This morning Georg and I went to the Obama/Biden rally in Greensboro. I was excited about being at their first appearance after the debate last night. Also excited about seeing Biden for the first time in over 20 years -- I'm from Delaware and he spoke at my high school. I felt guilty about bailing on this morning's canvass but I'm going out tomorrow afternoon to make up for it.
Anyway. The program was supposed to begin at 12:15 and the gates opened at 10. We got there at 9:15, hoping to get a good spot. Ha! The line was already three blocks long. With the constant flow of people arriving, volunteers walking up and down the line yelling at us about our tickets, and vendors hawking Obama t-shirts, caps, buttons, hand-towels (a new one on me) and umbrellas (ditto), I felt like we were at a sports event or something. I saw a t-shirt design I really liked and the guy had it in my size, so I got that, and also an Obama/Biden hat for my pal Joe, a big-time Biden fan.
Unfortunately we should have gotten there at least an hour earlier if I wanted to see anything. There was a massive crowd -- the N&O says over 20,000 -- and even near the front we were not near enough for my shrimptastic view. Occasionally people would shift just the right away and I would catch a glimpse of the podium. But for the most part, all I saw was the backs of the heads in front of me. The peril of being so short. If I held my camera over my head I could get good crowd shots. Luckily Georg was tall enough to see over people's heads and got nice photos of both Obama and Biden.
Since I couldn't see a damned thing I listened and took photos of the crowd. Got a few nice shots if I do say so myself. The best was one I almost didn't get, as the baby's grandmother didn't want me to take the photo. But the mother said okay, and so I took one quick snap, and thank goodness it turned out.
Obama and Biden are both excellent speakers. Biden hit the "McCain was wrong" phrase over and over. They seem to have decided, correctly I think, that was the best jab from the debate last night. Obama also made a few cracks at McCain's expense, like saying that if McCain keeps stealing his lines ("change" etc) then Obama is going to have to start calling himself a maverick. Mostly it was their stump speech, and at the end Obama urged us all to volunteer and vote early.
It's kind of hard to believe, but pollsters are actually moving North Carolina towards the toss-up category. All these weeks I've been volunteering because I wanted NC to be a thorn in McCain's side. Scare him into wasting money here that he could have been spending in the real swing states, like Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida and New Mexico and etc. And now it looks like we might actually have a chance to win here. What's that about? Obama must think he has a chance; why else would he have spoken in this state twice in seven days. Did Kerry ever visit NC during the 2004 campaign? Has McCain ever?
Leave a comment