What a rally; what a day. My wife and I were simply too tired to drive back from Dublin last night, short drive though it may be, so I'm quite sorry for the delay here. This is our second time volunteering at one of Obama's speaking events, the first being at UIC the day after his announcement in Springfield. Much as with that event, we saw first-time voters, lots of people who typically aren't as involved in the political process and a ton of fired up Ohioans ready to turn this state blue. Pictures and too many words after the fold.
We signed up to volunteer for the rally as soon as we heard about it. Athens, being a small, beautiful college town, is unlikely to see an Obama visit any time soon. Dublin, right outside of Columbus, seemed like one of the closer stops Obama would be making. My wife and I left around 11:00 and arrived at the rally site about an hour and a half later. The attendees' line was already substantial:
We found out where to muster up the volunteers; there were at least 200 of us. My wife and I were selected, along with about 18 other individuals, to help out in the press area.
Those stands didn't stay empty for long.
She chose to work the buffer area, granting access only to those photographers with the credentials the get within spitting distance of Obama for close-up shots.
As such, she ended up hanging out with secret service agents all day. In case you were wondering, they not only have eyes but they also smile quite often. Remarkable and personable people, really.
I took a floater position, trying to help out where needed. For the most part I was charged with keeping the press from heading into the stands and bothering, er, interviewing attendees as well as pointing out the area set aside for those in wheelchairs and such. At some point a snot of a reporter headed "to the bathroom" and was later found in the stands. Not shockingly, he was with Fox. I'm still kicking myself over that one.
Around 5:30 the area set aside for handicapped individuals filled to capacity, necessitating a mad scramble to locate another suitable area. This was one sore spot--they didn't handle this all that quickly and I was left tending to both reporter access and trying to keep up the spirits of those who had no place to sit. About 30 minutes later we were able to resolve the issue; not a moment too soon, either, because my crowd of wheelchair-bound supporters was beginning to attract the attention a couple local reporters. I was frustrated about this until I found out that we had more than 1,000 individuals with special seating needs show up for the rally--well beyond expectations.
Senator John Glenn was there and gave a few remarks, introducing both Biden and Obama.
They took the stage to predictable thunderous applause and extensive chanting. Both played to the crowd, Biden making quips about feeling at home with his Irish heritage in a town called Dublin and Obama leading folks in a call-and-response of "O - H, O - H" due to the earlier Buckeyes game.
Biden was welcome, obviously, but the crowd was there for Obama and he could tell. At one point, and I could only hear this because I was standing directly next to the speaker at the time, Biden said "I don't think I should bother finishing. You just wanna go?" I couldn't hear Obama's response, but Biden began the call-and-response "Obama was right, John McCain was wrong" that he did during the convention. He only did a couple, though, because the crowd seemed to not follow along as well as they would have liked. He stepped aside and let our next President take the podium.
The speech was essentially the same as the one we heard on Thursday night. Not that this is a bad thing, of course, but for me the attraction was the audience and participating in making Ohio blue.
Obama also offered up a pretty funny comment about McCain's VP choice, stating that "McCain selected his VP nominee, the governor of Alaska. You know, we haven't made it up there yet." The audience laughed, then he continued. "But I'm thinking we might have to now."
Obama finished his speech, shook some hands, took the time to meet with select members of the audience and departed for his next stop. The crowd, enthusiastic and wound up, lingered for some time and finally began to trickle out slowly. The volunteers all began the lengthy process of cleaning up while a beautiful sunset lit the scene.
We expected about 12-15,000 people. An official approximation was about 20,000. Here, in the middle of Ohio, there's a palpable level of excitement. Keep calling and keep volunteering and we might just turn this country around. Thanks for reading!
(p.s. If I messed up the image sizes, could someone please help me out with some advice? Thanks again!)
Edit I: Grammar and typo demons infested the diary. I had to exorcise some of them.