My girlfriend and I attended the Obama/Patrick rally in Boston at the Hynes Convention Center. We had never seen President Obama in person and the following is my account of the day. I can tell you this at the outset, we were not disappointed and the President is truly an inspiring individual.
We live near New Haven, CT, so it's about a 3 hour or so drive to Boston. Knowing that it was first come first served for the rally, we had to get there early. The details said that doors opened at 12:00, so we planned to arrive by 10. The drive to Boston was fairly uneventful, but we did get a little worried when we stopped at the Charlton rest stop and saw two busses full of people heading to the rally - a lot of them had Obama gear on and several had Deval Patrick stickers, so we knew where they were headed. At that point, we were a little nervous thinking it might be busier than we intiially thought and thta maybe we didn't leave early enough.
In any event, we continued on and about an hour later, parked our car in the Pru parking garage. Not knowing exactly where to go, we walked through the Pru toward the convention center. Damn!! - signs on the door said to go outside and use the Boyslton Street entrance. I kind of thought that would happen, but in my haste to leave New Haven, I forgot to bring a jacket. We walked outside, up the street through a blustery wind and around the corner onto Boylston. There we saw a line of people, but it wasn't too bad - perhaps about 1500 people in line. We were very excited because we knew we would get in. You see, the convention center only holds about 8,000 or so people and we were well within that number by the time we got in line. I have to say, we got there just in time, because the crowd quickly filtered in behind us.
For the first hour and a half, I wasn't too cold, but by 11:30, after enduring the gusty winds and shade due to the sun being blocked by the Pru, I was cold. So were the two twin sisters standing in front of me who were shivering like crazy. The crowd was great though, and it was packed. The entire courtyard was full and the line had disappeared around the corner of the street (I was later told that the line extended to the Westin Hotel, which is quite some distance and about 20,000 - 25,000 people had showed up. Although standing there in the cold for almost 3 hours wasn't very pleasant, there was entertainment, which made the time pass by pretty quickly. There was a DJ spinning music - and he was excellent. A local steel drum band also played a few tunes. When the doors finally opened at 12:30 and we started to move, a group (I forget their name) came out and did a hip hop routine.
Finally, at about 1:00 or so, we get into the building. We wind our way through the line and end up just outside the hall in another line - this time security - understandable. We go through the metal detector and now we are in. I went to the One Nation Working Together rally in DC, which was obviously outdoors. I had never been to one of these types of events, and the setting was great. It was very intimate and we good a good position off to the side, about 75 feet from the podium.
When we got in, first up was Vicky Kennedy. She was great. She was followed by several other speakers, most notably, Ed Markey and John Kerry. After a while came Deval Patrick. I had never heard him speak and he was impressive. He worked the crowd up pretty good.
When Governor Patrick introduced President Obama, the crowd went absolutely crazy. He gave his usual stump speech that he's been giving around the country - and I've heard it several times. But let me tell you - seeing him deliver it and hearing it in person is quite different than hearing it on youtube or somewhere else on the internet. It was amazing. I couldn't have been more fired up during and after the speech. It was a great experience and my girlfriend and I were very glad we chose to go, despite the long drive and nearly 3 hour wait outside in the cold. It was all worth it and we would do it again.
We are going to work hard on GOTV in Connecticut, because as President Obama said - It's not about the work that's been done, it's about the work that still needs to be done. We don't want to relitigate the past, we just don't want to relive it. The republicans stood by watching as the Democrats pushed the car out of the ditch and now they want the keys back. But President Obama said quite eloquently - They can't have the keys back - they don't know how to drive. It's so true.
Here are a couple of random observations: for a presidential visit, I only saw about 10 teabaggers protesting outside - of course, they were angry looking white guys. The crowd was a diverse mix, ranging from very young to very old, and all races represented - which is what the real America is.