Frigid Weather Tests Crowd's Fortitude

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Feb. 10 -- Raising questions about his judgment and risking the ire of the national press corps, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) held fast on his first major campaign decision: to conduct his announcement speech in the frigid outdoors here on Saturday.

And so, as much as it was a political story, the Obama event became a weather story.

"I guess the Arctic Circle wasn't available this morning," said Chris Matthews, quivering during his live interview on NBC's "Weekend Today" as he ruefully noted that anchor Campbell Brown was usually the one outside doing cold-weather reporting.

Even by the standards of the wintry spells in New Hampshire and Iowa that political reporters and candidates ritually confront, it was a brutal morning in the Illinois capital -- sunny but subfreezing, especially in the shady corners where hundreds of supporters had to stand. Medical teams were on hand in case anyone collapsed. A local television station ran a report on preventing hypothermia, aimed at people planning to attend the Obama event.

Why not, some asked, just move the speech indoors?

Campaign officials pointed out that the backdrop of the old Illinois statehouse, where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous "House Divided" speech, was too symbolic and picturesque to be skipped, even on a morning when the temperature was 7 degrees. There were also suggestions that a pampered press corps might be more fragile than the candidate, who emerged in a simple suit and an overcoat, without head covering of any kind.

By contrast, columnist Joe Klein of Time magazine wore a large, fuzzy hat made of rabbit fur, procured in Amsterdam. A member of one of the camera crews -- which began assembling at 5 a.m. -- wore a full-body ski suit.

Though a trifling matter, the insistence on staying outside raised questions about the Obama message. Was he trying to prove his mettle? Distancing himself from his upbringing in Hawaii -- where he was recently photographed in his bathing suit? Subtly appealing to flinty Northerners who pride themselves on enduring the cold?

Obama dropped few clues, though he did acknowledge the temperature.

"I know it's a little chilly," he said as he walked onstage with his wife and two daughters (both covered, unlike their father, in hats).

"No, it's cold!" someone shouted from the crowd.

The weather did not stop more than a dozen people in wheelchairs, some elderly, from taking up positions in the front row. Tara Davlin, 29, hobbled through the site on crutches after recent hip surgery (though, as the daughter of Springfield Mayor Timothy J. Davlin, she might have had more obligation to attend than most). "I wouldn't have missed it for the world," she said.

Nonchalance -- about the climate, not the candidate -- abounded. "If we can survive the cold to go sledding, we can survive the cold to see history," said Shanna Shipman, 27, who bundled up her daughters -- Hope, 4, and Kai, 18 months -- in layers to see the speech.

"We're hearty Midwesterners," beamed Dan Hankiewicz of Springfield. "A little weather never stopped us."