A beautiful cool day in Sarasota, Florida with the opportunity to see Senator Obama in my hometown... who could ask for more? I didn't go early because I didn't think there would be "that many" people in this very Republican area of Florida. Boy, was I wrong... there were thousands of people there before me, and when I did get there the line was quite long, snaking through parking lots and along streets just to get in. I went alone but made lots of new friends, and some of those new friends are what Mr. McCain calls "special interests" ~ students!
Photos and my personal experience follow.....
I bought a cheapo digital camera on my way to Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota. Snapped in the batteries and memory card in the car and joined the line along the sidewalk. I took several pictures of the long line, but found out I messed up inserting the memory card (figures!) and asked some young fellows in line with me to help me out. Thankfully, they got the memory card working. I told them I would put their picture in my diary tonight, which they were psyched about. They hadn't heard of Dailykos, so maybe we'll have some new bloggers when they get here! A couple of gals joined them before we got in, and a group photo of them starts the slideshow below. These are the two guys who helped me get my camera working:
Some highlights while waiting to get into the stadium: an eagle landed on the communications tower and seeing the Obama plane come in. We whooped it up when we saw the plane, but the eagle was quite symbolic for many of us.
So my cheapo digital camera took great close-ups, but not so good wide angle shots. I mostly took pictures of Sarasota Obamaniacs, the best of which are in this slideshow:
One of those people is me :) I love the diversity in these crowds that flock to hear Obama speak. Diverse people hungry for change!
Now, I took a gazillion shots of Obama, but not many came out good. I didn't move around because of the crowd of about 14,000 fired up attendees. Here are the few photos of Obama that came out relatively well. Please keep in mind that this is my first time with a digital camera, so I won't have spectacular shots like icebergslim or others would. I am just so delighted to have had this experience that I wanted to share it with you.
Obama's speech today was about the same as what we've heard from the last several days... pbj sandwiches and sharing toys, McCain = McSame as Bush, remembering his mom fighting with insurance companies while in the hospital, and we need to GOTV. He started with:
"Sarasota, I've got just two words for you: Five days. We are now five days away from changing America."
Yes, we're almost there. I'll be phonebanking and canvassing for the next five days. I'll be delivering my absentee ballot directly to the Elections office on Monday (the soonest I can do it) along with several others. I will be absolutely delighted if FL-13 goes blue for Obama, and although I don't expect it I'm going to work hard to make it happen. How about you? What are you doing these last five days to help Obama become our next President?
This is how I felt today: