Obama / Bill Clinton
Went to see Barack Obama and Bill Clinton speak yesterday.
The logistics of turning up to events of historic importance are always the same - nowhere to park, long walks, stumbling around looking for the entrance.
The sequence of events is so predictable it always makes me wonder if people bitched about the parking at Nuremburg, before standing around in the cold and straining to get a crap view of the back of Goebbels' head.
There was a line that ran twice around the entire Osceola Heritage Stadium. The combination of bootleg t-shirt vendors, hipsters and standing around in the cold reminded me of attending a concert rather than a political rally.
Got inside and stood around near the back, which suited me fine but Kim (being rather shorter than me) had trouble seeing anything.
Bill Clinton was conversational and utterly comfortable with being behind the microphone, endorsed Obama and put his arm around him for the cameras.
Obama gave a lofty speech on the importance of unity, voting and refuting the claims from McCain that he's a socialist. He's probably further right than both of the major UK parties.
I would quite like to see McCain speak, just for the contrast. I'd imagine the crowd would be much older, and much whiter. I also doubt there would be any t-shirt vendors selling bootleg, airbrushed hip-hop style McCain t-shirts.
He seems to be concentrating on the more rural parts of Florida, where the whole "God, Guns and War" platform seems to go down better.
It's hard to comprehend just how much of a circus the whole election is over here, or how polarized Americans are politically. It's also addictive, and difficult not to get swept up into all the feeling that the next guy might be able to change something for the better (as opposed to the British view that at least the next guy might not be as bad as the last one).
Next week will be interesting. A McCain win appears to be offering a rather miserable continuation of George Bush's incompetent neoconservatism, whereas Obama might just be able to undo some of the damage done in the last 8 years - economic, social and diplomatic damage which has almost managed to run this juggernaut of a country into the ground.
America needs regime change.
The logistics of turning up to events of historic importance are always the same - nowhere to park, long walks, stumbling around looking for the entrance.
The sequence of events is so predictable it always makes me wonder if people bitched about the parking at Nuremburg, before standing around in the cold and straining to get a crap view of the back of Goebbels' head.
There was a line that ran twice around the entire Osceola Heritage Stadium. The combination of bootleg t-shirt vendors, hipsters and standing around in the cold reminded me of attending a concert rather than a political rally.
Got inside and stood around near the back, which suited me fine but Kim (being rather shorter than me) had trouble seeing anything.
Bill Clinton was conversational and utterly comfortable with being behind the microphone, endorsed Obama and put his arm around him for the cameras.
Obama gave a lofty speech on the importance of unity, voting and refuting the claims from McCain that he's a socialist. He's probably further right than both of the major UK parties.
I would quite like to see McCain speak, just for the contrast. I'd imagine the crowd would be much older, and much whiter. I also doubt there would be any t-shirt vendors selling bootleg, airbrushed hip-hop style McCain t-shirts.
He seems to be concentrating on the more rural parts of Florida, where the whole "God, Guns and War" platform seems to go down better.
It's hard to comprehend just how much of a circus the whole election is over here, or how polarized Americans are politically. It's also addictive, and difficult not to get swept up into all the feeling that the next guy might be able to change something for the better (as opposed to the British view that at least the next guy might not be as bad as the last one).
Next week will be interesting. A McCain win appears to be offering a rather miserable continuation of George Bush's incompetent neoconservatism, whereas Obama might just be able to undo some of the damage done in the last 8 years - economic, social and diplomatic damage which has almost managed to run this juggernaut of a country into the ground.
America needs regime change.