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Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders' speech at the Moda Center on Friday had a pep-rally feel, complete with a wave by the entire arena and crowd surfing.
His supporters began lining up at 4 am for an event a day before today's Democratic caucus in Washington, where Sanders seeks a much-needed win over Hillary Rodham Clinton.
As many as 11,500 people came to hear Sanders yesterday. Doors opened at 10 am, and the throng—warmed up by opening act Zia McCabe—stayed until nearly 2 in the afternoon.
The event was marked by Sanders' encounter with a house finch—the bird's visit to the podium has since gone viral.
There was no such drama to Sanders' policy statements during his return to Oregon. (Sanders pronounced the state as "Or-ee-gone," but the crowd seemed to find it endearing, responding with warm laughs and applause.)
Instead, Sanders struck familiar and crowd-pleasing notes on college funding, Wall Street and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
Here are the lines that drew the biggest cheers.
1. "I think there may be some symbolism here. I know it doesn't look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us for world peace. No more wars!"
2. "All of us here agree that it would be an unmitigated disaster for our country if somebody like Donald Trump became president of the United States. But here's the good news: Donald Trump is not going to become president. The American people are much too smart to let that happen."
3. "The American people understand that we are fighting a war now to destroy ISIS, a terrorist organization, not Islam, a religion."
4. "In 10 months we have received almost 6 million individual campaign contributions. And that in itself is revolutionary because we have shown that you can run a national, winning campaign without being dependent on big money interests."
5."This is a campaign of the people, by the people, and for the people."
6. On disclosing the transcripts any speech he made on Wall Street: "That will be easy to do, because there are no speeches to Wall Street."
7. "We are going to bring justice back to a broken criminal justice system."
8. On his vote against the war in Iraq and Clinton's vote supporting it: "She was wrong, I was right."
8. "I will do my best to phase out fracking."
10. "This campaign is listening to young people. One of the gratifying aspects of this campaign is seeing young people, the future of this country, becoming increasingly involved in the political process."
11. "I believe that in the year 2016, when we talk about public education, we've got to be talking about making public colleges and universities tuition free."
12. On climate change: "We have a moral responsibility to future generations to make certain that the planet we leave them is healthy and inhabitable."
Willamette Week