Cross posted from Prairie State Blue.
Yesterday John Edwards marched with the hotel workers who have been picketing the Congress Hotel since 2003. I got an email about it while I was at the Yearly Kos convention at McCormick Place, and it seemed like too good of an event to miss, so I decided to duck out of the convention and go march with him. An hour before the event I went over to the John Edwards booth, rounded up three other Edwards supporters, we grabbed a cab and headed over.
Here is my best photo from the event, which I took while marching in the picket line with John:
More photos, and more info, and a poll below the fold.
Apparently this is something that Edwards does a lot -- taking a few moments to march with striking workers in whatever town he is visiting.
Here is a picture of me in front of the strikers, my orange Kos bag over my shoulder and a DFA button and a JRE sticker on my lapel:
Here is John Edwards with two of the guys that went with me from the convention (note the orange Kos lanyards). I had been taking a picture of the two of them when suddenly John walked by to get in his car. They just ran up to him and said, "how about a picture?" He put his arms around them and I just kept clicking and got this cool shot:
Here a couple of quotes from a Sun-Times article about the event:
http://www.suntimes....
"Your cause is the cause of working people," Edwards told the strikers. "Making sure that those who work earn a decent wage, get health care coverage and can actually support their families and their children."
The picket was a return visit for Edwards, who marched with the strikers four years ago during his last presidential campaign.
"I was proud to be with you years ago, I'm proud to be back with you now," Edwards said to cheers. "Your cause is my cause."
[...]
After walking the line, Edwards stepped in front of his videographer and, with the striking workers in the background, declared, "I'm John Edwards and I approved this message." Then he hopped into a maroon minivan--one car only, no motorcade-- and zipped down to McCormick Place to face the liberal bloggers at the YearlyKos convention.
After John left we all took off back to McCormick Place for the presidential forum, which was an absolutely fabulous event. After the forum all the presidential candidates did break-out sessions. When we checked in for the convention we had to choose which break-out we wanted to be in, and were given a color-coded wrist band. When I registered they were out of Obama and Edwards, so I had to take a Richardson, which I was later able to trade to someone for an Edwards.
The Edwards session was great, and my friend Maureen, a fellow Illinois DFAer, was one of the people who got to ask a question. Here is a picture of her listening to the answer (she is the one standing in the middle in front of the giant picture of Edwards):
And here is a picture of Edwards answering questions (sorry these are so dark):
And yes, I am as close as it looks. All in all, a totally cool day!!!