Wow... Two THOUSAND People Show Up For Obama Campaign HQ Opening In L.A.

The general election has begun. On a random Thursday night, when most political junkies were watching POW McCain's cottage cheese and lime Jello speech at the RNC convention, in a town notoriously hard to get anywhere in on time, 2,000 people showed up at the opening of Barack Obama's first campaign office in Southern California.

There were a couple speeches from locals (Eric Garcetti, Harb Wesson, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and a couple others) at the beginning, and they handed out a few yard signs and bumper stickers, but basically, this was an office opening. Just a walk-through of the building. And the campaign sent only one email out about it, with just 24 hours advance notice.

Two thousand people.

Wow.

Practically every local TV station in L.A. was out there, including a NEWS CHOPPER. It basically turned into a block party, with supporters waving signs at passersby on the street. But there was also some positive work being done. Most of the people who turned out to the event signed up to volunteer, whether by phone banking or traveling to Nevada. It's a large enough office to handle a lot of volunteers at once. And they are organized and ready.

I was able to talk with Mitchell Schwartz, who will be the California Field Director for the next two months. He said the goal of the office was to win California, and then help Nevada. So there will be legitimate actions taken here to increase turnout, which bodes well for the propositions and downticket races, even though the Obama campaign will strictly be trying to identify and turn out Obama voters. The CDP is running a coordinated campaign for downticket (they had their opening in Santa Monica on the same night, which kind of shows how the two entities aren't really working together).

What's more, Schwartz told me that there are going to be up to 10 field offices opening in California over the next week or two, including 3-4 more in the SoCal area (East LA and San Bernardino are likely to get one, among other locations). There will be places to work.

There was a genuine excitement last night. I think what we're seeing on the ground post-Palin is a real determination to get to work. There is a backlash to the conservative culture war backlash they are trying to ride to victory. The denigration of community organizing really hit a nerve, and I think now there's a common opponent, one that's bigger than McCain and more visceral. "We're going to show everyone what community organizing is about," said one attendee to me.

This is no joke. The Obama campaign raised $10 million in one day this week. People are energized and fired up. The spirit of 2004, as Van Jones called it to me at the DNC last week, is back.