I got to see President Obama in person!
Two days ago I got one of the fund raising emails from the President's re-election campaign inviting me to get a ticket to see him in Davenport, IA on Oct. 24th.... I was tempted, but it is a long drive, and I wasn't sure it made sense to drive so far. But then I was watching Jon Stewart's Daily Show and they were talking about how it is Barack Obama's final campaign... his farewell tour, if you will! If I want to see him campaigning in person this could be my last chance!
I decided to drive there Tuesday afternoon and spend the night, because I had to be there by 8 am today (Wednesday, Oct. 24th). I woke up really early at the hotel and it was raining (thunder & lightening)... but by the time I left to drive to the State Fair Grounds the rain had stopped. I got there about 7 am and I had to walk about a quarter mile through very muddy ground to get to the line (which was already a couple of hundred people long). I met some lovely people in line: one woman who had just returned from a trip to Europe, so she told me about that, and another who is a Professor (teaching a course on Sociology of Politics this quarter) at a local college... and she had encouraged her students to come (six of them came and stood in line with us, talking and being very entertaining).
We talked about when we had been to other events like this, and I recalled that I got to see Dick Gregory at the Univ of Colorado in 1968, and I still have one of his little campaign items (it is just xeroxed on white paper):
And I also saw Senator George McGovern at the University of Minnesota Mall in 1972, but nothing since then... until today.
Just before 8 am the line started to move and we went through security (by now the line extended a long way, I think there were at least 2,000 people).
At first I tried to get close, but there were too many tall people, and my legs and back were already tired from walking in the mud and standing in line a long time... it was going to be two more hours and I decided to try the bleachers. And it was a great decision! President Obama arrived at 10 am, and although my view was from the side, and I wasn't very close,
I was able to sit during the long wait for him to arrive, and I had a clear view while he spoke.
(click to enlarge - I'm in the bleachers to the right of this picture - out of frame of the photo)
I just can't even express how exciting this was; the President only spoke for 20 minutes (he is doing an across the country marathon and had to leave for Colorado) and it was mostly his standard stump speech (made a little more specific to Iowa in general and Davenport specifically), but it was the energy of the crowd and the excitement we all felt at getting to see him.
I'm just thrilled that I went!
Of course afterwards I had to walk the quarter mile back to the car (and the mud was way worse after having a thousand or more tramping through it), and I had to drive more than 2 hours home.... When I got out of the car I was so stiff and achy! But still really happy I went.