My first political rally
Tonight I along with Erin, Kaitlin and Kate attended John Kerry's rally at 5th/3rd Field (or 53rd Field as JK called it). I thought this would be an interesting opportunity to see the political process in action, and I had a lot to see from the moment we sat down.
We sat about three rows back behind third plate. Our first objective was to try and figure out where Kerry was going to be when he gave his speech. A normal, politically ignorant person would think we had great seats, Kerry would stand somewhere around the pitcher's mound and speak to the bleachers...wrong. Now lets think like a behind the campaign person...if Kerry stood on the pitcher's mound when he was on tv there would only be black sky and ugly buildings in the background. If we put him in the outfield right behind second base facing towards the bleachers along right field on the other hand the scoreboard will be behind him and we can post our Kerry for Ohio slogan on it.
Next we thought we were going to be serenaded by a choir as a group of people gathered on a stage. Except, nothing happened, they just stood there. As time passed I came to realize they stage they were standing on was located directly behind the podium Kerry was going to speak at...light bulb. They are are also background "props" if you will.
About an hour before Kerry was set to speak they introduced a few local democrats running for election and a couple of them gave a speech. They stood on a different stage that was farther away than the one Kerry would speak on later, which I haven't quite figured out. Then they stopped and we segwayed to the high-spirited music of John Mellencamp, Bruce Springstein and Billy Joel with a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T and SHOUT thrown in. A nice way to pep up the crowd as they sang along to some oldies. About five to ten minutes before Kerry came out volunteers started handing out signs, flags, and pom-poms to get the crowd into even more of a frenzy.
Kerry emerged from the dugout behind astronaut and former senator, John Glenn and his wife, and walked through the infield (which was blocked off with dividers, the ones visible to the camera obvious by their red and white cloth covers...the onces invisible to the camera were naked) out to the stage, shaking hands and kissing babies the whole way. Glenn introduced Kerry and then Kerry began his speech. Erin was impressed by Kerry's humor...I quickly dismissed it as scripted and well-rehearsed banter, cynical or honest...you tell me.
From there it was much what you would expect...sentence, clapping, sentence, clapping, gw slam, yelling and clapping, sentence, clapping...
Needless to say, I enjoyed the whole experience...I am sure I missed many of the well-planned out subtleties, but I found the event to be extremely interesting.
We sat about three rows back behind third plate. Our first objective was to try and figure out where Kerry was going to be when he gave his speech. A normal, politically ignorant person would think we had great seats, Kerry would stand somewhere around the pitcher's mound and speak to the bleachers...wrong. Now lets think like a behind the campaign person...if Kerry stood on the pitcher's mound when he was on tv there would only be black sky and ugly buildings in the background. If we put him in the outfield right behind second base facing towards the bleachers along right field on the other hand the scoreboard will be behind him and we can post our Kerry for Ohio slogan on it.
Next we thought we were going to be serenaded by a choir as a group of people gathered on a stage. Except, nothing happened, they just stood there. As time passed I came to realize they stage they were standing on was located directly behind the podium Kerry was going to speak at...light bulb. They are are also background "props" if you will.
About an hour before Kerry was set to speak they introduced a few local democrats running for election and a couple of them gave a speech. They stood on a different stage that was farther away than the one Kerry would speak on later, which I haven't quite figured out. Then they stopped and we segwayed to the high-spirited music of John Mellencamp, Bruce Springstein and Billy Joel with a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T and SHOUT thrown in. A nice way to pep up the crowd as they sang along to some oldies. About five to ten minutes before Kerry came out volunteers started handing out signs, flags, and pom-poms to get the crowd into even more of a frenzy.
Kerry emerged from the dugout behind astronaut and former senator, John Glenn and his wife, and walked through the infield (which was blocked off with dividers, the ones visible to the camera obvious by their red and white cloth covers...the onces invisible to the camera were naked) out to the stage, shaking hands and kissing babies the whole way. Glenn introduced Kerry and then Kerry began his speech. Erin was impressed by Kerry's humor...I quickly dismissed it as scripted and well-rehearsed banter, cynical or honest...you tell me.
From there it was much what you would expect...sentence, clapping, sentence, clapping, gw slam, yelling and clapping, sentence, clapping...
Needless to say, I enjoyed the whole experience...I am sure I missed many of the well-planned out subtleties, but I found the event to be extremely interesting.