“¡Obámanos!”

Creativity was not lacking at the Democrats’ National Convention in Denver. The staging for Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday night was unbelievably bold and glitzy. In downtown Denver, Obama t-shirts and campaign buttons appeared everywhere, with messages as diverse as the images they displayed, from the face of Obama alongside that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to Snoopy on top of his dog house, daydreaming of an Obama victory.

But the t-shirt that caught my eye for its clever play on words was “¡Obámanos!” a creative way of signaling -- in Spanglish -- Hispanic support for Obama.

The Obama campaign knows that it needs to capture a substantial majority of the Hispanic vote to win in November. President George W. Bush won reelection in 2004 with about 40 percent support of the Hispanic electorate nationwide. And it is no secret that in the Democratic presidential primaries, Hispanics voted mostly for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Obama thus has some work to do to move and keep Hispanic voters firmly in his camp.

So featuring New Mexican Hispanics on Obama’s big night was a no-brainer. Governor Bill Richardson’s major convention address was moved from an earlier time to prime time, shortly before Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field. Richardson warmed up the crowd with his policy address while leading chants of sí se puede towards an Obama election.

Ray Rivera, a graduate of Manzano High School and the University of New Mexico, and now the Colorado state chair of the Obama campaign, organized a text messaging campaign among convention delegates to display their words of support on stadium screens – a creative way to engage folks awaiting Obama’s appearance.

Appearing as one of five “regular folks” telling personal stories was Teresa Brito Asenap of Albuquerque and APS liaison to its charter schools. As a first-generation college graduate in her family, Dr. Asenap underscored the role of public education in her quest for a Ph.D. and as a great equalizer in American society. She urged adequate funding and support for public school teachers and students as they deal with the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Barack Obama rocked the house on his big night and sent a whole bunch of Democrats home from Denver all fired up to work for victory in November. As a battleground state, New Mexico promises to figure prominently in the two months remaining of the presidential campaign season. In the end, the voter preferences and turnout of New Mexico Hispanics will be key in swinging the state blue or red in ’08. “¡Obámanos!” may just stick as a new word in the New Mexican vocabulary during this historic political year.