My kids are too old for trick-or-treating.
Ho hum. So this was really just another day ...
We (mom, oldest son and myself) went downtown to a campaign rally for the next President of the United States! (Barack Obama, of course.)
It was really neat - it's been years since I've done that (16 years, to be exact.) This was the largest one I've been to and although I know it's nothing like the 100,000+ crowds in St.Louis and Denver (REALLY big cities), we did have 25,000+. Not bad for our little city of less than 200,000 and a metro of about 500,000. Not to mention that our little get together today was in the middle of the Friday workday!
Our biggest local television station has video of his campaign speech in its entirety (37 minutes) if anyone wants to watch it: WHO-TV Channel 13. These guys had their helicopter above the rally the while time, so it would be nice if they'd get some good pictures up on their website!
Another local station has a nice write-up, a bit of video and a few pictures, but none that really show how big the crowd was: KCCI Channel 8
The best pictures, though, are here at the Des Moines Register website.
We couldn't actually see Obama because we were so far away, but there were gigantic speakers up on poles so his voice carried clearly for about 8 blocks or more. I'm a shitty photographer, but I took a few shots that you can see here on my Flicker.
I know there is information on the election all over the news and you can tune in to CNN any time, but in case anyone wants to know what it really looks like here ...
There is a LOT of support for the democrats here in Iowa this time around; Obama has been leading in our local polls by 11-15 points for over a month, but all you need to do is look at the yard signs. Lots of people also have posters up in their windows to prevent sign theft, but we haven't had too much sign pwnage in this neighborhood. Even the lone McCain sign on our street hasn't been bothered. It seems I live in amongst grown-ups.
We live in a racially and religiously diverse, lower-middle income area of the city proper, with 80 to 110 year-old homes and an "inner city" High School with about 1200 students. There is no doubt that this precinct will vote overwhelmingly for Obama; he won our precinct in the caucus by a large margin.
BTW - That annoying little opposition lady from Alaska was here 6 days ago and she drew a crowd of only about 10,000.
I love living in a blue state.
We (mom, oldest son and myself) went downtown to a campaign rally for the next President of the United States! (Barack Obama, of course.)
It was really neat - it's been years since I've done that (16 years, to be exact.) This was the largest one I've been to and although I know it's nothing like the 100,000+ crowds in St.Louis and Denver (REALLY big cities), we did have 25,000+. Not bad for our little city of less than 200,000 and a metro of about 500,000. Not to mention that our little get together today was in the middle of the Friday workday!
Our biggest local television station has video of his campaign speech in its entirety (37 minutes) if anyone wants to watch it: WHO-TV Channel 13. These guys had their helicopter above the rally the while time, so it would be nice if they'd get some good pictures up on their website!
Another local station has a nice write-up, a bit of video and a few pictures, but none that really show how big the crowd was: KCCI Channel 8
The best pictures, though, are here at the Des Moines Register website.
We couldn't actually see Obama because we were so far away, but there were gigantic speakers up on poles so his voice carried clearly for about 8 blocks or more. I'm a shitty photographer, but I took a few shots that you can see here on my Flicker.
I know there is information on the election all over the news and you can tune in to CNN any time, but in case anyone wants to know what it really looks like here ...
There is a LOT of support for the democrats here in Iowa this time around; Obama has been leading in our local polls by 11-15 points for over a month, but all you need to do is look at the yard signs. Lots of people also have posters up in their windows to prevent sign theft, but we haven't had too much sign pwnage in this neighborhood. Even the lone McCain sign on our street hasn't been bothered. It seems I live in amongst grown-ups.
We live in a racially and religiously diverse, lower-middle income area of the city proper, with 80 to 110 year-old homes and an "inner city" High School with about 1200 students. There is no doubt that this precinct will vote overwhelmingly for Obama; he won our precinct in the caucus by a large margin.
BTW - That annoying little opposition lady from Alaska was here 6 days ago and she drew a crowd of only about 10,000.
I love living in a blue state.