I went to see Barack at his Louisville rally.  It was amazing.  It was inspiring.  Did I mention it was amazing and inspiring?  For those of you not familiar with downtown Louisville, I will attempt to paint a picture for you.  The convention center probably takes up a good two city blocks.  I tried to park at the Hyatt but the lot was full so I made my way to the Marriott and parked there. 

The doors were not supposed to open until 5:00 PM.  Senator Obama was scheduled to speak at 7:00 PM.  I was there at 4:00 PM and the line already stretched from the entrance to the convention center, around the corner, around the convention center, past the Marriott, past the Hyatt, past the convention center itself. It was amazing. The weather was perfect, the crowd was energetic and everything was well organzized.  I was as excited as a kid at Christmas.  

Once inside, I signed in and we made our way up the escalator to a packed foyer where there was yet another line.  This was the security checkpoint.  The only problem here was once we were at the top and safely off the escalator, the volunteer staff had not been monitoring closely enough the number of people going up.  No one could move and people were still on the escalator trying to get off.  People were literally balancing themselves on the rails on either side.  It could have been disastrous.  Finally, they shut them down and the crowd was able to move about safely.

Inside the exhibit hall where Barack was going to be speaking the crowd was energetic and ready for something amazing.  By my estimate (though this is only an estimate) I would say they had between 10 and 12,000 people in a standing room only atmosphere.  The fire marshal actually turned away roughly 2,000 people still waiting to get inside.  

Kentucky congressman, Ben Chandler spoke and then an employee from the Ford Motor Plant spoke.  He announced that he would soon be laid off as well as thousands of other local workers for Ford.  Then, he introduced Barack.  It took about three minutes or so from the time of his introduction to the time that Barack actually made it to the podium.  It was electric.  He was gracious, warm and excited.  He spoke approximately 41 minutes on topics ranging from healthcare to economic reform, to fuel costs.  He covered everything.  He even made a joke about being Dick Cheney's cousin.  

It was an amazing evening.  Once we made it back to our car and got out of the parking garage and onto the street, the police blocked the road.  I thought they were going to let other traffic through but no one was coming.  It was then that a parade of cars, police cars, secret service came whizzing by.  Instantly, everone began honking, waving, looking out their windows and sun roofs.  His motorcade went right by us. He too was smiling and waving.  If someone had been there and not known that Senator Obama had just spoke, they would have thought that everyone had either lost thier minds or that this was this rudest place in America to drive because you couldn't hear ANYTHING but horns, horns and more horns!!!

Here's a link to the video of the event:

http://www.wave3.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=2479561&at1=News&h1=RAW:

Enjoy,

Ted Tucker