I'm a week late writing this up. Blame work... But I spent a few hours last Tuesday night witnessing history at the Xcel Center as Barack Obama claimed victory in the race for the Democratic nomination. I hadn't planned to be there so I didn't have a real camera with me, but here are a few snapshots from my iPhone camera. Click on each for a larger version if you're interested.
The event was open to the public and announced the day before. People started
lining up at dawn and the doors didn't open until about 7:00 p.m. for a scheduled 8:00 appearance. About
20,000 of us made it into the arena, and another 15,000 were left
outside.
I got lucky - folks from work got in line at mid-afternoon, and I got
a ride over from my office around 6:00 and was able to hop in line with them. People got separated in the mob, but I was able to stick with a coworker and her kid. The kid (eight years old, I think) was in hog heaven.
Like Obama, he's the child of a caucasian American mother (my friend) and an
African father (from Cameroon in his case). I imagine it was like seeing himself up
there. He was bouncing crazy excited.
Part of that was the guy's natural draw - he really comes across with a
JFK vibe. Part of it was the historic nature of the event - this was the
occasion of the first African-American effectively becoming the nominee
of a major party for the presidency and claiming his place. It really
was an amazing event to be part of. Now if only he can avoid ending up on a floor
somewhere in a pool of his own blood... The Secret Service presence was
intense. Everyone coming through the door was searched and put through a
metal detector.
There were areas of the arena reserved for campaign organizations and
volunteers rather than the general public. It was fascinating watching
the campaign team outfit those folks for the cameras, since the real
audience was the national television audience. There were two large platforms set up for the TV crews, and plenty of intense lighting for them. We were all extras for
their show. No signs or banners could be brought in. Everything you saw, even
the most home-made looking signs, were provided by the campaign and
designed to deliver a coordinated message. That was particularly the
case of the crowd directly behind him.
One of the best features of this rally was the giant finger it flipped to
the Republican party. That arena was chosen precisely because it's where
the Repubs are going to hold their national convention in late August. I'm no fan of either party, but I see Obama as the least of the available evils and I wanted to see him in person.
While we were waiting for the Obamas to show up, they were running live MSNBC's coverage of John McCain's speech in New Orleans with closed captioning on the jumbotrons over what is normally center ice. The contrast was astounding. Not only is McCain nothing like the orator Obama is, his platform starkly contrasted with the Democrat. If these two are my choices, it's a no-brainer.
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