Baird tells Democrats to stand up for Obama and fight hard

DENVER - Brian Baird walked up to the stage at this morning's delegate breakfast with a computer in his hand, opened it up, and placed it on the podium. The 3rd District U.S. Representative from Vancouver then proceeded to read excerpts from an e-mail being passed around among opponents of Barack Obama. The e-mail included a number of false and offensive claims about his history and policy plans.

"We have a responsibility to counter this," Baird proclaimed. "This is an American success story and they are slandering it."

He then held up the book, Obama Nation, and said that with its predictions of a president ruining America's economy and weakening its security, the book should be about President George W. Bush.

Baird then called for the Democrats to really stand together and fight for Obama this fall, even if his policies didn't perfectly align with their own. He referenced the election of 2000, which Al Gore narrowly lost despite winning the popular vote, and blamed much of it on liberals voting for that year's Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.

That was followed by a story from his race in 1996, when he first took on then-Rep. Linda Smith and, after the primary election that showed an unexpectedly close race, President Bill Clinton called him and told him, "Bear down. You think you have worked hard? Work harder."

Baird then suggested the Democrats take on an attitude often attributed to athletics, and notably the powerful Kenyan distance runners.

"When they are working," Baird said, "we are working. And when they are sleeping, we are working."

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