Obama!
Long notes on the Obama rally under the cut...
Doors opened at 8:30 for a 10 am event. My friend Liz and I ran late, but got there around 9:50am. Went through security, then were trying to figure out where our "preferred seating" tickets would get us -- but a woman came up and asked if we had seats yet. We said no, and she directed us (not sure why) to an area right behind the stage setup -- there were people in the seats behind us (news reports said about 7000 people there, which seems about right.), but we were touching the bar that protects the area around the raised stage. [The event was in St. John Arena, which is basically a basketball arena -- we were on the floor].
The crowd was, unsurprisingly, a lot more diverse than the Hillary events. And of course more spirited. I would say the majority (but not by much) were people of color, and there were a LOT of kids there. A few local schools were out today for snow, but I think most of them were just skipping.
At 10am the state treasurer (who looks about 12) got on stage and tried to pump things up a bit (he mostly failed). He told us Obama was running late. Oh, they also had made rule saying you couldn't bring signs --- but distributed signs that were meant to look homemade. The two little kids next to us held one that said "One Word - HOPE". The best was the "Latinos for Obama" signs, clearly made by the campaign to address concerns that he doesn't appeal to Latino voters.
During the ~80 minutes that we waited there were a few little speeches by, like, the girl from Buckeyes for Obama and stuff like that. But it was mostly just the audience trying to stay entertained, with the music and all that. Bryan was a section leader for a group that very vocally "wanted signs" (and then changed "we got signs" when he succeeded in distributing a pack of Obama fans). There were some weak attempts at The Wave.
Finally, someone (I don't remember!) got up and introduced Eddie George ... who introduced Mayor Coleman ... who introduced Barack Obama. There was some OH - IO cheering, and then basically his typical stump speech, with a well-reported addition relating to John Mccain. I found that I could only be cynical until he looked in the direction of my part of the audience -- he seems so relaxed on a stage in a strange town, in front of several thousand people. I liked that he gave little shout outs to the gays, and to due process of law. He even had the crowd politely applaud John McCain's service to the country before ripping on him. It was actually quite impressive. He didn't mention Hillary at all.
It really was a beautiful, powerful speech -- but, um, he's Barack Obama, so that wasn't a surprise. (About 20% was substantive, 80% hope-and-change ... which is about the exact opposite of the Hillary event). At the end, he came around and did hand shakes (etc) with the people standing around the rope-line thing. I have to admit, I was pretty star-struck. To watch him on TV for so long, and then get to shake his hand was really exciting -- not the hand-shake itself, of course, but to feel like - for one moment - he was focusing on me. I said, "I was undecided before this" and he said "thank you for your support" (or something like that) -- and then went on to compliment the little girl next to me who had made a shirt with his logo on it. ("Wow, what a beautiful shirt you made!") It was pretty cool.
Then it took another hour to get out of the parking lot and back to the law school. (Oh, and we did audio interviews for a guy from News Hour with Jim Leher, but I'm not sure any of us said anything brilliant or fascinating. But I just emailed my roommate to DVR it anyway, since I have a meeting at 6pm).
I'm still not entirely decided, but I would say I'm about 70% in his camp at this point. I believe that (a) he may actually be that whole-different-kind-of-politics that we've heard so much about, and that (b) maybe even if he's not, there's still a guy there who understands constitutional law and understands how to communicate and has experience living overseas and is not particularly entangled with politics). I honestly think his health care plan is flawed if it doesn't mandate coverage. But maybe that's not enough to vote for her. I was starting to feel like voting for her would give her a chance to make her case. But now I feel like maybe his vision (gah!) is enough to vote for him, and see what happens.
Completely unrelated: Due to a drop-out, I'm participating in the regional Representation in Mediation competition. Other groups have been prepping for weeks/maybe months. We start, um, tonight.
Doors opened at 8:30 for a 10 am event. My friend Liz and I ran late, but got there around 9:50am. Went through security, then were trying to figure out where our "preferred seating" tickets would get us -- but a woman came up and asked if we had seats yet. We said no, and she directed us (not sure why) to an area right behind the stage setup -- there were people in the seats behind us (news reports said about 7000 people there, which seems about right.), but we were touching the bar that protects the area around the raised stage. [The event was in St. John Arena, which is basically a basketball arena -- we were on the floor].
The crowd was, unsurprisingly, a lot more diverse than the Hillary events. And of course more spirited. I would say the majority (but not by much) were people of color, and there were a LOT of kids there. A few local schools were out today for snow, but I think most of them were just skipping.
At 10am the state treasurer (who looks about 12) got on stage and tried to pump things up a bit (he mostly failed). He told us Obama was running late. Oh, they also had made rule saying you couldn't bring signs --- but distributed signs that were meant to look homemade. The two little kids next to us held one that said "One Word - HOPE". The best was the "Latinos for Obama" signs, clearly made by the campaign to address concerns that he doesn't appeal to Latino voters.
During the ~80 minutes that we waited there were a few little speeches by, like, the girl from Buckeyes for Obama and stuff like that. But it was mostly just the audience trying to stay entertained, with the music and all that. Bryan was a section leader for a group that very vocally "wanted signs" (and then changed "we got signs" when he succeeded in distributing a pack of Obama fans). There were some weak attempts at The Wave.
Finally, someone (I don't remember!) got up and introduced Eddie George ... who introduced Mayor Coleman ... who introduced Barack Obama. There was some OH - IO cheering, and then basically his typical stump speech, with a well-reported addition relating to John Mccain. I found that I could only be cynical until he looked in the direction of my part of the audience -- he seems so relaxed on a stage in a strange town, in front of several thousand people. I liked that he gave little shout outs to the gays, and to due process of law. He even had the crowd politely applaud John McCain's service to the country before ripping on him. It was actually quite impressive. He didn't mention Hillary at all.
It really was a beautiful, powerful speech -- but, um, he's Barack Obama, so that wasn't a surprise. (About 20% was substantive, 80% hope-and-change ... which is about the exact opposite of the Hillary event). At the end, he came around and did hand shakes (etc) with the people standing around the rope-line thing. I have to admit, I was pretty star-struck. To watch him on TV for so long, and then get to shake his hand was really exciting -- not the hand-shake itself, of course, but to feel like - for one moment - he was focusing on me. I said, "I was undecided before this" and he said "thank you for your support" (or something like that) -- and then went on to compliment the little girl next to me who had made a shirt with his logo on it. ("Wow, what a beautiful shirt you made!") It was pretty cool.
Then it took another hour to get out of the parking lot and back to the law school. (Oh, and we did audio interviews for a guy from News Hour with Jim Leher, but I'm not sure any of us said anything brilliant or fascinating. But I just emailed my roommate to DVR it anyway, since I have a meeting at 6pm).
I'm still not entirely decided, but I would say I'm about 70% in his camp at this point. I believe that (a) he may actually be that whole-different-kind-of-politics that we've heard so much about, and that (b) maybe even if he's not, there's still a guy there who understands constitutional law and understands how to communicate and has experience living overseas and is not particularly entangled with politics). I honestly think his health care plan is flawed if it doesn't mandate coverage. But maybe that's not enough to vote for her. I was starting to feel like voting for her would give her a chance to make her case. But now I feel like maybe his vision (gah!) is enough to vote for him, and see what happens.
Completely unrelated: Due to a drop-out, I'm participating in the regional Representation in Mediation competition. Other groups have been prepping for weeks/maybe months. We start, um, tonight.