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‘We’ needed to support president

Debbie Marquez
Special to the Daily
Vail, CO Colorado
Special to the DailyDebbie Marquez.
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Editor’s note: Local business owner Debbie Marquez will be sending dispatches to the Vail Daily this week from the Democratic National Convention, where she is a delegate.

I will be attending the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., this week in my final capacity as a Democratic national committeewoman for Colorado. It has been eight years since I was first elected to represent Colorado on the DNC. In 2004, I was a member-elect when I first heard Sen. Barack Obama as he gave the keynote address at the DNC in Boston. It was an exhilarating moment and confirmed all of the positive reports from Chicago activists about the “skinny man” from Illinois.

I was an automatic delegate in 2008 and was very proud to have my hometown of Denver host the Democratic convention. I and many others from Eagle County attended, and I was honored to nominate Barack Obama for president. We worked hard here and across Colorado and won. I would be attending the inauguration for our new president whom I had helped elect!



I have a few “inspirational” items tacked to my home-office wall – it’s an eclectic assortment that includes the Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and three speeches from Barack Obama along with pictures of JFK, Cesar Chavez and the president.

I re-read all three of President Obama’s speeches in preparation for my trip to Charlotte – the 2004 keynote, election-night address and inaugural address. Reading these words was inspiring and a great reminder of where the country was during the 2008 election and January 2009.

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Jobs plummeting, real estate and stock market collapse, war in Iraq and Afghanistan, middle-class wealth downfall – remnants of the previous administration. But the country had hope, I had hope, and I still do!

I believe that given a second term, President Obama will do the one thing that will make all the difference to his ability to succeed on behalf of the people. And that one thing is to call on the people themselves.

The one inspiring note from Jefferson on my wall states this: “There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well-informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power and restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of the government.”

In all speeches from President Obama, he speaks about the “we,” meaning we, the people together, are necessary for him to succeed as president. I feel that the people are fed up with the failure of Congress to work together for the good of all the people, and the president will call on us and we will respond.

I will proudly cast my vote to nominate President Obama for a second term.

Debbie Marquez is a local business owner who owns Cafe de Luna, a high-country Mex restaurant located in the Christie Lodge in Avon.


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