I haven't seen a diary from anyone who attended last night's rally in downtown Des Moines so thought I'd add my personal commentary with a link to a few photos. It was a fantastic evening, and the import of having Sen. Obama and his family back here on such a momentous night was not lost on any of the 7,000+ who attended. More after the jump...
First, here are the photos that my husband took. With the sun setting and media lights glaring, it was tough to get good pictures, but he did a good job considering the challenges.
Photos from Obama Rally
We left our kids with the grandparents and headed downtown around 5:30PM with our preferred seating "Pass for Change" in hand. We didn't know if it would help us get better seats or not (I'd been to rallies during caucus season where "preferred seating" only meant that you were funneled to one side of an arena rather than another but not necessarily any closer to the action).
We got to the East Village area of downtown and parked without trouble. There were already lots of people walking toward the rally intersection and streets blocked off and filled with satellite trucks. We stopped in at The Continental on Locust for a quick bite to eat and ran into volunteers, another Urbandale precint captain, and a really nice guy who just happened to be in town from South Dakota and thought he'd check Obama out. He said he thinks South Dakota will go for Obama both in the primary and in the fall.
After we ate, we thought we'd join the line which already stretched three blocks from the security tents. We asked a volunteer about our preferred seating pass, and he told us to join the second line (just as long) and veer left once we got through security. We got in line and promptly met an elderly gentleman named Bob who was probably around 70 years old. He is a retired Methodist minister and farmer, and told us great stories about going to Cuba as a Witness for Peace, selling his farm to a young family who promised to farm it without ripping out his soil conservation terracing, and joining a United Church of Christ congregation because they have the best record on equality regarding gays and lesbians. He was a fascinating individual.
As we visited with people around us in line, someone mentioned my precinct captain button (which I have had pinned to my bag since caucus night in January). A passing volunteer pulled my husband and I aside and gave us pink arm bands which signified on-stage seating! She said they were instructed to give the arm bands to precinct captains or others they knew/found in line who had logged lots of volunteer hours. We considered that quite the lucky break.
The line finally moved forward and we approached the security tents. What a difference since January! The night before the caucus, I attended Barack's last rally at a Des Moines high school, and we walked into the gym that night and found seats without passing through any security at all. Last night, we were instructed to remove all our metal, turn on our cell phones and cameras, and act like we were going through airport security. It made me kind of sad that all of that is necessary, but I'm glad they're taking all necessary precautions to keep Barack and his family safe.
Once we got through security, we were directed down the hill toward the preferred seating area. Once we got there and showed a volunteer our wrist bands, we were whisked away into the backstage holding area. We were eventually seated on the bleachers behind the podium and enjoyed Barack's very powerful speech from that vantage point.
You all probably saw the speech on television or online, so I won't go into the details. I'll just close by saying that seeing Barack on the stump again, just blocks from the grimy little building that served as his campaign HQ last year, was incredibly moving. We sat, surrounded by other volunteers and supporters, and marveled at how far we've come on this improbable journey. I don't know if it has completely sunk in that Barack Obama is going to be our party's presidential nominee. I've always been an under-dog-backing kind of gal, but this time, as crazy as it seems, I think I picked a winner!
*An ending note: I'm not a frequent diarist, so I apologize for the lack of quality here. I just wanted to share our experience from last night as it was such a great evening.