county seat, known today as "Old Baltimore", was located on Bush River within the present-day Aberdeen Proving Ground.[33][34][35] The colonists engaged in sporadic warfare with the Susquehanna, whose numbers dwindled primarily from new infectious diseases, such as smallpox, endemic among the Europeans.[32] In 1661 David Jones claimed the area known today as Jonestown on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream.[36] The colonial General Assembly of Maryland created the Port of Baltimore at old Whetstone Point (now Locust Point) in 1706 for the tobacco trade.

The Town of Baltimore, on the west side of the Jones Falls, was founded and laid out on July 30, 1729.

By 1752 the town had just 27 homes, including a church and two taverns.[37] Jonestown and Fells Point had been settled to the east.

The three settlements, covering 60 acres (24 ha), became a commercial hub, and in 1768 were designated as the county seat.[38] Being a colony, the Baltimore street names were laid out to demonstrate loyalty to the mother country.

For example, King George, King, Queen, and Caroline streets.[37] Baltimore grew swiftly in the 18th century, its plantations producing grain and tobacco for sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean.

The profit from sugar encouraged the cultivation of cane in the Caribbean and the importation of food by planters there.[39] As noted, Baltimore was as the county seat, and in 1768 a courthouse was built to serve both the city and county.

Its square was a center of community meetings and discussions.

Baltimore established its public market system in 1763.[40] Lexington Market, founded in 1782, is known as one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in the United States today.[41] Lexington Market was also a center of slave trading.

Slaves were sold at numerous sites through the downtown area, with sales advertised in the Baltimore Sun.[42] Both tobacco and sugar cane were labor-intensive crops.

Baltimore in 1774 established the first Post Office system in what became the United States,[43] and the first water company chartered in the newly independent nation (Baltimore Water Company, 1792).[44][45] Baltimore played a key part in events leading to and including the American Revolution.

City leaders such as Jonathan Plowman Jr.

led many residents in joining the resistance to British taxes, and merchants signed agreements to refuse to trade with Britain.[46] The Second Continental Congress met in the Henry Fite House from December 1776 to February 1777, effectively making the city the capital of the United States during this period.[47] The Town of Baltimore, Jonestown, and Fells Point were incorporated as the City of Baltimore in 1796–1797.

The city remained a part of surrounding Baltimore County and continued to serve as its county seat from 1768 to 1851, after which it became an independent city.[48] The Battle of Baltimore against the British in 1814 inspired the composition of the USA's national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," and the construction of the Battle Monument which became the city's official emblem.

A distinctive local culture started to take shape, and a unique skyline peppered with churches and monuments developed.

Baltimore acquired its moniker "The Monumental City" after an 1827 visit to Baltimore by President John Quincy Adams.

At an evening function Adams gave the following toast: "Baltimore: the Monumental City—May the days of her safety be as prosperous and happy, as the days of her dangers have been trying and triumphant."[50][51] Baltimore pioneered the use of gas lighting in 1816, and its population grew rapidly in the following decades, with concomitant development of culture and infrastructure.

The construction of the federally funded National Road (which later became part of U.S.

Route 40) and the private Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B.

& O.) made Baltimore a major shipping and manufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in the Midwest.

By 1820 its population had reached 60,000, and its economy had shifted from its base in tobacco plantations to sawmilling, shipbuilding, and textile production.

These industries benefited from war but successfully shifted into infrastructure development during peacetime.[52] Baltimore suffered one of the worst riots of the antebellum South in 1835, when bad investments led to the Baltimore bank riot.[53] Soon after the city created the world's first dental college, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, in 1840, and shared in the world's first telegraph line, between Baltimore and Washington DC in 1844.

Maryland, a slave state with abundant popular support for secession in some areas, remained part of the Union during the American Civil War, due in part to the Union's strategic occupation of the city in 1861.[55][56] Another factor was the fact that the Union's capitol, Washington, was in the state of Maryland (geographically if not politically), and well situated to impede Baltimore and Maryland's communication or commerce with the Confederacy.

Baltimore saw the first casualties of the war on April 19, 1861, when Union Soldiers en route from the President Street Station to Camden Yards clashed with a secessionist mob in the Pratt Street riot.

In the midst of the Long Depression which followed the Panic of 1873, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad company attempted to lower its workers' wages, leading to strikes and riots in the city and beyond.

Strikers clashed with the National Guard, leaving 10 dead and 25 wounded.[57] On February 7, 1904, the Great Baltimore Fire destroyed over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours, leaving more than 70 blocks of the downtown area burned to the ground.

Damages were estimated at $150 million—in 1904 dollars.[58] As the city rebuilt during the next two years, lessons learned from the fire led to improvements in firefighting equipment standards.[59] Baltimore lawyer Milton Dashiell advocated for an ordinance to bar African-Americans from moving into the Eutaw Place neighborhood in northwest Baltimore.

He proposed to recognize majority white residential blocks and majority black residential blocks, and to prevent people from moving into housing on such blocks where they would be a minority.

The Baltimore Council passed the ordinance, and it became law on December 20, 1910, with Democratic Mayor J.

Barry Mahool's signature.[60] The Baltimore segregation ordinance was the first of its kind in the United States.

Many other southern cities followed with their own segregation ordinances, though the US Supreme Court ruled against them in Buchanan v.

Warley (1917).[61] The city grew in area by annexing new suburbs from the surrounding counties through 1918, when the city acquired portions of Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County.[62] A state constitutional amendment, approved in 1948, required a special vote of the citizens in any proposed annexation area, effectively preventing any future expansion of the city's boundaries.[63] Streetcars enabled the development of distant neighborhoods areas such as Edmonson Village whose residents could easily commute to work downtown.[64] Driven by migration from the deep South and by white suburbanization, the relative size of the city's black population grew from 23.8% in 1950 to 46.4% in 1970.[65] Encouraged by real estate blockbusting techniques, recently settled white areas rapidly became all-black neighborhoods, in a rapid process which was nearly total by 1970.[66] The Baltimore riot of 1968, coinciding with riots in other cities, followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

on April 4, 1968.

Public order was not restored until April 12, 1968.

The Baltimore riot cost the city an estimated $10 million (US$ 74 million in 2020).

A total of 11,000 Maryland National Guard and federal troops were ordered into the city.[67] The city experienced challenges again in 1974 when teachers, municipal workers, and police officers conducted strikes.[68] Following the death of Freddie Gray in April 2015, the city experienced major protests and international media attention, as well as a clash between local youth and police which resulted in a state of emergency declaration and curfew.[69] Baltimore has suffered from a high homicide rate for several decades, peaking in 1993, and again in 2015.[70][71] These deaths have taken a severe toll, especially within the local black community.[72] By the beginning of the 1970s, Baltimore's downtown area known as the Inner Harbor had been neglected and was occupied by a collection of abandoned warehouses.

The nickname "Charm City" came from a 1975 meeting of advertisers seeking to improve the city's reputation.[73][74] Efforts to redevelop the area started with the construction of the Maryland Science Center, which opened in 1976, the Baltimore World Trade Center (1977), and the Baltimore Convention Center (1979).

Harborplace, an urban retail and restaurant complex, opened on the waterfront in 1980, followed by the National Aquarium, Maryland's largest tourist destination, and the Baltimore Museum of Industry in 1981.

In 1995, the city opened the American Visionary Art Museum on Federal Hill.

During the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the United States, Baltimore City Health Department official Robert Mehl persuaded the city's mayor to form a committee to address food problems; the Baltimore-based charity Moveable Feast grew out of this initiative in 1990.[75][76][77] By 2010, the organization's region of service had expanded from merely Baltimore to include all of the Eastern Shore of Maryland.[78] In 1992, the Baltimore Orioles baseball team moved from Memorial Stadium to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, located downtown near the harbor.

Pope John Paul II held an open-air mass at Camden Yards during his papal visit to the United States in October 1995.

Three years later the Baltimore Ravens football team moved into M&T Bank Stadium next to Camden Yards.[79] Baltimore has seen the reopening of the Hippodrome Theatre in 2004,[80] the opening of the Reginald F.

Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in 2005, and the establishment of the National Slavic Museum in 2012.

On April 12, 2012, Johns Hopkins held a dedication ceremony to mark the completion of one of the United States' largest medical complexes – the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore – which features the Sheikh Zayed Cardiovascular and Critical Care Tower and The Charlotte R.

Bloomberg Children's Center.

The event, held at the entrance to the $1.1 billion 1.6 million-square-foot-facility, honored the many donors including Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, first president of the United Arab Emirates, and Michael Bloomberg.[81][82] On September 19, 2016 the Baltimore City Council approved a $660 million bond deal for the $5.5 billion Port Covington redevelopment project championed by Under Armour founder Kevin Plank and his real estate company Sagamore Development.

Port Covington surpassed the Harbor Point development as the largest tax-increment financing deal in Baltimore's history and among the largest urban redevelopment projects in the country.[83] The waterfront development that includes the new headquarters for Under Armour, as well as shops, housing, offices, and manufacturing spaces is projected to create 26,500 permanent jobs with a $4.3 billion annual economic impact.[84] Goldman Sachs invested $233 million into the redevelopment project.[85] Baltimore is in north-central Maryland on the Patapsco River close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay.

The city is also located on the fall line between the Piedmont Plateau and the Atlantic coastal plain, which divides Baltimore into "lower city" and "upper city".

The city's elevation ranges from sea level at the harbor to 480 feet (150 m) in the northwest corner near Pimlico.[6] According to the 2010 Census, the city has a total area of 92.1 square miles (239 km2), of which 80.9 sq mi (210 km2) is land and 11.1 sq mi (29 km2) is water.[86] The total area is 12.1 percent water.

Baltimore is almost completely surrounded by Baltimore County, but is politically independent of it.

It is bordered by Anne Arundel County to the south.

Baltimore exhibits examples from each period of architecture over more than two centuries, and work from architects such as Benjamin Latrobe, George A.

Frederick, John Russell Pope, Mies van der Rohe and I.

M.

Pei.

The city is rich in architecturally significant buildings in a variety of styles.

The Baltimore Basilica (1806–1821) is a neoclassical design by Benjamin Latrobe, and also the oldest Catholic cathedral in the United States.

In 1813 Robert Cary Long, Sr., built for Rembrandt Peale the first substantial structure in the United States designed expressly as a museum.

Restored, it is now the Municipal Museum of Baltimore, or popularly the Peale Museum.

The McKim Free School was founded and endowed by John McKim, although the building was erected by his son Isaac in 1822 after a design by William Howard and William Small.

It reflects the popular interest in Greece when the nation was securing its independence, as well as a scholarly interest in recently published drawings of Athenian antiquities.

The Phoenix Shot Tower (1828), at 234.25 feet (71.40 m) tall, was the tallest building in the United States until the time of the Civil War, and is one of few remaining structures of its kind.[87] It was constructed without the use of exterior scaffolding.

The Sun Iron Building, designed by R.C.

Hatfield in 1851, was the city's first iron-front building and was a model for a whole generation of downtown buildings.

Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in 1870 in memory of financier George Brown, has stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany and has been called "one of the most significant buildings in this city, a treasure of art and architecture" by Baltimore Magazine.[88][89] The 1845 Greek Revival-style Lloyd Street Synagogue is one of the oldest synagogues in the United States.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital, designed by Lt.

Col.

John S.

Billings in 1876, was a considerable achievement for its day in functional arrangement and fireproofing.

I.M.

Pei's World Trade Center (1977) is the tallest equilateral pentagonal building in the world at 405 feet (123 m) tall.

The Harbor East area has seen the addition of two new towers which have completed construction: a 24-floor tower that is the new world headquarters of Legg Mason, and a 21-floor Four Seasons Hotel complex.

The streets of Baltimore are organized in a grid pattern, lined with tens of thousands of brick and formstone-faced rowhouses.

In The Baltimore Rowhouse, Mary Ellen Hayward and Charles Belfoure considered the rowhouse as the architectural form defining Baltimore as "perhaps no other American city."[90] In the mid-1790s, developers began building entire neighborhoods of the British-style rowhouses, which became the dominant house type of the city early in the 19th century.[91] Formstone facings, now a common feature on Baltimore rowhouses, were an addition patented in 1937 by Albert Knight.

John Waters characterized formstone as "the polyester of brick" in a 30-minute documentary film, Little Castles: A Formstone Phenomenon.[92] Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a Major League Baseball park, opened in 1992, which was built as a retro style baseball park.

Camden Yards, along with the National Aquarium, have helped revive the Inner Harbor from what once was an industrial district full of dilapidated warehouses into a bustling commercial district full of bars, restaurants and retail establishments.

Today, the Inner Harbor has some of the most desirable real estate in the Mid-Atlantic.[93] After an international competition, the University of Baltimore School of Law awarded the German firm Behnisch Architekten 1st prize for its design, which was selected for the school's new home.

After the building's opening in 2013, the design won additional honors including an ENR National "Best of the Best" Award.[94] Baltimore's newly rehabilitated Everyman Theatre was honored by the Baltimore Heritage at the 2013 Preservation Awards Celebration in 2013.

Everyman Theatre will receive an Adaptive Reuse and Compatible Design Award as part of Baltimore Heritage's 2013 historic preservation awards ceremony.

Baltimore Heritage is Baltimore's nonprofit historic and architectural preservation organization, which works to preserve and promote Baltimore's historic buildings and neighborhoods.[95] Baltimore is officially divided into nine geographical regions: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest, and Central, with each district patrolled by a respective Baltimore Police Department.

Interstate 83 and Charles Street down to Hanover Street and Ritchie Highway serve as the east–west dividing line and Eastern Avenue to Route 40 as the north–south dividing line; however, Baltimore Street is north–south dividing line for the U.S.

Postal Service.[107] It is not uncommon for locals to divide the city simply by East or West Baltimore, using Charles Street or I-83 as a dividing line or into North and South using Baltimore Street as a dividing line.[citation needed] Central Baltimore, originally called the Middle District,[108] stretches north of the Inner Harbor up to the edge of Druid Hill Park.

Downtown Baltimore has mainly served as a commercial district with limited residential opportunities; however, between 2000 and 2010, the downtown population grew 130 percent as old commercial properties have been replaced by residential property.[109] Still the city's main commercial area and business district, it includes Baltimore's sports complexes: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, and the Royal Farms Arena; and the shops and attractions in the Inner Harbor: Harborplace, the Baltimore Convention Center, the National Aquarium, Maryland Science Center, Pier Six Pavilion, and Power Plant Live.[107] The University of Maryland, Baltimore, the University of Maryland Medical Center, and Lexington Market are also in the central district, as well as the Hippodrome and many nightclubs, bars, restaurants, shopping centers and various other attractions.[107][108] The northern portion of Central Baltimore, between downtown and the Druid Hill Park, is home to many of the city's cultural opportunities.

Maryland Institute College of Art, the Peabody Institute (music conservatory), George Peabody Library, Enoch Pratt Free Library – Central Library, the Lyric Opera House, the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, the Walters Art Museum, the Maryland Historical Society and its Enoch Pratt Mansion, and several galleries are located in this region.[110] North Baltimore lies directly north of Central Baltimore and is bounded on the east by The Alameda and on the west by Pimlico Road.

Loyola University Maryland, Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus, St.

Mary's Seminary and University and Notre Dame of Maryland University are located in this district.

Baltimore Polytechnic Institute high school for mathematics, science and engineering, and adjacent Western High School, the oldest remaining public girls secondary school in America, share a joint campus at West Cold Spring Lane and Falls Road.[citation needed] Several historic and notable neighborhoods are in this district: Govans (1755), Roland Park (1891), Guilford (1913), Homeland (1924), Hampden, Woodberry, Old Goucher (the original campus of Goucher College), and Jones Falls.

Along the York Road corridor going north are the large neighborhoods of Charles Village, Waverly, and Mount Washington.

The Station North Arts and Entertainment District is also located in North Baltimore.[111] South Baltimore, a mixed industrial and residential area, consists of the "Old South Baltimore" peninsula below the Inner Harbor and east of the old B&O Railroad's Camden line tracks and Russell Street downtown.

It is a culturally, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse waterfront area with neighborhoods such as Locust Point and Riverside around a large park of the same name.[112] Just south of the Inner Harbor, the historic Federal Hill neighborhood, is home to many working professionals, pubs and restaurants.

At the end of the peninsula is historic Fort McHenry, a National Park since the end of World War I, when the old U.S.

Army Hospital surrounding the 1798 star-shaped battlements was torn down.[113] The area south of the Vietnam Veterans (Hanover Street) Bridge and the Patapsco River was annexed to the city in 1919 from being independent towns in Anne Arundel County.[citation needed] Across the Hanover Street Bridge are residential areas such as Cherry Hill,[114] Brooklyn, and Curtis Bay, with Fort Armistead bordering the city's south side from Anne Arundel County.[citation needed] Northeast is primarily a residential neighborhood, home to Morgan State University, bounded by the city line of 1919 on its northern and eastern boundaries, Sinclair Lane, Erdman Avenue, and Pulaski Highway to the south and The Alameda on to the west.

Also in this wedge of the city on 33rd Street is Baltimore City College high school, third oldest active public secondary school in the United States, founded downtown in 1839.[115] Across Loch Raven Boulevard is the former site of the old Memorial Stadium home of the Baltimore Colts, Baltimore Orioles, and Baltimore Ravens, now replaced by a YMCA athletic and housing complex.[116][117] Lake Montebello is in Northeast Baltimore.[108] Located below Sinclair Lane and Erdman Avenue, above Orleans Street, East Baltimore is mainly made up of residential neighborhoods.

This section of East Baltimore is home to Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine on Broadway.

Notable neighborhoods include: Armistead Gardens, Broadway East, Barclay, Ellwood Park, Greenmount, and McElderry Park.[108] This area was the on-site film location for Homicide: Life on the Street, The Corner and The Wire.[118] Southeast Baltimore, located below Fayette Street, bordering the Inner Harbor and the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River to the west, the city line of 1919 on its eastern boundaries and the Patapsco River to the south, is a mixed industrial and residential area.

Patterson Park, the "Best Backyard in Baltimore,"[119] as well as the Highlandtown Arts District, and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center are located in Southeast Baltimore.

The Shops at Canton Crossing opened in 2013.[120] The Canton neighborhood, is located along Baltimore's prime waterfront.

Other historic neighborhoods include: Fells Point, Patterson Park, Butchers Hill, Highlandtown, Greektown, Harbor East, Little Italy, and Upper Fell's Point.[108] Northwestern is bounded by the county line to the north and west, Gwynns Falls Parkway on the south and Pimlico Road on the east, is home to Pimlico Race Course, Sinai Hospital, and the headquarters of the NAACP.

Its neighborhoods are mostly residential and are dissected by Northern Parkway.

The area has been the center of Baltimore's Jewish community since after World War II.

Notable neighborhoods include: Pimlico, Mount Washington, and Cheswolde, and Park Heights.[121] West Baltimore is west of downtown and the Martin Luther King, Jr.

Boulevard and is bounded by Gwynns Falls Parkway, Fremont Avenue, and West Baltimore Street.

The Old West Baltimore Historic District includes the neighborhoods of Harlem Park, Sandtown-Winchester, Druid Heights, Madison Park, and Upton.[122][123] Originally a predominantly German neighborhood, by the last half of the 1800s, Old West Baltimore was home to a substantial section of the city's African American population.

It became the largest neighborhood for the city's black community and its cultural, political, and economic center.[122] Coppin State University, Mondawmin Mall, and Edmondson Village are located in this district.

The area's crime problems have provided subject material for television series, such as The Wire.[124] Local organizations, such as the Sandtown Habitat for Humanity and the Upton Planning Committee, have been steadily transforming parts of formerly blighted areas of West Baltimore into clean, safe communities.[125][126] Southwest Baltimore is bound by the Baltimore County line to the west, West Baltimore Street to the north, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard and Russell Street/Baltimore-Washington Parkway (Maryland Route 295) to the east.

Notable neighborhoods in Southwest Baltimore include: Pigtown, Carrolton Ridge, Ridgely's Delight, Leakin Park, Violetville, Lakeland, and Morrell Park.[108] St.

Agnes Hospital on Wilkens and Caton[108] avenues is located in this district with the neighboring Cardinal Gibbons High School, which is the former site of Babe Ruth's alma mater, St.

Mary's Industrial School.[citation needed] Also through this segment of Baltimore ran the beginnings of the historic National Road, which was constructed beginning in 1806 along Old Frederick Road and continuing into the county on Frederick Road into Ellicott City, Maryland.[citation needed] Other sides in this district are: Carroll Park, one of the city's largest parks, the colonial Mount Clare Mansion, and Washington Boulevard, which dates to pre-Revolutionary War days as the prime route out of the city to Alexandria, Virginia, and Georgetown on the Potomac River.[citation needed] Belair-Edison Woodberry Reservoir Hill Station North Fells Point Roland Park Mount Vernon The City of Baltimore is bordered by the following communities, all unincorporated census-designated places.

Baltimore lies in the humid subtropical climate in the Köppen climate classification, with long hot summers, cool to mild winters, and summer peak to annual precipitation.[127][128] Baltimore is part of USDA plant hardiness zones 7b and 8a.[129] Summers are normally hot, with occasional late day thunderstorms.

July the hottest month, has a mean temperature of 80.3 °F (26.8 °C).

Winters are chilly to mild but variable, with sporadic snowfall: January has a daily average of 35.8 °F (2.1 °C),[130] though temperatures reach 50 °F (10 °C) rather often, but can drop below 20 °F (−7 °C) when Arctic air masses affect the area.[130] Spring and autumn are warm, with spring being the wettest season in terms of the number of precipitation days.

Summers are hot and humid with a daily average in July of 80.7 °F (27.1 °C),[130] and the combination of heat and humidity leads to rather frequent thunderstorms.

A southeasterly bay breeze off the Chesapeake often occurs on summer afternoons when hot air rises over inland areas; prevailing winds from the southwest interacting with this breeze as well as the city proper's UHI can seriously exacerbate air quality.[131][132] In late summer and early autumn the track of hurricanes or their remnants may cause flooding in downtown Baltimore, despite the city being far removed from the typical coastal storm surge areas.[133] The average seasonal snowfall is 20.1 inches (51 cm),[134] but it varies greatly depending on the winter, with some seasons seeing minimal snow while others see several major Nor'easters.

[a] Due to lessened urban heat island (UHI) as compared to the city proper and distance from the moderating Chesapeake Bay, the outlying and inland parts of the Baltimore metro area are usually cooler, especially at night, than the city proper and the coastal towns.

Thus, in the northern and western suburbs, winter snowfall is more significant, and some areas average more than 30 in (76 cm) of snow per winter.[136] It is by no means uncommon for the rain-snow line to set up in the metro area.[137] Freezing rain and sleet occurs a few times each winter in the area, as warm air overrides cold air at the low to mid-levels of the atmosphere.

When the wind blows from the east, the cold air gets dammed against the mountains to the west and the result is freezing rain or sleet.

Extreme temperatures range from −7 °F (−22 °C) on February 9, 1934, and February 10, 1899,[b] up to 108 °F (42 °C) on July 22, 2011.[138][139] On average, 100 °F (38 °C)+ temperatures occur on 0.9 days annually, 90 °F (32 °C)+ on 37 days, and there are 10 days where the high fails to reach the freezing mark.[130] According to the United States Census, there were 593,490 people living in Baltimore City in 238,436 households as of July 1, 2019.

The population decreased by 4.4% since the 2010 Census.

[150]Baltimore's population has declined at each census since its peak in 1950.[109] In 2011, then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said her main goal was to increase the city's population by improving city services to reduce the number of people leaving the city and by passing legislation protecting immigrants' rights to stimulate growth.[151] For the first time in decades, in July 2012, the U.S.

Census Bureau's census estimate showed the population grew by 1,100 residents, a 0.2% increase from the previous year.[152] Baltimore is sometimes identified as a sanctuary city.[153] Mayor Jack Young said in 2019 that Baltimore will not assist ICE agents with immigration raids.[154] Gentrification has increased since the 2000 census, primarily in East Baltimore, downtown, and Central Baltimore.[155] Downtown Baltimore and its surrounding neighborhoods are seeing a resurgence of young professionals and immigrants, mirroring major cities across the country.[152] After New York City, Baltimore was the second city in the United States to reach a population of 100,000.[156][157] From the 1830 through 1850 U.S.

censuses, Baltimore was the second most-populous city,[157][158] before being surpassed by Philadelphia in 1860.[159] It was among the top 10 cities in population in the United States in every census up to the 1980 census,[160] and after World War II had a population of nearly 1 million.

According to the 2010 Census[update], Baltimore's population is 63.7% Black, 29.6% White, 2.3% Asian, and 0.4%, American Indian and Alaska Native.

Across races, 4.2% of the population are of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.[149] Females made up 53.4% of the population.

The median age was 35 years old, with 22.4% under 18 years old, 65.8% from 18 to 64 years old, and 11.8% 65 or older.[149] In 2005, approximately 30,778 people (6.5%) identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.[164] In 2012, same-sex marriage in Maryland was legalized, going into effect January 1, 2013.[165] In 2009, the median household income was $42,241 and the median income per capita was $25,707, compared to the national median income of $53,889 per household and $28,930 per capita.

In Baltimore, 23.7% of the population lived below the poverty line, compared to 13.5% nationwide.[149] Housing in Baltimore is relatively inexpensive for large, coastal cities of its size.

The median sale price for homes in Baltimore in 2012 was $95,000.[166] Despite the housing collapse, and along with the national trends, Baltimore residents still face slowly increasing rent (up 3% in the summer of 2010).[167] The homeless population in Baltimore is steadily increasing; it exceeded 4,000 people in 2011.

The increase in the number of young homeless people was particularly severe.[168] As of 2015, life expectancy in Baltimore was 74 to 75 years, compared to the U.S.

average of 78 to 80.

Fourteen neighborhoods had lower life expectancies than North Korea.

The life expectancy in Downtown/Seton Hill was comparable to that of Yemen.[169] A little under half (47%) of people in Baltimore report affiliating with a religion.

Catholicism is the largest religious affiliation, comprising 12% percent of the population, followed by the Baptist Church (7%), then Judaism (4.3%).

Around 11.4% identify with other Christian denominations.[170][171] As of 2010[update], 91% (526,705) of Baltimore residents five years old and older spoke only English at home.

Close to 4% (21,661) spoke Spanish.

Other languages, such as African languages, French, and Chinese are spoken by less than 1% of the population.[172] Crime in Baltimore, generally concentrated in areas high in poverty, has been far above the national average for many years.

Overall reported crime has dropped by 60% from the mid 1990s to the mid 2010s, but homicide rates remain high and exceed the national average.

The worst years for crime in Baltimore overall were from 1993 to 1996; with 96,243 crimes reported in 1995.

Baltimore's 344 homicides in 2015 represented the highest homicide rate in the city's recorded history—52.5 per 100,000 people, surpassing the record set in 1993—and the second-highest for U.S.

cities behind St.

Louis and ahead of Detroit.

To put that in perspective, New York City, a city with a 2015 population of 8,491,079, recorded a total of 339 homicides in 2015.

Baltimore had a 2015 population of 621,849; which means that in 2015

Barack Obama 2008 presidential primary campaign

On February 10, 2007, Barack Obama, then-junior United States Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois.

Obama announced his candidacy at the Old State Capitol building, where Abraham Lincoln had delivered his "House Divided" speech.[1] Obama was the main challenger, along with John Edwards, to front-runner Hillary Clinton for much of 2007.

He had only recently emerged as a national figure in Democratic politics, having delivered the DNC keynote address just three years prior and won his Senate election shortly thereafter.

Obama's initial victory in the Iowa caucus in January 2008 helped bring him to national prominence from a crowded field of Democratic challengers.

Obama benefited from early support from prominent Democrats including Tom Daschle and Ted Kennedy, and his campaign began to trade a series of hard-fought state wins with Clinton through Super Tuesday, in which Obama had great success in large rural states and Clinton was nearly as dominant in high-population coastal areas.

Obama continued to have success in small donor fundraising,[2] and continued winning a greater number of contests than Clinton through April.

In early May, after Obama won the North Carolina primary and narrowly lost the Indiana primary, superdelegates began to endorse Obama in greater numbers.

Obama's win in Oregon gave him an absolute majority of the pledged delegates.

After a rush of support for Obama from superdelegates on June 3, the day of the final primary contests of Montana and South Dakota, Obama was estimated to surpass the 2,118 delegates required for the Democratic nomination.[3] On June 7, Clinton formally ended her candidacy and endorsed Obama, making him the party's presumptive nominee.[4] On August 27, 2008, at the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Party formally nominated Barack Obama to run for the office of the President of the United States of America.

Obama would go on to win the presidential election against Republican nominee John McCain.

A warmly received keynote address by Obama before the 2004 Democratic National Convention sparked expectations that he would run for the presidency.[5] They intensified after Obama's decisive victory in the race for senator in November 2004, even though he told reporters then that "I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years."[6] In September 2006, though, Obama was the featured speaker at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry, a political event traditionally attended by presidential hopefuls in the lead-up to the Iowa caucuses.[7] And in an October 2006 interview on the television program Meet the Press, the senator seemed to entertain the possibility of a 2008 presidential bid.[8] Illinois Senator Richard Durbin and State Comptroller Daniel Hynes were early advocates for such a run.[9] Many people in the entertainment community expressed readiness to campaign for an Obama presidency, including celebrity television show host Oprah Winfrey, singer Macy Gray, rap artist Common, and film actors George Clooney, Halle Berry, and Will Smith.[10] In December 2006, Obama spoke at a New Hampshire event celebrating Democratic Party midterm election victories in the first-in-the-nation U.S.

presidential primary state, drawing 1500 people.

Speaking at a Democratic National Committee meeting one week before the February announcement, Obama called for putting an end to negative campaigning.

"This can't be about who digs up more skeletons on who, who makes the fewest slip-ups on the campaign trail," he said.

"We owe it to the American people to do more than that."[11] On January 16, 2007, Obama announced via a video on his website that he had formed a presidential exploratory committee,[13] and on February 10 he formally announced his candidacy with these words: It was here, in Springfield, where North, South, East, and West come together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the American people—where I came to believe that through this decency, we can build a more hopeful America.

And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States.[14]On January 14, 2007, the Chicago Tribune reported that Obama had begun assembling his 2008 presidential campaign team, to be headquartered in Chicago.[15] His team included campaign manager David Plouffe and media consultant David Axelrod, who were partners at the Chicago-based political consulting firm AKP&D Message and Media.[16] Communications director Robert Gibbs was previously press secretary for John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.[17] Penny Pritzker headed the campaign's finance team.

Other members of the campaign staff included Deputy National Campaign Director Steve Hildebrand,[18] New Media Director Joe Rospars,[19] speechwriter Jon Favreau,[20] national press secretary Bill Burton, traveling press secretary Dan Pfeiffer, policy development Cassandra Butts, finance director Julianna Smoot, research director Devorah Adler, and pollsters Paul Harstad and Cornell Belcher.[21] A number of Obama's top aides have backgrounds with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle,[22] who left the Senate due to re-election defeat at the same time Obama was entering it.

Obama's economic advisors included chief Austan Goolsbee, who has worked with him since his U.S.

Senate campaign, Paul Volcker, Warren Buffett,[23] health economist David Cutler and Jeffrey Leibman.[24] His foreign policy advisors included a core of nine people: Greg Craig, Richard Danzig, Scott Gration, Anthony Lake, Denis McDonough, Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice, and Daniel Shapiro[25] until March 2008 when Samantha Power stepped down.

A larger group of 250 advisers is divided into subgroups of about 20 people, each focusing on a specific area or topic.[26] His legal affairs advisors include Martha Minow, Ronald S.

Sullivan Jr., Christopher Edley Jr., Eric Holder, and Cassandra Butts.[27] Among his field staff, Paul Tewes and Mitch Stewart led Obama's winning Iowa caucus campaign, and one or the other of them directed field operations in many other crucial states, including Nevada, Minnesota, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.

Obama's campaign was notable for extensive use of a logo consisting of the letter O, with the center suggesting a sun rising over fields in the colors of the American flag.

It was designed by a team at Chicago design firm Sender LLC.[28] In March 2007, the Obama campaign posted a question on Yahoo! Answers, entitled: "How can we engage more people in the democratic process?" which ultimately drew in over 17,000 responses.[29] The same month, Obama traveled to Selma, Alabama, along with Hillary Clinton, coinciding with the 42nd anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches.[30] Also in March 2007, Hillary 1984, a mashup of Apple's 1984 launch commercial for the Macintosh with footage of Hillary Clinton used in the place of Big Brother, went viral in the early stages of the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

The video was produced in support of Obama by Phil de Vellis, an employee of Blue State Digital, but was made without the knowledge of either Obama's campaign, or de Vellis' employer: de Vellis stated that he made the video in one afternoon at home using a Mac and some software.

Political commentators including Carla Marinucci and Arianna Huffington, as well as de Vellis himself, suggested that the video demonstrated the way technology had created new opportunities for individuals to make an impact on politics.[31][32][33] On May 3, 2007, citing no specific threat but motivated by the large volume of hate mail directed at the candidate, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced that the United States Secret Service would provide protection for the campaign, including bodyguards for Obama and other services/resources similar to those employed for the safety of the President of the United States, albeit on a proportionally smaller level.

Normally, presidential candidates are not offered Secret Service protection until early February of election year; this was the earliest protection had ever been granted.[34] On August 1 when making his foreign policy speech Obama created controversy by declaring that the United States must be willing to strike al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan, with or without the consent of the Pakistani government.

He stated that if elected, "If we have actionable intelligence about high value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."[35] ABC News described the policy speech as "counterintuitive" and commented on how "one of the more liberal candidates in the race, is proposing a geopolitical posture that is more aggressive than that of President Bush"[36] Obama ultimately followed through on this statement of policy four years later when, as President, he ordered the operation to enter Pakistan and kill Osama bin Laden.

After weeks of discourse surrounding the policy, Obama said there was "misreporting" of his comments, stating that, "I never called for an invasion of Pakistan or Afghanistan." He clarified that rather than a surge in the number of troops in Iraq, there needed to be a "diplomatic surge" and that if there were "actionable intelligence reports" showing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the U.S.

troops as a last resort should enter and try to capture terrorists.

That would happen, he added, only if "the Pakistani government was unable or unwilling" to go after the terrorists.[38] As Democratic debates took place during the summer, Obama received at best mixed notices for his efforts.

Democratic strategist Bob Shrum said, "He slips into this tendency, which he probably learned as president of the Harvard Law Review, to overstate his premises before he states his position.

In politics, you do the opposite of what you do in the Law Review—you state your position, then say your premises—if you ever get to them."[39] Commentator Eleanor Clift said that, "Obama is almost too cerebral for the sound-bite world of modern politics, but that's part of his appeal."[39] During a campaign stop in October 2007, a reporter inquired as to why Obama had stopped wearing a lapel pin of the American flag, which he had started wearing after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and his response was that it had come to feel like "a substitute for true patriotism." This led to discussion on the cable news channels and was covered by satirists such as Stephen Colbert, who had an ongoing disagreement with the Fox & Friends assertion that "this is America, and if you want to be president of America, it might be [sic] behoove him to wear an American flag." Commentator Bill Maher, who was highly critical of such questions about Obama's patriotism and called it a "non-story" nonetheless referred to the incident as "[t]he first genuine controversy of the presidential campaign."[40] In mid-late October 2007, Obama came under fire from the Human Rights Campaign and others for a South Carolina gospel music campaign tour[further explanation needed] that featured singer Donnie McClurkin, who states that he is ex-gay and that homosexuality is a "curse [that runs against] the intention of God."[41][42] Obama said in response that, "I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights.

And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin's views."[42] While not replacing McClurkin, the campaign added a gay minister to the tour.[41] As fall 2007 continued, Obama fell further behind Clinton in national polls.[43] In late October 2007, two months before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, Obama began directly charging his top rival with failing to clearly state her political positions.[44] This shift in approach attracted much media commentary; The New York Times' Adam Nagourney wrote that, "Obama has appeared to struggle from the start of this campaign with how to marry what he has promised to be a new approach to politics—free of the partisan bitterness that has marked presidential campaigns for so long—with what it takes to actually win a presidential race."[43] In an early-anticipated October 30 Democratic debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia,[43] Clinton suffered a poor debate performance under cross-examination from her Democratic rivals and the moderator.[45] Obama's campaign was reinvigorated, and he began to climb again in the polls.

Campaigning in November 2007, Obama told The Washington Post that as the Democratic nominee he would draw more support from independent and Republican voters in the general election than Clinton.[46] At Iowa's Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner Obama expanded the theme, saying that his presidency would "bring the country together in a new majority" to seek solutions to long-standing problems.[47] On November 21, Obama announced that Oprah Winfrey would be campaigning for him in the early primary states,[48] setting off speculation that, although celebrity endorsements typically have little effect on voter opinions, Oprah's participation would supply Obama with a large, receptive audience.[49] As word spread that Oprah's first appearance would be in Iowa, polls released in early December revealed Obama taking the lead in that decisive state.[50] Then, on December 8, Oprah kicked off a three-state tour supporting Obama's campaign,[51] where she drew record-setting crowds in Iowa, New Hampshire,[52] and South Carolina and was described as "more cogent, more effective, more convincing" than anyone on the campaign trail.[53][54] The Oprah-Obama tour dominated political news headlines[55] and cast doubts over Clinton's ability to recover her recently lost lead in Iowa caucus polls.[56] Later in December, there was controversy regarding Obama's admissions of drug use as a teen.

Obama first publicly acknowledged the issue in his 1995 book, Dreams from My Father.

In the book, Obama said "Pot had helped, and booze.

Maybe a little blow when you could afford it."[57][58] The issue was revived on the campaign trail after a November 2007 speech at a New Hampshire high school.

Obama told the students, "I've made some bad decisions that I've actually written about," noting that his "drinking and experimenting with drugs" accounted for a lot of "wasted time" in high school.[59] Some, including Republican candidate Mitt Romney, criticized Obama for discussing these examples with students.

Romney said that "in order to leave the best possible example for our kids, we're probably wisest not to talk about our own indiscretions in great detail."[60] However, fellow GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani and Partnership for a Drug-Free America president Stephen J.

Pasierb praised Obama's candor.

"I respect his honesty," Giuliani said.[59] Pasierb told CNN that "really the truth works best" when discussing drug use with kids.[60][61] Bill Shaheen, the co-chairman of Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire, mentioned the drug use in a December 12 conference call with reporters.[62] Shaheen said that if Obama were to win the nomination, Republicans would use Obama's admissions against him in a general election.

He suggested that in such a scenario, Republicans would ask, "'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" He added that such "Republican dirty tricks" would be difficult to overcome.

The comments immediately caused controversy, and Shaheen resigned the next day.[63] Clinton denounced the comments and personally apologized to Obama.

Her spokesman said that she "made it clear that this kind of negative personal statement has no part in this campaign." Appearing on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Axelrod accused the Clinton campaign of giving a "wink and a nod" to negative tactics.

He criticized Clinton's December 3 statement[64] in which she signaled a more aggressive approach and called it the "fun part" of the campaign.

Axelrod said that the signal should come "from the top" that the campaigns will not be waged "in the gutter."[65] When the close proximity of the first contests to the holidays prompted many candidates to release Christmas videos—allowing them to continue presenting their messages, but in more seasonal settings[66]—Obama chose one that gave speaking parts to his wife and daughters and emphasized a message of thanks and unity.[66] "Fired up! Ready to go!" became a rallying cry ubiquitous to Obama's campaign.

According to The New York Times,[67] the chant originated during a rainy, early morning campaign stop during the summer in Greenwood, South Carolina.

Obama was feeling fatigued among a small group of supporters.

When out of the blue, as Obama recounts:[68] A little woman, about 5'3", 65 years old, in a big church hat, with big glasses, she’s smiling right at me.

She says, ‘Fired up!’ I jumped, but everyone acted like this was normal.

They all said, ‘Fired up!’ We hear the same voice saying, ‘Ready to go!’ And the people, they all say, ‘Ready to go!’This story is frequently recalled during Obama's stump speeches on how "one voice can change a room." The woman in the story, Councilwoman Edith S.

Childs, appeared later with Obama at a rally in South Carolina.

She later told reporters that if he were to win the presidency, that she would want one thing: "I want an invitation to an inaugural ball!"[69] Obama won the first contest in the Democratic nomination season, the January 3, 2008 Iowa Democratic caucus.

Obama had the support of 37.6 percent of Iowa's delegates, compared to 29.7 percent for John Edwards and 29.5 percent for Hillary Clinton.[70] In his remarks to his followers that evening, he said: "On this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do."[71] He further noted that "our time for change has come" and suggested that in the future Americans will look back on the 2008 Iowa caucuses and say, "this is the moment when it all began."[72] Obama's win in Iowa was seen as a boost to his already-improving chances in New Hampshire.

On January 4, he told supporters in New Hampshire, "If you give me the same chance that Iowa gave me last night I truly believe that I will be the president of the United States of America."[73] The campaign received another boost when former New Jersey senator and 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley endorsed Obama on January 6.[74] At the Democratic debate at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, on January 5, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards all battled over who best exemplified the buzzword of the campaign, "change".[75][76] In one key exchange, Clinton said, clearly targeting Obama's rhetorical prowess, "Making change is not about what you believe; it's not about a speech you make.

...

We don't need to be raising false hopes."[76] Obama replied that "The truth is, actually, words do inspire.

Words do help people get involved."[77] Polling showed a tight race in the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary.

All of the candidates barnstormed in New Hampshire during the four days after the Iowa caucuses, targeting undecided and independent voters in the state.[78] The day before the election, polls conducted by CNN/WMUR, Rasmussen Reports and USA Today/Gallup showed Obama jumping ahead by 9, 10, and 13 points respectively.

Despite the apparent surge of momentum, Clinton defeated Obama by a margin of 39.1 percent to 36.5 percent in the New Hampshire primary on January 8, 2008.[79] Obama told supporters that he was "still fired up and ready to go", echoing a theme of his campaign.[80][81] In what has been called the "Yes We Can" speech, Obama acknowledged that he faced a fight for the nomination and that "nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change".[82] The lyrics to the song in Yes We Can, an eponymous music video created by celebrity supporters of Obama, was entirely made up of pieces of this particular speech.

Meanwhile, Internet theories arose about how the vote counting itself had been suspect, due to discrepancies between machine-counted votes (which supported Clinton overall) and hand-counted votes (which supported Obama overall).[83] Fifth-place finisher Dennis Kucinich's campaign paid $25,000 to have a recount done of all Democratic ballots cast in the primary, saying "It is imperative that these questions be addressed in the interest of public confidence in the integrity of the election process and the election machinery." On January 16 the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office began the recount.

After recounting 23 percent of the state's democratic primary votes, the Secretary of State announced that no significant difference was found in any candidate's total and that the oft-discussed discrepancy between hand-counted and machine-counted ballots was solely due to demographic factors.[84] The Nevada Caucus took place on January 19.

Obama received the endorsement of two very important unions in the state: the Culinary Workers Union (whose 60,000 members staff the casinos and resorts of Las Vegas and elsewhere) and the Nevada chapter of the SEIU.

Clinton countered by appealing to the Hispanic vote in the state, emphasizing that they were at special risk from the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis.

Before the caucus, comments made by Obama concerning former Republican president Ronald Reagan attracted rebuke from rivals and dissection from all sections of the media.

Obama had stated in an interview that: "Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not."[85] According to The New York Times, Hillary Clinton "ridiculed the idea that the Republicans were the party of ideas, suggesting Mr.

Obama had said that the Republicans had 'better' ideas".[86] MSNBC noted that Senator John Edwards "criticized Obama specifically for referring to Ronald Reagan as an agent of change [stating] in a newspaper interview [that] 'I would never use Ronald Reagan as an example of change.'"[87] One day after the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama, the Nevada State Education Association—a teachers' union that while not officially endorsing Clinton, had top officials who did—filed a lawsuit seeking to eliminate at-large caucus sites that had been set up in nine Las Vegas resorts, saying they violated equal protection and one-person-one-vote requirements.

The suit was viewed as a proxy legal battle between Clinton and Obama, as the caucus sites within the casinos would be primarily used by members of the CWU, who are more likely to vote for Obama.

This led Obama to allege that the suit was filed in order to hurt his chances at the caucuses.

"Some of the people who set up the rules apparently didn't think we'd be as competitive as we were and trying to change them last minute", he said.[88] On January 17, a federal judge ruled that the casino at-large caucus plan could go ahead.

This was seen as a win for Obama because of the Culinary Workers Union endorsement.[88] To further complicate matters, the major news and polling organizations decided to refrain from polling before the Nevada caucuses, fearing the newness of the caucus, the transient nature of Nevada's population, and more fallout from their bad experience in New Hampshire.

Clinton finished first in the state delegate count on January 19, winning 51 percent of delegates to the state convention.[89] However, Obama was projected to win the Nevada national delegate count with 13 delegates to Clinton's 12, because the apportionment of some delegates is determined by Congressional District.[90] Delegates to the national convention were determined officially at the April 19 state convention.

At the convention, one of Clinton's pledged delegates defected to Obama, giving Obama 14 delegates to Clinton's 11.[91] On January 23, the Obama campaign filed an official letter of complaint with the Nevada Democratic Party, charging the Clinton campaign with many violations of party rules during the caucuses, based upon 1,600 complaints they had received.[92] The Clinton camp said the Obama operation was "grasping at straws" and that they had their own complaints about Obama campaign actions during the caucuses.[92] Rasmussen Reports released a poll January 7 showing that Obama led by 12 points, at 42 percent to Hillary Clinton's 30 percent.

This was a substantial jump from December, when the two were tied at 33 percent, and from November when Clinton led Obama by 10 points.[93] Issues of race came to the forefront as campaigning began for the South Carolina primary, the first to feature a large African American portion in the Democratic electorate.

First, Bill Clinton referred to Obama's claim that he has been a staunch opponent of the Iraq War from the beginning as a "fairy tale," which some thought was a characterization of Obama's entire campaign.[94] The former President called in to Al Sharpton's radio show to personally clarify that he respected and believed in Obama's viability.[94] Around the same time, Hillary Clinton said regarding Martin Luther King, Jr.

in an interview with Fox News, "I would point to the fact that that Dr.

King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the President before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done.

That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became real in people's lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished."[95] Some African-American leaders took this statement as a denigration of the accomplishments of King and the larger Civil Rights Movement.[94] Hillary Clinton proceeded to blame Obama for the controversy, claiming his campaign had fanned the flames, a charge which Obama dismissed as "ludicrous."[94] By shortly before, and during, a January 15 Democratic debate in Nevada, Clinton and Obama declared a truce on the matter, with both making reconciliatory statements about race, gender, and each other.[96] However, Clinton's support among African Americans was thought to be damaged,[96] with SUNY Albany's Debra Dickerson stating "The Clintons have to do something dramatic and symbolic to win back the trust of many African-Americans."[96] In part, the tension resulted from the historical coincidence of the first viable African American presidential candidate and the first viable woman candidate, running against each other in the same nomination race.[97] One South Carolina pastor lamented that he had been waiting all his life for either "first" to happen and said, "I really hate that they had to run at the same time in the same election.

It just makes what should be a wonderful situation very stressful for folk like me.

I never imagined you could have too much of a good thing."[98] After the Clinton-Obama tension on this matter, one Democrat said, "After Iowa, Obama was the post-racial candidate who appealed to all of our better natures.

Now he's a black politician, and she's a woman.

And it is back to politics as usual."[96] The January 21 CNN/Congressional Black Caucus debate in Myrtle Beach was the most heated face-to-face meeting yet between the candidates,[99] reflecting apparent personal animosity.[100] Clinton criticized Obama for voting "present" on many occasions while in the Illinois legislature.

"It's hard to have a straight up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote," she said.

Obama explained that Illinois had a different system than Congress and that 'present' votes had a different function and use in the Illinois Senate.[101] Obama said that he was working to help unemployed workers in Chicago while Clinton was "a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart."[102] He also took issue with statements made on the campaign trail by Bill Clinton, saying "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes."[101] The confrontation was the most-watched primary season debate in cable television news history.[100] On January 26, Obama won the South Carolina primary by a more than two-to-one margin over Clinton, gaining 55 percent of the vote to her 27 percent and Edwards' 18 percent.[103] In his victory speech that night, he said, "Tonight, the cynics who believed that what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion were told a different story by the good people of South Carolina."[103] Addressing the racial dust-up and the other campaign back-and-forths between himself and the Clintons, he said, "The choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders.

It's not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white.

It's about the past versus the future."[103] The Florida and Michigan primaries were held on January 29 and 15, respectively.

However, the states were previously stripped of all their delegates to the national convention for breaking party rules by moving their primaries to before February 5.

All candidates abided by an agreement not to campaign in Florida, and all major candidates except for Hillary Clinton had removed their names from the Michigan ballot.[104] Nonetheless, Clinton celebrated the 'wins' and asserted that they gave her momentum heading to Super Tuesday.

The Obama campaign said that Clinton was "basically trying to take a victory lap when there was no race."[104] On May 31, 2008, the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Commission met to resolve questions surrounding the contentious Florida and Michigan primaries.[105] In the case of Florida, it was decided that the delegate distribution would be based on the primary results as they stood, and the delegation would be seated in full, but with each delegate receiving half a vote.

In the case of Michigan, the delegate distribution was based on an estimate that took into consideration factors such as the actual primary results, exiting polling, and surveys of voter preference among those who did not participate in the Michigan primary.

The end result rewarded Clinton with 69 delegates and Obama 59.[106] As with Florida, each delegate would be given a half vote.[107] After his win in South Carolina, Obama received the endorsement of Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F.

Kennedy,[108] as well as Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, the former President's brother.[109] Ted Kennedy's endorsement was considered "the biggest Democratic endorsement Obama could possibly get short of Bill Clinton or Al Gore."[110] In particular, it gave the possibility of improving Obama's support among unions, Hispanics, and traditional base Democrats, all demographics that Clinton had been stronger in to this point.[111] Obama won 13 of 22 states on Super Tuesday (February 5, 2008): Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and Utah.

His campaign claimed to have won more delegates.[112] On February 9, Obama won the Louisiana primary,[113] as well as caucuses in Nebraska[114] and Washington State.[115] He garnered 57 percent of the available delegates in Louisiana and 68 percent in both Nebraska and Washington.[116] On the same day, he won caucuses in Virgin Islands with 92 percent of the popular vote.[117] The next day, Obama took the Maine caucuses amid what one senior Maine Democratic official called an "incredible" turnout.[118][119] The "Potomac primary" took place on February 12.

It included the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.

There were 168 delegates up for grabs in the three primaries.[120] Obama won all three, taking 75 percent of the popular vote in the District of Columbia, 60 percent in Maryland, and 64 percent in Virginia.

"Today, the change we seek swept through Chesapeake and over the Potomac," Obama said at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin.[121] On February 18, Michelle Obama attracted criticism when during a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin she said, "Let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.

Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change." Barack's response to the criticism was, "Statements like this are made, and people try to take it out of context and make a great big deal out of it, and that isn't at all what she meant.

What she meant was, this is the first time that she's been proud of the politics of America," he said.

"Because she's pretty cynical about the political process, and with good reason, and she's not alone.

But she has seen large numbers of people get involved in the process, and she's encouraged."[122] Two more primaries followed on February 19: Wisconsin and Hawaii.

Obama won both decisively, taking 58 percent of the vote in Wisconsin and 14 of the 20 available national delegates in Hawaii.[123] On February 21, Obama was announced as the winner of the week-long Democrats Abroad contest.[124] The Democratic presidential candidate defended himself and his wife February 24 against suggestions that they are insufficiently patriotic.[125] Barack Obama’s campaign accused Hillary Clinton’s team February 25 of circulating a photo of the Illinois senator donning traditional attire – clothing worn by area Muslims – as a goodwill gesture during an overseas trip.[126] Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton argued with each other over negative campaigning, health care, and free trade February 26.[127] Obama and John McCain engaged in a pointed exchange over Al-Qaeda in Iraq on February 27.[128] Obama and Clinton were in a statistical dead heat in Texas, according to a poll released February 25, 2008.[129] During Obama's sweep of February's post-Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, the March 4 primaries of Texas and Ohio were seen as a firewall for the Clinton campaign.[130] In early polls for these states, Clinton held double digit leads in polls for those states, but by the end of February Obama had started to erode Clinton's lead in her key demographics, and her lead had been reduced to single digits in some polls.[130] In response to Obama's increases, Clinton's campaign began to increase their attacks on him, including an accusation of plagiarism due to similarities in Obama's campaign speeches and campaign speeches of Obama's campaign's national co-chair and Massachusetts governor, Deval Patrick, although Patrick specifically stated he told Obama to use it.

During the February 21, CNN-Univision debate in Austin, Texas Obama responded to the accusation by saying, "The notion that I had plagiarized from somebody who's one of my national co-chairs, who gave me the line and suggested that I use it, I think is silly." Clinton received a round of boos from the crowd when she responded, "Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in; it's change you can Xerox."[131] On February 25, 2008, during the hotly contested primaries in Texas and Ohio, Obama appeared at rallies in both Cincinnati and—for the first time in his career—in Dayton, Ohio.

The noontime audience at the Fifth Third Arena at the University of Cincinnati was estimated at 13,000.

That evening, in Fairborn, just outside Dayton, Obama spoke before a capacity audience estimated at over 11,000 at the Nutter Center, at Wright State University.

Speaking for just under an hour, Obama charged the audience with an equal responsibility in "making things happen".

According to the Dayton Daily News, "Sen.

Barack Obama packed the Nutter Center like a rock star ...

painting himself as a man who will cut through petty partisanship and bring real change to Washington."[132] In Ohio, as part of the campaign's self proclaimed goal to knock on a million doors the weekend immediately before the primary, Patrick[133] and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius spoke to Obama volunteers at volunteer rallies across the state on March 1 and 2, 2008.[134] Obama, who had won the eleven contests in February after Super Tuesday, claimed victory in the Vermont primary and the Texas Democratic caucuses, on March 4, 2008, but lost the primaries in Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island.[135] On March 8, 2008, Obama won the Wyoming caucus by nineteen points.[136] The Clinton camp continued to suggest that Obama would make a good vice presidential candidate for Clinton, and former President Bill Clinton made known his support of this as a "dream ticket" which would be an "almost unstoppable force".[137] On March 10, Obama flatly rejected such suggestions.[138] Obama noted that he, not Clinton, held the lead in pledged delegates and that he had won more of the popular vote than Clinton.

"I don't know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to somebody who is in first place", he said.[139] He told supporters in Columbus, Mississippi, that Clinton's VP suggestion was an example of what he called "the old okey-doke", further stating that the Clinton camp was trying to "bamboozle" or "hoodwink" voters.[140] Obama wondered aloud why the Clinton campaign believed him competent for the vice presidency, but said he was "not ready" to be president.[141] Obama stated that the nomination process would have to be a choice between himself and Clinton, saying "I don't want anybody here thinking that 'Somehow, maybe I can get both'," by nominating Clinton as president and assuming he would be her running mate".[142][143] Some suggested that it was a ploy by the Clinton campaign to denigrate Obama as less qualified for the presidency.[144] On March 11, 2008, Obama won the Mississippi primary.[145] There, Obama won approximately 90 percent of the black vote, compared to Clinton's 70 percent majority of white voters.[146] On March 11, 2008, David Axelrod demanded that Clinton sever ties with Geraldine Ferraro, a top Clinton fundraiser and 1984 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, who said publicly that Obama was a major presidential contender only because he is a black man.[147] Obama widened his lead over Clinton in the overall delegate count when he was declared the winner of the March 4 Texas caucuses on March 12, 2008.[148] Obama and Clinton would both statistically tie McCain in a general election matchup, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released March 18, 2008.[149] The National Archives on March 19, 2008, released more than 11,000 pages of Clinton's schedule when she was first lady.

Obama's campaign had pushed for release of the documents, arguing that their review was necessary to make a full evaluation of Clinton's experience as first lady.[150] Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, released their tax returns from 2000 to 2006 on his campaign web site March 26, 2008, and he challenged Clinton to release hers.[151] New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a former 2008 Democratic candidate, endorsed Obama on March 21.

Prominent Clinton advisor James Carville pointed out that the endorsement came during the week before Easter and likened Richardson's endorsement to Judas Iscariot's biblical betrayal of Jesus Christ.

Richardson had served as former President Bill Clinton's ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of Energy.

Amid controversy,[152] a Clinton spokesman said that he would apologize had he made the comment but Carville declined to do so, further calling Richardson's decision an "egregious act".

Richardson responded by refusing to "get in the gutter" with Carville and said that certain people around Clinton feel a "sense of entitlement to the presidency".[153] On March 20, 2008, Obama gave a preview of his strategy in a potential general election campaign against McCain.

Obama blasted McCain for backing tax cuts for the wealthy without corresponding spending cuts and for his support of the Iraq war, which Obama blamed for high gasoline prices.

"John McCain seems determined to carry out a third Bush term", Obama said.

He added that McCain once opposed what Obama called the "irresponsible" Bush tax cuts, but now wants to make them permanent.

He also asserted that McCain wants a "permanent occupation in Iraq".[154] After Obama's win in Mississippi on March 11, 2008, the campaign turned its attention to Pennsylvania.

Mid March polls by Rasmussen Reports,[155] Franklin & Marshall College Poll,[156] Quinnipiac University Polling Institute[157] and Public Policy Polling[158] had Obama trailing Clinton in Pennsylvania by 12 to 16 points.

Dozens of campaign offices were opened around the state, including 8 in Philadelphia.[159] By the beginning of April, polls of Pennsylvanians showed Obama trailing Clinton by average of 5 points.[160] Speaking about small-town Pennsylvania at a private April 6 fundraising event in Kentfield, CA, a small suburb of San Francisco located in neighboring Marin County, his remarks would be widely criticized after they were reported: You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them.

And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.[161]Hillary Clinton described the remarks as "elitist, out of touch, and frankly patronizing."[162] Noting he had not chosen his words well, Obama subsequently explained his remarks, "Lately there has been a little typical sort of political flare-up, because I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my hometown in Illinois, who are bitter."[163] Obama had addressed similar themes in a 2004 interview with Charlie Rose,[164] and his strategists countered that Bill Clinton had made similar comments in 1991.[165] Just hours prior Obama's remarks in San Francisco, he spoke in Silicon Valley at another private event, and expressed a much more nuanced understanding of the second amendment and rural America.

He stated, We need sensible gun laws.

I just got back from Montana where just about everyone has guns.

In that culture, fathers and sons bond over hunting.

You can't take that away from rural America.

But the inner city is different, and we should tighten the laws on gun purchases and close the loopholes in gun show sales to unscrupulous buyers.

The gun control people and the right to bear arms people are talking past each other about disconnected topics.[166]That Obama's comments in San Francisco made wide media play but not the ones he spoke in Silicon Valley became a source of speculation about the media and its political coverage.[167] On Friday, April 18, 2008, Obama spoke in Independence Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a crowd of 35,000, the largest audience yet drawn during the campaign.

The crowd was nearly twice what had been projected[168] and spilled over into nearby streets.[169] The next day, Obama conducted a whistle stop train tour from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, drawing a crowd of 6,000 at a stop in Wynnewood and 3,000 at a stop in Paoli.[170] The last big event in the final week of the campaign was the April 16 debate on ABC-TV.

Many pundits gave the edge to Hillary Clinton, though many were critical of moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos.[171] A two-month-old controversy gained more exposure when Stephanopoulos questioned Obama during the debate about Obama's contacts with Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers.[172] Polls during the debate week showed the momentum that had cut Clinton's lead by half had stalled.

Despite being outspent by three to one,[173] Clinton would win the April 22 primary election with 54.6 percent of the vote, a solid nine-point margin over Obama's 45.4 percent.[174] Although Clinton remained behind in delegates, the press soon ran cover stories about Obama's apparent trouble connecting with less educated whites and Catholics.[162][175] After Clinton's victory in Pennsylvania, the campaigns focused on the May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.

115 delegates were at stake in North Carolina,[176] and 72 in Indiana.[177] Polling suggested a close race in Indiana, while Obama enjoyed the advantage in North Carolina thanks in part to the state's large African-American population – a demographic from which Obama was receiving strong support throughout the primary season.[176] Indiana's demographic makeup appeared to favor Clinton, as the state was predominantly white, rural, and culturally conservative.

Clinton won states like Ohio and Pennsylvania largely because of just such a voter base.

However, there were positive signs for Obama as well.

Obama got a boost in Indiana when the former head of the state's Democratic party, Joe Andrew, endorsed him.

Andrew, a superdelegate, also previously served as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1999–2001, a position he was appointed to by former President Bill Clinton.

Andrew had come out behind Hillary Clinton's candidacy when she announced in 2007, and he explained that his defection to Obama was an attempt to end the protracted primary fight.

He said that the Democrats were helping presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and "doing his [McCain's] work for him."[178] Obama won in North Carolina, capturing 56 percent of the vote, while Hillary Clinton finished with 42 percent, according to CNN.[179] The Indiana race was much closer than expected, with Clinton, winning a 51 percent to 49 percent victory.[180][181] These races were seen as Clinton's last chance to make a comeback in the nomination fight.[182] As the results came in, ABC political analyst and former top Bill Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos declared the Democratic race "over," and NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert said, "We now know who the Democratic nominee will be."[183] The day after these primaries, it appeared that superdelegates and party leaders were beginning to coalesce around Obama.

He added four superdelegate endorsements to Clinton's one, and former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern switched his support from Clinton to Obama.[184] In the days leading up to the May 13 West Virginia primary, Obama took the lead in committed superdelegates.

He picked up seven endorsements from superdelegates the week after the May 6 primaries.[185] Clinton won West Virginia by a 41-percentage-point margin,[186] and told supporters that she was "more determined than ever to carry on in this campaign."[187] Obama continued to add to his superdelegate lead in the week before the May 20 Kentucky and Oregon primaries, and former Democratic candidate John Edwards endorsed him on May 14.[188][189] As Obama's chance at becoming the nominee increased, he decided to focus much of his attention on general election battleground states.

He planned to watch the Kentucky and Oregon results in Iowa, and he scheduled an appearance in Florida for later that week.[190] While campaigning in Oregon, Obama drew a crowd of 75,000, his largest crowd of the campaign season.[191][192] Obama won Oregon, 59 percent to Clinton's 41 percent, but lost Kentucky by a margin of 35 percent.

Delegates accrued in these two contests gave him an absolute majority among pledged delegates.

After a Clinton victory on June 1 in the Puerto Rico primary,[193] only one more day of primaries remained.

June 3 saw the final votes of the primary season in Montana, which Obama won by 58-40 percent, and South Dakota, which Clinton won by 55-45 percent.

Throughout the course of the day, a flood of superdelegates endorsed Obama, putting him over the top in terms of deleg

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Once you have decided to get help for a drinking or drug abuse problem and decided that the you really need inpatient care at a drug or alcohol rehab, you still need to choose a quality drug rehab, and you still have a very tough decision to make when evaluating between the hundreds of drug rehabs likely available in your area alone.

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long term drug rehab allows a person to complete a full drug detoxification process if necessary.

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Once you decide to enroll in a rehab for a substance abuse problem, how can you know if the rehab you are considering is a quality facility, offering you good chance at sobriety?

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Getting accurate drug rehab pricing information off of a Google search is close to impossible, and although you will get hundreds of thousands of pages from thousands and thousands of drug rehabs vying for your entry, almost none of them will reveal how much a stay will actually cost.

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There are thousands of drug rehab or drug treatment programs available throughout the United States.

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Find out more about how to get the Best Drug Rehab Help and see if it is right for you at this time.

Please read our evaluation on getting the Best Drug Rehab Help.

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Having an educated and supportive family to come home to after drug or alcohol rehab is one of the best ways to promote long term sobriety and minimize the risks of relapse; and one of the best ways that family can learn to support the addict in recovery is through involved participation in family therapies at drug rehab.

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