UPDATE: Here is a Rocky Mountain News report about Wes in Pueblo, where Barack and Michelle Obama are shortly to appear:

2:40 p.m. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who once considered his own run for president, has rallied the troops in Pueblo by saying he thinks Obama will be “a great president.”

Clark said that President Bush’s tenure has been marked by a familiar pattern of crisis and failure – on finding terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, resolving the war in Iraq, rebuilding New Orleans after the damage of Hurricane Katrina, and fixing the financial crisis.

“There’s warning, the government takes action, the action is ineffective and the problem persists,” Clark said.

“It’s time for new leadership,” said Clark, who referred to his time being stationed with the Army at Fort Carson near Colorado Springs.

“One thing I learned in the Army is, battles are won by the troops,” Clark told the thousands of Obama fans gathered. “You all are the foot soldiers in the campaign, and you can win it.”

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Wes also has two other Colorado events today. One was in Fountain, his old stomping grounds during his Ft. Carson days, and the other is in Denver at a fundraiser for the Colorado Democratic Party tonight. Stan Davis will be at both of those, and the two of us both attended the Ft. Collins GOTV rally this morning.

Before Wes arrived in Ft. Collins, Stan and I had a couple of interesting encounters which I will recount for fun. One was a guy (obviously not a Democrat –maybe some Republican trying to crash the party) who must have thought he could bash Democrats for the poor way some Vets were treated when they came back from Vietnam. He went on and on, saying there were lots of four star Generals and at one point claiming his father was a five star General. I was about to ask him if he was the son of General Bradley or General Eisenhower when Stan said something like, “Five stars are only awarded in times of war and I only know of two five stars, Generals Bradley and Eisenhower.” Well, the guy insisted his dad was a five star also, and told us it was because of people like us that Vets were so poorly treated. That’s when I told him, “But you’re looking at two Vets.” That did the trick. He sputtered and went over to pick up his bicycle, and silently road away before Wes had even arrived.

The second (or maybe it was the first) encounter was when the two of us were having a nice conversation with a pleasant and handsome young man who was the Obama advance man sent to help out throughout the day. After we had been talking to him for a while, a woman came up and introduced herself. About that time, the young man got a phone call, said it was “from Chicago”, and stepped away. Stan noticed a cougar pin (no, not a PUMA pin) the woman was wearing, and asked her what that was about. The ensuing conversation was pretty funny, but I’ll skip to the ending. When I told her I was older than Bill Clinton and Stan told her he was as old as Hillary, the lady with the cougar pin very quickly moved away. ;)

Only five of the pictures I took this morning came out passable enough, and you can see all of them here.

Wes was great, as usual. He emphasized just how very important it is for everyone to continue to work hard all the way to the close of the polls on Tuesday; and he made clear that we should never place too much faith in the poll numbers.

He spoke about the “four crises” (also mentioned above in the RMN report about Pueblo) that had exposed the failures of the Republicans. He got some serious applause and laughs when he deadpanned, “Brownie, you did a great job.”

He also explained how the bottom had fallen out of the economy. Approximately 70% of the US GDP is driven by US consumer spending. During the past eight years, much of that spending was paid for by increased consumer household debt. Many consumers no longer have the incomes necessary to take on additional debt, so their consumption patterns have significantly slowed down. And, obviously, with increased interest rates, some cannot even handle the debt they now have.

The resulting loss of US consumer spending affects not only our economy but the rest of the world as well. That’s because our consumer spending accounts for roughly 20% of the entire world-wide economy! So, Wes said we need solutions that help our consumers, ordinary people, rather than just bail-outs for banks.

When his presentation was over, many people came forward to ask him questions. I wasn’t able to hear much of those exchanges, but I do know he spent some time explaining what we need to do in the Middle East and South Asia. He also talked to someone who was interested in cycling. Apparently he and Gert both have bicycles. ;)

The local newspaper reporter then asked for an interview, so I got Wes a bottle of water. When the interview was over, Sam introduced Wes to the guy who was going to get them to Pueblo. Wes smiled at him, and said “Lead on. Se habla espanol?” At which point the guy smiled and they both started speaking Spanish to one another on the way out to the vehicles.

I followed along, and just before he got to his car, Wes turned to me and said, “Thanks for the water.” That’s when I told him I was sorry I didn’t get to Buffalo with the gang. He really smiled big-time then and said, “...We had a lot of fun. Boy, I really enjoyed debating Carl Rove!”