It was a beautiful and sunny day. We had to wait in a long line to get to the rally. Obama was introduced by Nutter, the mayor of Philly and Rendell, the Governor of PA (and former Philly mayor). Both were staunch Clinton supporters during the primaries (like me), but now, they're campaigning for Obama (like me). It was the happiest of rallies. Everybody was in a great mood. So that's what winning feels like (after so many years!)
Obama talked about sweet potato pie:) Just so you know, apparently, he really likes his sweet potato pie. In response to someone shouting, "I love you!", he shouted, "I love you back!" He was funny. He was speaking to the ultimate choir, of course. I don't know if you can find more than a dozen registered Republicans in West Philly.
At one point, he asked us to raise our hands if we made less than 250K/year. Of course, all the hands were up. One guy next to me shouted, "that's why I'm here!" Obama got the biggest cheers, when he talked about education, health care and parental responsibility. He didn't talk much about public education at secondary level, which is one of the biggest problems we have here in Philly, more so than college education (first things first). His promise to fix rural infrastructure fell flat in Philly naturally:) Not that we don't like rural areas, it's just not our biggest concern here in the city, what with failing urban infrastructure and public schools! But I realize that he's addressing a national audience in every rally.
West Philly has been gentrifying fast in the last decade, so on paper, it's very diverse, but it's also segregated, but the rally was truly diverse. There were people of all ethnic backgrounds. A group of teenagers was standing next to us and every one of them belonged to a different ethnicity/race, it looked amazing!
At the rally:
Waiting in line:
That's all. It was a very happy rally!