My 12 year old son Justin and I went to a rally with Joe Biden today in St. Clairsville, Ohio.
The outdoor campaign rally took place at Ohio University Eastern Campus. I broke Justin out of school at 1:30 so that we could be at the event at 2:00 when they started allowing people through the gates.
Follow below the fold for a whole bunch of photos and more--
This branch of OU has a beautiful campus. It is situated outside the city of St. Clairsville where urban meets rural--there are hay fields right next to the campus and we could see giants rolls of hay from where we were eventually seated.
The campaign and the college did an outstanding job staging the event. The campus has a long, winding drive that branches off in several sections. At each intersection there was a volunteer directing traffic. We were promptly led to a parking space. As soon as we got out of the car there were volunteers selling t-shirts. We bought two right away. Justin changed his shirt in the car.
We had to sign in to get tickets for the event-they were basically used to keep track of attendance, I think, because nobody actually collected them. We walked up sets of stairs to the back of the campus. It is not very handicapped friendly, but people managed to work around them. We finally made it through security after about a 20 minute wait.
We had to empty pockets and turn cell phones and cameras on to be cursorily inspected, and walk through a metal detector. Everyone set off the metal detector and had to go through the secondary 'wand' doodad. That was uncomfortable. The Sheriff's Deputy sang to us all so it wasn't so bad.
There were volunteers on hand right away to sign up people to help phone bank, lit drop, etc. A young woman stopped us, handed us white index cards with a green star on them. They were our ticket to the bleacher section, right behind where Joe Biden would stand. They packed us in the stands like sardines and gave us basic instructions. No standing, no taking photographs (I did anyway, from my lap with the flash turned off), no nose-picking, no getting up to go to the bathroom (do it right now! not later!), that sort of thing.
The young lady who seated us is in white--
Seats are starting to fill up--
A whole lot of United Mine Workers--
You'll see why I mentioned the 'view back here'. I got to see, and take pics of, a whole lot of backsides.
A nice young gentleman entertained us--
And finally, promptly at 4:00, the invocation. I want to mention that this was an all-inclusive prayer, no "us-versus-them" stuff--
A guy named Bob (???) led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Don't let anyone tell you Democrats don't say the Pledge--
Belmont County, OH Obama Coordinator welcomed us all--
Hey, look! Sherrod Brown came up in the stands to visit with us--
Senator Brown asked some of us to verify the names of Pittsburgh television stations. He was going to use them in his speech--
He looks like just a regular guy, and he talks just like a regular guy. We didn't get any glad-handing. And he knew our area, even though he lives 4 hours away in a large city. Sen. Brown ragged on Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity in a really funny way. He told us we'd turn on Channel 2 (that's a Pittsburgh station) at 11:42 on election night and we'd see a tear in Bill O'Reilly's eye.
Next up was Richard Trumka.
What an awesome guy he is--definitely a magnetic personality. He is the current AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer and former President of the UMWA. Those coal miners present today love him. You might remember him from this You Tube video that addresses racism and the presidential election:
It was kind of a dreary, blah kind of day, but as soon as Mr. Trumka started speaking the sun came out. Mr. Trumka mentioned that Joe Biden and he came to Washington, DC at around the same time, and some people might have considered the two of them 'Mavericks'. Mr. Trumka spoke passionately of Joe Biden's commitment to unions. He also spoke of job creation and the renegotiation of NAFTA. And then Senator Biden arrived:
Senator Biden gave us his stump speech. It was red meat for the people. He compared Obama/Biden to McCain/Palin in every way. He promised us tax cuts for the middle class, job creation, and an end to the Iraq war (and that brought on the biggest cheer of all!). Senator Biden asked us to point to West Virginia and everyone in the crowd pointed to the East. WV is about 15 miles away from the rally today. Senator Biden wanted to send a message to West Virginia -- we're going to win in West Virginia.
And then it was over, way too soon-
Some final thoughts--
Diversity. There was so much diversity in the crowd today. There were white people, brown people, and all varieties in-between. There were old people, and lots and lots of young people. High school kids came. Elderly people in wheelchairs came to see our VP nominee.
Ohio and WV Democrats don't like Sarah Palin at all. Much of the conversation before the rally was about her. And you might be surprised to know that a lot of people that you might not think are internet savvy are hip to Palin's ties to the AIP and are horrified by it.
Party elected officials from Ohio and West Virginia came to the rally. There were city council members, state senators, county commissioners, mayors, and more. 1500 people are estimated to have attended. That's pretty good for our little neck of the woods.
I really thought my son would be bored out of his mind if he had to sit in one place for more than two hours. But he enjoyed himself, and especially liked talking to other Democrats. He got two cool t-shirts and a rally sign, and he got to see Joe Biden in person. I think he grasps that this election is possibly the most important of our time, and that history will be made in November.
P.S.
I don't think I would recommend sitting behind the stage if you go to a rally. We didn't get to shake Joe Biden's hand and we never got see any expressions on the speakers' faces. I didn't get any photographs afterward while he was going through the crowd because they had my section closed off for quite a long time. But I did see myself on television for about 1.3 seconds tonight, and we met some really cool people ;-)
Edited to add link for local coverage:
http://www.wtov9.com/...
(videos here)