It's been several years since A FIB in Cheddarland and I grabbed a day to spend together just the two of us, no kids. What better date than an outing to see President Barack Obama speak in Madison, Wisconsin -- together with some 36,000 of our closest friends?!
Here's how the line looked from our vantage point mid-morning. We knew the lines would be long, having been thwarted in our plans to attend the 2010 Obama speech at UW-Madison. This time we both took the day off, biked in, and got in line by 9:30am (the line began forming at 7am, for a noon gate-opening).
Lots of voter-registration going on!
The several-hours in line went more quickly than I'd thought. We brought lunch to eat in line (no food allowed beyond the gates, nor signs, backpacks, crockpots, snakes... oh wait, those last two are Scott-Walker rules for the Madison Capitol building, never mind!) Had a fun conversation with an older lady who had lived right around the corner from Tammy Baldwin when our next US Senator was a little girl growing up. Madison is a small town in many ways.
The gates opened promptly, maybe even a little early, and the crowd quickly filled the base of Bascom Hill, the green mall that swoops down from Bascom Hall, the administration building at the University of Madison. From the statue of Abe Lincoln in front of Bascom Hall, you can see down to the Capitol, a visible sign of the historic partnership between the State and the University (a partnership, alas, in which the state share of university funding has been ever decreasing.)
We ended up perhaps two-thirds of the way down the hill. Here was our view toward the stage:
The stage was actually on the left, where you see a VIP crowd behind the bunting. Straight ahead and to the right were press-bleachers.
More beyond the jump!
The crowd was fired up and ready to move FORWARD! "Forward" is our state motto as well as the Obama campaign slogan, utterly fitting.
The events spread out through the afternoon. At 1pm, we had a half-hour set by Mama Digdown's Brass Band, a high-energy local act. Then at 2:30, the warm-up speechifying. We had the Pledge of Allegiance led by a veteran, the National Anthem sung by a UW-Madison student, and an invocation by a female pastor. I come from a faith tradition that resists the blending of church and state -- it was refreshing to hear Assembly Rep. Mark Pocan (running for Congress, WI-02) give a shout out to believers and non-believers both, a little later on!
The speaker line-up was Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, then Mark Pocan, followed by outgoing US Senator Herb Kohl, then Congresswoman and Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin, and then an Obama organizer for Wisconsin. Mark Pocan gave the best speech of this bunch -- I almost liked it as well as Obama's! He's a progressive through and through, as is Tammy Baldwin. Sen. Kohl passed the torch to Baldwin by offering her his trademarked slogan, "Nobody's Senator but Yours." Lots of emphasis all the way through on voter registration, voting early, getting all your friends to the polls.
Then after the speeches, another long pause. We'd heard that there was to be a no-fly zone over Madison between 2 and 3, so that gave us some idea of when POTUS would be coming in. There was some excitement as a black helicopter circled the field, but the President came by motorcade and didn't take the stage until just about 3:40. The crowd went wild!
My location and equipment were totally inadequate for getting any images or recording of the actual speech. You can see both photos and video highlights, or full speech video, at the Wisconsin State Journal, or read a transcript here on Daily Kos.
The President was full of energy and verve, and responded strongly to what happened at the debate last night. That wasn't the real Mitt Romney who showed up to the debate, he told us:
The Mitt Romney we all know invested in companies that were called "pioneers" of outsourcing jobs to other countries. But the guy on stage last night, he said he’d never heard of tax breaks for companies that shift jobs overseas. Never heard of them. (Laughter.) And he said, if that’s true, he must need a new accountant. So now we know for sure that wasn’t the real Mitt Romney, because the real Mitt Romney is doing just fine with the accountant that he already has. (Laughter.)
Whoever it was that was on stage last night doesn’t want to be held accountable for what the real Mitt Romney has been saying for the last year, and that’s because he knows full well that we don’t want what he’s been selling over the last year. (Applause.) Governor Romney may dance around his positions, he may do a tap dance and a two-step, but if you want to be President, then you owe the American people the truth. (Applause.)
I want to see more of this stump-speech Obama in the next two debates, and I think we will. I know there's been lots of analysis about how the quiet Obama's performance on Wednesday night may well have actually worked in his favor. But given the content of yesterday's speech, it feels to me as if Obama has already re-calibrated, and it's going to be fascinating to see how that plays out between now and the election.
"Don't boo -- VOTE!" was the President's line every time the crowd expressed displeasure with Romney's stances and lies. Great advice, for every last one of us.
I'll leave you with just a couple more images:
This one's all about Badger pride -- the "W" is for Wisconsin, and you could tell that this crowd was ready to move Forward!
And here are some young ladies doing just that, as they link arms on their way out at the end of the rally:
AnnieJo and A FIB in Cheddarland, signing out!