I'm back from Massachusetts Governor Patrick's rally with President Obama in Boston. It was Ahhhh-mazing!!!!
President Barack Obama renewed his criticisms of the Republicans this afternoon, saying their economic plan would be bad for the country, in a rousing speech at a joint rally with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick that drew thousands of fired-up supporters to a downtown Boston convention center.
"Between 2001 and 2009, we saw the most sluggish job growth since World War II," Obama told the crowd at the Hynes Convention Center.
"If they win this election, a chair of the Republican party has already promised that they’d pursue the same agenda. It’s an agenda that turned a record surplus to a record deficit," the Democrat said.
"We tried it for eight years, it didn’t work out so well," he said.
http://www.boston.com/...
We left home about 8:30, got to the convention center two hours later and waited for what seemed like forever to get in.
Mr. Obama, speaking to about 8,000 people at the Hynes Convention Center here and more listening outside and in an overflow room, praised Mr. Patrick, the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts, in ways that Mr. Obama often describes himself, calling him someone who "represents the politics of conscience and conviction" and who does what is right, not what is easy.
Mr. Obama was interrupted several times by protesters who held banners reading, "Keep the Promise" and "Fight Global AIDS." His supporters sought to drown them out with chants of "O-ba-ma," and Mr. Obama ad-libbed his own response with an addition to his stump-speech arguments against the dangers of electing Republicans.
"And if they win, they will cut AIDS funding right here in the United States of America," he said, shooting a look toward the hecklers. He added, "We increased AIDS funding."
http://www.nytimes.com/...
We were right behind the protesters. They were very young. They all looked to be under 21 years old with one older professorial looking leader.
Outside there were a couple of Tea-bagger protesters waving the yellow "Don't Tread On Me" flag. They looked pathetic and pitiful.
But the big thing, after we left the hall we were famished and in search of food and soon found ourselves at a mall food court.
Who did I almost bump into in front of Flamers? No other than David Axelrod and his wife. They were just strolling along like anyone else. If I was not so close to him, I would have never had recognized him.
I'm too exhausted to go into too much detail right now but I was starstruck. I introduced myself and we spoke for something like a minute or two.
From the Comments...
I went with a bunch of friends. We were in line from about 10 to 12:30 before they let us in. Didn't realize there was a Comic Con going on. Guys dressed as Ghostbusters, Batman, and Boston Police posing with a Mr T. imposter while we were waiting. I can't imagine what the dozen or so Tea Partiers thought. Actually I realized that something unites Tea Partiers and Comic book fans. Both are kind of socially inept and like to dress up as their favorite fictional characters.
A couple of the people in the line with us were Republicans who had driven up from NYC. My friend who likes to read wingnut blogs and give them grief engaged them a bit and rather successfully baited them. What they were doing there I have no idea. Reminded me of the black sperm in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex. The Patrick campaign did a pretty good job keeping the line from becoming too tedious with some music and other entertainment.
The warmup speakers were awesome. Vicki Kennedy, Ed Markey, John Kerry is a pretty good set of warm ups. And we got a couple of songs from James Taylor, too. Deval Patrick gave a very good speech getting people fired up. I think he gets seriously underestimated politically.
Obama gave his usual stump speech. The AIDS protesters were seriously drowned out by the crowd. After a bit they started up again and Obama pointed out rather well to them that the Republicans were not going to be friendly to their cause of getting more resources to fit AIDS. It was an effective ad lib response. It's the first time I've seen him. I don't know what the big deal is. He's a good orator and I imagine he can really soar when the time is right. Today I thought he was effective but not awe-inspiring.
The Prudential Center Mall Food Court is an awesome place to do people watching. The variety of folks wandering around is amazing. Diversity on parade there folks. Guess David Axelrod was hungry. Glad he got a chance to check it out and that you met him.
Just another normal Saturday in Boston....
Also from the comments...
My husband and I and a friend of ours all attended the rally-too.
My organizer from OFA was able to get us three green tickets.
Would you believe-as the president and the governor traveled the perimeter-just below the podium-shaking hands and talking to people-my husband leaned forward to shake the president's hand.
When I stepped back to give him room to lean forward {I was in front-he was standing behind me} the president saw me turn a little-and step slightly to the side to make room for the handshake-and when my turn came the president hugged me and I kissed him on the cheek!
I said to my husband: "I just kissed the leader of the free world."
He laughed out loud- and the secret service agent who was accompanying the President heard me-and he laughed too!
Next-we shook hands with the Governor and told him what a wonderful job he was doing-and how much we enjoyed volunteering--- I'll be at his local campaign headquarters on election day.
What an awesome moment!
Fired up!
Photos here!