Obama - Oprah 2008?

I'll be traveling to Columbia, SC this weekend to spend some time with my in-laws but mostly to spend more time with My favorite presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

It looks like I won't be alone...

The Obama campaign had planned a rally with Barack and Oprah Winfrey this Sunday in the Colonial Center in Columbia, which seats about 18,000, but on Tuesday Obama's state director Stacey Brayboy announced that "overwhelming excitement" had caused a run on free tickets. The rally will therefore be moved to the 80,000 seat college football stadium.
Even though the campaign doesn't expect to completely fill the stadium, it is clear that several tens of thousands will be attending.

Tickets to attend the rally are no longer required, but the Obama campaign requests that you RSVP on their site if you plan on attending. Doors open at 12.30 pm.

It could be the largest political gathering in South Carolina since 1976, when Jimmy Carter captured the Democratic nomination and spoke to tens of thousands from the Statehouse steps, said Alex Sanders, who introduced Carter at the time.

If there still is such a thing as people power, I do believe we have found our presidential candidate.

I'm trying to reach the campaign to see if I could do some live blogging from the event, but they are understandably overwhelmed by the success of this thing, so I can't promise yet that I'll be able to report live from Williams-Brice Stadium. If not, look for my report Sunday evening.