Ok, I’m back. When last we left off, I was seated inside the Excel Energy Center, about 2 ½ hours before the polls close in Montana, watching MSNBC on the large monitor hanging from the ceiling. I was stuck in the middle of a full row, really unable to get out to get something to eat or drink (mainly because to do so I would have had to make a lovely older lady who had two broken ankles stand up in order for me to get by – there was NO way I was going to do that). So I made little puppy dog eyes at the people who walked down the stairs with pizza boxes, drinks, popcorn, etc.
It was fun to watch MSNBC on the monitor with Keith O and Chris Matthews. Every time the needed delegate count would go down, the crowd would cheer. At one point, we looked up and noticed that MN Senator Amy Klobuchar was being interviewed and she had the arena crowd behind her so we all went nuts. Looking down to the enormous press area, we could see her standing there being interviewed on camera. I have NO idea how she could hear herself think amongst that din!
As the place slowly filled up, it was fun to people-watch. There was a section of what looked to me to be politicians to my right. They were dressed up in suits, had flag pins, and they were doing a lot of hand-shaking and schmoozing amongst themselves. Major Chris Coleman came up and spoke to some people in that area, as did Senator Klobuchar. Amy looked ecstatic to be there, every time the crowd noticed her, she was cheered and she waved happily to the people in the stands and frequently blew us exuberant kisses.
There were basically two press sections. One large, raised section on the floor roughly at the mid-point that contained masses of equipment, camera and people. Then behind them, NOT raised on the floor were many tables for press people with laptops. I felt sorry for them, actually, since they had NO visibility to the stage!
At one point, I noticed Richard Wolffe from Newsweek (I’ve seen him on MSNBC a bazillion times) walking around on the floor, but I lost sight of him pretty quickly. It was fun to see him, though.
I heard later that Peggy Noonan was down on the floor in the press area, but I didn’t know that are the time. I always make sure to read her columns, they’re very interesting and well-written. I did take a photo of that area that might include her in it, but I’m not sure. There’s a blonde lady sitting in front of a laptop that could be her.
One of the more exciting bits for me was noticing the entrance of David Axelrod! I squealed like the little political fan girl that I am and pointed at him, telling everyone around me ‘Axelrod’s here! Axelrod’s here!’ then clapping madly. I think people thought I was nuts. The press swarmed around him like he was covered in honey. He went up on the raised platform for quite a while and did several interviewed to the tv cameras, and also talked pretty much non-stop to the reporters surrounding him. After some amount of time (hard for me to judge how long, ½ hour? Hour?), he left the same way he came in, still surrounded by the press, still talking. It was fun for me to see him.
Back to people-watching, I wanted to mention a little girl a few seats in front of me. She was part of what looked to be an extended family of 6 (one of whom was a newborn so new that I was surprised was out in public). They had hand-made ‘signs’ by using sheets of lined 8 ½ by 11” paper that they had written ‘O’ ‘B’ ‘A’ ‘M’ ‘A’ on. The girl that caught my eye was a little bit of a thing, perhaps 7 years old. She looked righteously proud and excited to be there. She stood, quivering in her exuberance and held up the piece of paper with the ‘O’ on it and chirped out in a tiny but fierce little voice, ‘Yes We Can!’, ‘Yes We Can’. It was seriously cute.
At one point, the enormous monitor overhead cut to McCain’s speech. That was unfortunate. I wanted my mute button. I wanted to turn the channel. I wanted to turn the page (ok, that was too cutsey). I wanted to turn it off. There was no escaping it so I tried to ignore it and go back to people-watching.
After a while (too long), they stopped showing the McCain speech and put on one of the will.i.am videos, which was much better.
They did NOT show the HRC speech on the monitor (probably a good thing, considering).
I was a little worried about the turnout, since the farthest section of the area from the stage was completely empty for a LONG time. I was going to be mortified if we didn’t turn out in Minnesota in sufficient numbers to fill the arena on such an important night.
Eventually, though, the seats filled up except for the ones where I think there was no visibility due to raised press area.
Eventually, some blonde lady came out to do the introduction, a local teacher who has a son going back to Iraq. Y’all probably heard this part on the tv, so I won’t go into it. Suffice it to say that it was heartfelt and reasonably brief, then she introduced Michelle and Barack!
This is a good spot to break for Part B. Stay tuned for Part C!
Ok, as promised, an account of my going to the Obama rally on June 3rd.
Sorry, I seem somehow incapable of describing this type of thing without blathering on endlessly about stuff that some people won’t care about. I’m not actually going to write abut the speech much. Anybody can view the speech through a variety of sources, but hopefully this will give a flavor of the experience of being there.
Now, I missed him when he was here before Super Tuesday, but consoled myself with thoughts of him coming back during the GE campaign.
I actually heard at The Field, first, that he was coming to Minnesota(!) for the rally of the night of the last primaries. And not only him, but Michelle, as well! I could hardly believe it, but was determined to go.
So I took the day off of work and had a tentative plan of having a relaxing morning, followed by a lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, then heading on over to the rally around 3ish (doors were not scheduled to open until 7PM and I thought roughly 4 hours early would be good enough to make sure I got in).
So, as I’m relaxing in the late morning, getting caught up on Tweety (Chris Matthews), my mom sends an email indicating that she heard that people have been lining up since 7AM. Eeek! So I nixed lunch plans, decided nobody was going to care if I put makeup on or not, hopped in my Prius (snark) and went through the drive-through Arby’s on the way to St.Paul. As I gave my order, the voice over the intercom asked if I wanted to donate $1 to Big Brother, ‘Sure!’ I declare, full of the optimism of Obama Nation. When I get to the pay window, she asked what name to write down on the little slip of paper that they stick up on the walls. In a spurt of inspiration, I declare ‘Obama!’ (though, it was a little mortifying when she spelt it with two ‘m’s).
On to St. Paul, drove while snorking on Arby’s, found reasonably close parking, then walked to the Excel Energy Center. To my surprise (and pleasure), the line was not all that long yet, for all that some of the people had already been there for about 6 hours.
As I walked down the line of people waiting to get in (this is about 12:45PM at this point), I grinned foolishly (hopefully?) at people and occasionally blurted ‘Fire up!’. I got one high-five out of that.
I settled in for a long wait. I had brought along an iPod, and a book to read, but ended up not needing either, as absorbing the atmosphere was entertaining enough.
Next to me in line was a pleasant young man who was fully prepared with a bag of food and beverages that he sustained himself with as we waited. This was going to be his seventh Obama rally. I also chatted with two sisters who were probably in their mid-forties. This was their first Obama rally. There was also a girl there who was graduating from High School this week. This will (obviously) be her first Presidental election that she can vote it and I was pleased to see her there (her dad had dropped her off all by herself).
There were a lot of folks hawking (gorgeous) t-shirts up and down the line. If someone had thought of it, it would have been brilliant to have food carts, or even bottles of water (I would have groveled for a Diet Coke after a while). It drizzled on and off for a while, but was mostly dry in the afternoon.
Off to the side of the line, a young boy (6?), in an over-sized Obama shirt was blowing bubbles, which floated cheerfully over the line. At one point, a film crew from China came down the line and interviewed some people. Across the street were tv setups, each with their cameras, lights, and talking heads, all in a row.
Volunteers came down and politely offered to register people who weren’t registered to vote. Other volunteers went down the line and tried to sign up more volunteers.
Lots of police were present, including with dogs. There were multiple helicopters hoving in the sky above the cmplex. The put up barricades along the line, which helped cut down on people cutting into line. It was fun to hear updates on how long the line was getting to be. I had a street map along with me so as we got updates, I could run my finger over where the line was going (and giggle a bit about being close to the front of the line).
After staring wistfully at the t-shirts (and not having brought much cash – just enough for parking), the folks I was standing with made an agreement to save spots if people needed to go to the restroom, get a bite to eat, or go to the ATM. So I dashed off to the ATM, bought two gorgeous t-shirts, then went back into line.
As the afternoon wore on, the major of St.Paul, Chris Coleman, walked down the line and shook hands. Since I had read that he was switching from being a Clinton supporter to being an Obama supporter, as I shook his hand, I smiled and said, “Welcome aboard!”. He said he was glad to be a part of it.
I’d obsessively check DCW, The Field, The Page, and Drudge while waiting in line (using my phone, which was a little frustrating and slow), and as such, was able to watch the needed delegate count go down, so we knew that he was definitely going to go over the top once the returns from the primaries came in.
I’m probably boring y’all to tears, if anybody has even reached this point.
Ok, moving right along…
The doors opened around 6:30 PM and moved quickly. I was through the security checkpoint within 5 minutes or so and walked briskly to the spot the volunteers indicated. They were filling the seating area methodically, one section at a time, from the bottom up. I ended up not as close as I was hoping (considering that there weren’t all that many people in front of me when I arrived in line), not sure how that worked, but at least I was in. There was an option of going down to the floor level, which was standing room only, but after standing in line for 6 hours, I was looking forward to sitting my behind down for a while (especially since it was likely he wasn’t going to speak until the polls closed in Montana, about 9PM Central).
On the big monitor hanging from the ceiling, they had MSNBC on, which was great!
-to be continued, it’s late and I have to work in the morning-
