First a little info about central FL and myself. I live in the county next door to the west being Lake county... we are a republican county, rural and suburban.. and we have the Villages (old republicans from all over the country that was developed by a power hungry republican, where Palin drew a large crowd) in the north which is heavily republican, unlike Orange county where Orlando is located. in 2000 Gore won Orange by 6000 votes and 2004 Kerry barely won Orange by a pathetic 800 votes (more on this later). This time around Dems now have a huge part ID advantage in Orange (77000 more dems than republican vs. 28,000 in 2004) and so far the early vote tallies have Dems outvoting the GOP by 40% in the county!!! www.ocfelections.com
So I believe Obama will easily carry Orange and if he can make Lake county, where I live, competitive it will mean he will carry the state of FL. I have volunteered canvassing locally and have met a lot of Dems who are energized and have met republicans who are quiet about it, but plan on voting for Obama! the point is Central FL is very important and if we can carry the entire region by a few points, with our strength in South Florida it will swamp the republican strength in north florida.
WE MUST WIN FLORIDA. yes Obama can lose FL and still win the election easily, BUT for many reasons we must carry this state to send a message to the crooks that stole the state from us in 2000.
On to the rally: It was set to start at 6pm outside the Amway Arena (which is where the Orlando Magic play) in downtown Orlando. Having gone to Kerry rallies in 2004 I knew to get there EARLY. So we got there at 1:30 and paid 20 bucks to park a few blocks away. walked with a bunch of other supporters to the spot, there were many frustrated motorists. One guy in a truck stuck in traffic was yelling at a cop asking what the *$&% was going on? I wanted to tell him the president was coming to town!! lol. another guy walking on the street was wondering why cops were everywhere. I told him Obama was in town. he said "obama in town? where??!!" i told him to just follow the crowd.
we got there and saw lines going 3 blocks so we got in line. I had never seen anything like this. there were tons of volunteers asking everyone in line if they voted, and if they wanted to volunteer. i got asked about 7 times total.
We waited in line about 2 1/2 hours and finally got in. I felt bad for those that arrived after us and had to wait. Someone told me that the lines stretched 5 blocks!!! WOW! we ended up getting a spot in the corner and the crowd there was very enthusiastic when both Hillary and Obama made it on stage. This was NOTHING like the Kerry rallies i went to in 2004, it seemed like this time people wanted to see Obama BAD. and most shockingly of all the rally was set to start at 6pm, and by golly it started EARLY, and Obama went on stage on time. in 2004 Kerry was always atleast an hour late.
waiting in line 2 1/2 hours and then another almost 2 hours standing waiting for the rally to start with no bathroom and no water and we got this view. BUT it was so awesome to see him in person and I would do it again!!
Hillary spoke first and told everyone if they volunteered for her to volunteer just as hard for obama! Obama talked a lot about the souring FL economy and his plan to get things turning around. JOBS BABY JOBS!
I love the organization of the Obama campaign, much props.. it is a pleasure to volunteer for them and I hope everyone can donate some time to go to their local office and help out! if they can open an office in Lake County FL, then it shows they are serious about competing EVERYWHERE, not just in dark blue areas like in past elections.
the media said there was 40-50 thousand people, and there were many more that weren't able to get in and were outside the perimeter. the Kerry rally meanwhile had 14,000 in 2004. NO COMPARISON!!