Crossposted on Daily Kos and I properly cited Muzikal and RK for your write ups. If you could send me some love there, that would be greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy.
Political rallies are supposed to be easy. You show up, stand for a while, go through Metal Detectors, stand for a while longer, listen to some speeches, see the candidate, and go home, satisfied that you may have seen the next President of the United States.
But things don’t always go as planned.
I sit here on Monday, a little congested, and still sore from the marathon event in Fredericksburg, VA. I took over 1200 photos, but haven’t had the energy to put them up. (Don’t worry, I will, and post them at another point.)
First, while standing in line, about a dozen Anti-Abortionist came to protest. They stood nearby me, and displayed their signs. Incredibly, there were no boos from the Obama line, there was nary a peep. Sure, there were quiet comments made. But the men, women, and children who were holding up anti-abortion signs were not harassed.
That is until the leader marched to the front of the line, and took out a bullhorn and started screaming at the Obama supporters.
The line reacted by chanting Obama, and occasionally booing the man with the bullhorn, but the more he talk, the less responsive the crowd got. It was incredible. When I went to the McCain rally, the line was hateful, mean, and dastardly. Here, they just turned their backs and said nothing. After about 25 minutes, the man (and his female backup) gave up and rejoined their little group. Soon after, they left. One woman in front of me said “Leaving so soon, aww, that’s too bad”
The event itself was miserable. Cramming 10,000 people in an open space is not easy. Factor in college students, elderly, children, all wanting a glimpse of the Democratic ticket, is no easy feat. Security requirements told us that no umbrellas would be allowed into the public space. This is something that I have seen at both McCain and Obama rallies, so I was prepared.
The one thing I wished was that they had a more extensive song selection. 12 songs over and over for 4 hours were tough. You can only hear Cool and the Gang’s “Celebration” so many times before you want to scream.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the 45 minutes of downpour, thunder and lightening that came. I assumed many people would drop out at this point. But hardly anyone moved. Tarps went up, people handed trash bags out to improvise as rain coats, and everyone stood their ground against the rain and occasional thunder and lightning. Everyone got soaked. For me, I was almost under a tarp, and it lead to me getting drench due to the runoff from the tarp. After a while, you just stood there, trying to will the rain away, pushed up body to body with 10,000 of your closest friends, knowing that no matter what, you will be feeling this for days.
The rains caused Team Obama (who is on the road from North Carolina) to slow down. Further more, there were issues with the Teleprompter. Obama was supposed to start speaking at 6pm. At 6:45, the crowd was getting restless. People were mad. The rain had stopped, but everyone was just in a bad mood. At 6:55, people began booing the tech staff trying desperately to fix one of the Teleprompters.
It was not good. I stood there, feeling bad for the techs, and worried if this would turn off some voters who came to see Obama.
Then, they cut the BS, and just opened the door for Biden to come on stage. After that, Obama.
Any resentment left when Obama apologized to us. Endearment began when the rain started again, and he saw our faces and said, “It’s just a little rain, we’ll get through it.”
He stood there in the rain, foregoing a hat, taking off his coat, and speaking in the early fall with a message of hope and change. He didn’t shirk his speech. It ran for 30 minutes. 25 of those minutes in the rain. He incorporated that rain into his speech. “It may seem like the rain will never end, and the clouds will never leave, but they will.”
The crowd was his again.
Afterwards, as signed sealed delivered began playing. I turned to some College students who were the most vocal in their discontent earlier.
“Was it worth it?” I said
“Definitely, if I can stand through this, I can Volunteer for him.”
I was told 28,000 people were there. People who couldn’t have a hope of seeing him, stood on campus to hear his message. Fredericksburg is not a Democratic place. It is a little piece of GOP land between Richmond and Northern Virginia. I met a couple from Maryland and lived 90 minutes away who began volunteering in the city for the last three weekends. I was asked 14 times if I was registered to vote. There were close to a 100 volunteers working the lines. Every age, every race was represented. There was a buzz and excitement about Obama. There was little negative talk about McCain. There was some grumbling about his tactics, and about Palin, but nothing. Absolutely nothing like what I saw at the McCain/Palin rally two weeks ago.
Everyone was euphoric afterwards. Drenched, cold, holding waterlogged cameras, muddy shoes, and aching legs, we all survived a miserable experience. Luckily, (of course), Obama delivered perfectly, he is one of us, he understood where we were, and he brought us to where we need to be. Now, we need to bring him to where he needs to be: President of the United States of America.
It is so inspirational how steadfastly everyone stayed this Sat. 26,000 inspirational Americans willing to do what it takes to get involved with change.
When I attended the Lebanon, VA event (indoors). because of the weather, I left home really early, around 8:30 AM. The rain on the way was blinding. I nearly had to pull off the road more than once. It took more than 2.5 hours to get there. I got there hours early. It rained off and off throughout my wait, which I spent waiting out the storms in the car. I had brought my poncho, etc, though. Once we ("media") got inside, it was sweltering and two hours to go until the event.
During the event, at the railing, where the non-traveling press was, we were arm-to-arm, that raising core temp. My clothes weren't in as bad a shape as all the 26,000 Sat. But close. On the way home I had to put my RK hat on to hid the really bad hair day. Worth every second of the heat though. :-)
Two more hours after the event started we all emerged at around 7 PM happy, moved, ready to work.
But then it stood 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot. And the long drive back. At home I wanted to crawl into bed. But I dutifully uploaded my photos. Moved them to Flickr. Then blogged. (Brian Patton had beat me to the punch because --well, he lives right there. And he had a computer there. My laptop batteries needed replacing and I didn't have time to get new ones in time. I had to blog from notes and memory.
[I did buy a NEW digital SLR camera the day before Lebanon (because I had truly planned to get one anyway). We had committed to doing it before I knew of the rally. I had to learn the new one the night before.]I swear I will buy a few things like batteries an audio recorder. My video camera is digital but not particularly good (no plans to replace that any time soon).
So I blogged the article. And went to bed. And guess what? The most important blog story I ever got to write--and I forgot to take it out of draft mode.
SAved it, though. I woke up before 6 AM (too pumped up about the rally to sleep in). I logged into RK and realized what I had done.
What kind of blogger am I, anyway?
Sat. I also learned the limits of my memory. I can do a pretty good job of reconstructing lines and content without notes. But with FOUR or more speakers, forget it. Sat night at the MCDC banquet the speeches by DanG, Warner, Kaine, Deeds, Wagner, and McAullife challenged the limits of my memory. I wish I had a small, but powerful, recorder. That's now on the list too. :-)
BUT I spent part of the time connecting with friends. So many wonderful people.
Need Obama more than ever: I am SO tired of the iles
I will say that Obama events are much stricter with security than McCain events.
It's too bad if that's the case - I'm sure a lot of people were tired and frustrated after those long lines and wait. I understand the need for the security personnel to be strong/forceful but they do tend to overreact when someone complains. It's a shame if that's why those people were arrested and hopefully no charges will come of it.
As a faithful supporter I & my wife ended up being on the other side of the barrier.... the outside. I was with the two thirds of the crowd who waited and marched in line for over 2 hours only to be left out. It didn't have to be that way except that repeatedly through out the long walk and waiting volunteer staffers told people .... Oh you'll get in.... fill out this ticket we'll get you in. NOT!!!
Since I was at Mary Washington for the Jim Webb / Edwards event (2 years ago ... wow time flies) ... I was pretty skeptical about getting in but held out. That was a mistake ... a small mistake for me since I was local. But I was surrounded by people who came from Richmond (with families in tow) ... from Fairfax and beyond.
Simply put those folks were foolishly mislead by rally organizers!! For what purpose?? To generate angst and disappointment??
It was a mistake to hold an Obama rally in the confines of the Mary Washington campus. Great for the city and local Democrats. But they could have just as easily .... maybe more easily..... have held a rally at the local Stafford County airport which could have accommodated the 26,000 people..... parking and all.
This guy (Obama) filled Nissan Pavalion .... no problem. So what were they thinking when they choose a venue that only holds 5000 seated parents during graduation day?
If my friends here are expecting an Obama event say in Richmond or Hampton Roads .... or Charlottesville .... take some advice OBAMA organizers and go get FREAKIN STADIUM. Spend the money , rent the venue and keep your party faithful HAPPY MOTIVATED and ENERGIZED.
Far too many families were VERY disappointed last Saturday and it could have been avoided on several levels.
Frankly, I was shocked at how many people didn't bring a rain coat or even a pocket disposable poncho. Especially since every single weather report on Friday was calling for continual ALL DAY RAIN in Fredericksberg. By morning the forecast looked a bit better, but afternoon thunderstorms were still predicted at a 70% likelihood.
Color me bemused, but I just don't get how so many people who know they're going to be outside for 8+ hours, with Thunderstorms heavily forecast in Every Single weather report, neglect to bring ANY rain gear at all. As I said, easily over 50%, probably more like 65% had no rain gear at all.
Regarding the restriction on umbrellas, I heartily applaud it. Over the past few years, more and more outdoor venues have entirely prohibited umbrellas, and not for security reasons. The reason they are frequently banned is that when an umbrella is up, no one behind you can see a thing. Given the lack of spectator elevation at the UMW venue, umbrellas would have been a viewing disaster.
I agree with other posters that the event was poorly thought out. While the organizers did the best they could for that venue, the event should never have been held in such a small space. Obama is regularly pulling 10,000 participants at his mid-week events in the middle of the day. Most of his weekend events pull double that or more. They had to know the crowd would number 20,000 +, and should have selected a venue sized for such a crowd.
Obama's organizers may not be entirely to blame, the secret service may have vetoed stadiums and airports for security reasons. Mary Washington's circle is small, but the surrounding 'castle walls' of buildings with secret service snipers on top certainly provided optimal protection for the candidate.
Another quibble I have with the organizers was their ridiculous prohibition on water bottles. We were repeatedly told not to worry, water would be available inside the venue. It WASN'T!
I gather that some near the front of the crowd received some water, but I didn't see a single water bottle (not even one) towards the middle or back of the crowd (certainly making up the majority of the crowd). No wonder 20+ participants were treated for heat exhaustion.
All that aside, Obama gave one of his best speeches ever. That made it worth all the many hassles.