I spent last Saturday at the Barack Obama and Joe Biden rally in Springfield, IL. It was my first political rally and I found a lot of it fascinating. First off, a ton of people. Secondly, the security. You walk through a metal detector and have all your bags searched.Snipers are on all the building roofs.
Oh also you can't bring in any bottles. So the 3 1/2 hour wait for the candidates to make their appearance is a long one. The campaign did of course sell water that they would pour in cups for 2 bucks. After the wait they passed out signs for people to wave. No one was allowed to bring their own in, so those handmade signs are products of the campaign. It's all perception.
Even if you trust Obama, don't trust everything you see on TV. During our long wait I was talking with a very nice Obama volunteer. It seems the campaign is very tight with their money: for volunteering he didn't even get a free t-shirt. He had to buy his. He also bought his pin and hat. He did say in the very beginning of the campaign that you could get a free pin. Now the free stuff is reserved for swing state voters I guess. All I had to do was look behind me to see there was quite a media presence for this historic day.
The media was able to bring in bottles though and some were eating Jimmy Johns. It made me thirsty and hungry. During this time after several people fainted from the heat we started to get cups of water circulating through the crowd. The campaign was finally giving us some free water to relieve the heat. Next, Obama comes out to a surge of applause. He gives a nice speech introducing Joe Biden. Who apparently has been in the senate since the ago of 30. That is just crazy I believe he is turning 65 in November. I didn't find his speech to be anything amazing and wasn't so impressed. Anyhow Joe came out and gave a speech of his own. Again wasn't so impressed.
Now it was time for everyone to smile and wave the event was over.
My conclusion it was an interesting experience and something I am glad I saw but just take all this stuff with a grain of salt if you didn't already know. To me it's the same old politics.
Me want Jimmy Johns
Posted by: Peggy B. | August 27, 2008 at 11:35 PM
I actually had Jimmy Johns in Denver during the DNC. Maybe they are working for one of the parties...
Posted by: Matt | September 04, 2008 at 01:41 PM