Hi, this is my first diary, so I'm trying not to screw anything up. But anyway, I went to the Kerry rally today in Dayton, OH! Woo! It was a great experience, although my claustrophobic husband was about to go nuts.
The gates were originally scheduled to open at 2:30, but then got bumped back to gates opening at 1:00. We - my husband and I - got there at noon, having driven 2 hours from Mount Vernon. We were going to hang out for a little bit and eat after we scoped the site out, but when we came over the bridge and saw the size of the crowd that had already gathered, we decided just to go over there now and stand in line.
So then we stood in line, and stood in line some more. We bonded with a few other people in line, and that was fun. F9/11 was the big talk. Interestingly, one woman I talked to, when I asked her if she was relieved with the Edwards pick, seemed kind of lukewarm - she liked him, but said Gephardt had a lot to offer. Go figure. But she was very enthusiastic about the whole rally - her and her daughter, along with my husband and I, had never been to a rally before, so we were all excited.
As far as protesters went, there was a guy behind us with a "Veterans Against Kerry" shirt on. The Kerry people talked to him, asked if he was going to cause him any trouble, and then pretty much just left him alone. The guy took some shit from people in line, along the lines of, "Yeah, be glad you can do this, because if you wear an anti-Bush shirt to a Bush rally, you get arrested." But I saw the same guy as we were leaving the rally, so he was there for the whole thing. I think he had Secret Service guys watching him, but he was able to stay.
There were also the token anti-abortion protesters with their dead fetus signs that looked like they'd been around since Roe v Wade. Seriously, one said something like "Kerry Loves Abortion," but the word Kerry was written in marker on a piece of paper that was taped over the original name that had been on the sign. I guess they only had so many dead fetus pictures, so they had to recycle them. The anti-abortion people had a megaphone, which the Kerry people seemed to lack, but those of us in line shouted back at them for a while. And then we just got bored with it, because there were only 10 or so. A few Kerry people had big pro-Kerry signs painted on bed sheets, which they took over to the anti-abortion people and stood in front of them, blocking some of the fetus pictures.
Later on, after we were inside the event, we noticed about 40 or so pro-Bush people outside the fences. But they were far away, and the rally was starting, so I don't think anyone paid any attention to them. They were all gone by the time the rally was over.
They didn't start letting people through security until after 2:00 pm, and I don't think anyone came on stage until sometime after 4:30. So there was a lot of standing in the sun, and our sunblock was in the car. Damn that sun!
Some of the pre-Kerry speakers were Jane Mitakides, Eric Fingerhut, and John Glenn. John Glenn kept pronouncing Teresa's name wrong, but the crowd loved him anyway. He was the one who introduced Kerry et al. Eric Fingerhut was great. He had that kind of Howard Dean quality to him, I thought. I was hoping he was going to let loose with a big YEEEAARRGH, but no go. He did have a strange cheer - "I say Finger, you say Hut! Finger!" ("Hut!"). Weird, but I guess with a name like Fingerhut, you make the most of it. Anyway, really liked him, and glad I contributed money to his campaign.
Like I said, John Glenn introduced Kerry. Crowd went wild. You've probably seen the highlights of the speeches on the news. The Dick Cheney is the president line was awesome. We cracked up at the Hair line (it was the first I had heard it - I think he used it in Cleveland earlier today). Teresa spoke, and she was very quiet, effective, and confidant. Crowd loved her. Elizabeth seemed pretty nervous. She spoke really fast, but it was her first day. Give the woman a break.
Kerry is a lot better in person than on TV. He started talking about some indian tribe that lived in this area a long time ago. The crowd was blank. I think someone yelled out that we didn't know what the hell he was talking about, and Kerry started laughing. He said, "I love this crowd, they'll say anything! Anyway, trust me - there was this indian tribe, and they lived in this area a long time ago..." and went on with the rest of his story (they had better health care than we do today). It was funny. You probably had to be there.
Edwards got his fair share of Wooo!'s, as well. I'm buying the 'We like each other! Really!' message that they're selling.
I think the high point for me was the Cheney-president line of Kerry's. That signaled to me that John Kerry is done fucking around - kind of like, you attack my VP, I'm going to attack yours. I was absolutely thrilled, and amazed that Kerry said the Cheney line in public, to an audience. And we ate it up! We loved it! Yay for the new ballsy Kerry!
Sorry about all the exclamation points. I'm still fired up. Anyway, that was about it - I'm glad I went, although both me and my husband got in a little bit of a shouting match with 2 seperate people (note - even if you have a big camera like the press people have, that doesn't mean you have press credentials. And when the secret service deny you access to the press area, stop whining about it and accept your fate. Moron.). And we're both absolutely crispy sunburnt. But I'm absolutely thrilled I was able to be there during the first day of the Kerry-Edwards campaign.
Oh, one more thing - I guess the Kerry people only thought they'd have around 3,000 people there. The security guys we talked to said there were more than 7,000. I heard one Kerry volunteer exclaim, "There were over 6,000 internet tickets printed out?!" in a tone of abolutel horror. They managed the event pretty well (although my husband has a few choice words about the parking situation, but that's our fault for not knowing the Dayton area well, I think). They had plenty of free bottled water on hand to try to stop dehydration and heat stroke. They could have used more porta-potties, tho. But that's gotta say something when double the expected amount of people show up at a campaign rally.