From the Oregonian:
Tens of thousands jammed Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland today to watch Barack Obama wrap up a busy weekend in Oregon and a historic campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Portland Fire Bureau estimated the crowd at 72,000. About 60,000 squeezed inside the gates and 12,000 watched from outside.
It was a record crowd for an Oregon political event. In 2004, an estimated 50,000 turned out to see Democrat John Kerry, who brought along movie idol Leonardo DiCaprio and rocker Jon Bon Jovi. Obama was the biggest star at Sunday's gathering -though a popular Portland band, The Decemberists, provided the warm-up act. With blue skies and temperatures in the 80s, thousands waited in lines that snaked through downtown Portland streets.
"We just wanted to see him," said Norman Yoshida, 64, of Portland. "We need somebody who can be inspirational, and he inspires."
At the bottom of the story:
Sporting a blue "Hillary 2008" baseball cap, the former president told more than 1,000 people at Salem's sun-drenched Riverfront Park to ignore the growing news media consensus that Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has all but wrapped up the nomination.
