Keynote Address "The Audacity of Hope" 27 July 2004

Obama meets the Marine, Seamus P. Ahern, and later talks about it at the convention.

" You know, a while back -- I met a young man named Seamus in a V.F.W. Hall in East Moline, Illinois. He was a good-looking kid -- six two, six three, clear eyed, with an easy smile. He told me he’d joined the Marines and was heading to Iraq the following week. And as I listened to him explain why he’d enlisted, the absolute faith he had in our country and its leaders, his devotion to duty and service, I thought this young man was all that any of us might ever hope for in a child.
But then I asked myself, "Are we serving Seamus as well as he is serving us?"

Barack Obama Met a Marine at the VFW Hall in East Moline

A campaign stop by Barack Obama at the VFW in East Moline, IL in May, 2004, turned out to be an event we would all come to know about.

This small place was the forum that introduced Barack Obama to a handful of people, one of whom was a young Marine, Seamus P. Ahern. Later, we would all hear about the fateful meeting when Obama included the meeting in his electrifiying Keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention.

The picture shows the Caddy parked in front of the VFW that day. The Obamalac was a thing in the future. The Caddy was carrying signs for Barack Obama for U. S. Senate, Lane Evans for Congress, and Mary Kay O'Brien for judge. All three easily won their primary race.