Early this week I got an email that Hillary had scheduled a rally for today. A couple hours later, the local organizer called— did I want to volunteer to work the rally? You bet I did.
Hillary wasn’t scheduled to speak until 1:30, but we knew that people would start lining up early, so volunteers were to get there by 9:30. I was assigned to work the line. I had to tell people that water and food were not allowed in the venue, nor were signs. Also, I needed to notice people with disabilities, and bring them over to a different entrance where they would get special seating. We also went along the line with clipboards, getting everyone to fill out a little form with their name and contact info (a phone # or email addy), and check off whether they’d volunteer to phone bank, knock on doors or do data entry.
Rallies like this one are not to get votes; they are to get and energize volunteers. Anyone could go to the rally, but most people there were already volunteers, and most of the ones who hadn’t yet volunteered will be volunteering in the few days leading up to the California primary.
Volunteers for events like this need to be upbeat, positive and excited. No problem there. Besides being thrilled about seeing the next President of the United States today, I’m on top of the world because my San Jose Sharks made the Stanley Cup Finals last night. I had no trouble being positive.
We were warned that there would probably be protestors. We were not to engage with them, and we were to encourage the people waiting to ignore them and be positive about our own great candidate. As it turned out, there were a few protestors, but they were mostly across the street. I don’t know if the police enforced this separation, or what. At one point, a couple of protestors went along our line with signs, but got no reaction at all.
Eventually the door opened and people started to be able to go in. We line people still had to continue registering the new people, though. But at last we got to go inside too. It was, oddly, dark inside. There were bleachers set up on one side, with the usual selected backdrop people holding signs— some union guys from LiUNA and some other people— and a raised podium in the center of the room. People were standing around.
And then we waited and waited and waited. A few local officeholders spoke, praising Hillary and urging us to go out and phonebank and knock on doors. The DJ played music. I sat down in a corner and read a New Yorker from October that had been on my reading pile.
And then, YAY! Game on! San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo came out to say a few words. He wasn’t on my radar before, but this guy seems like a talented politician. Plus, may I remind you that San Jose is the 10th largest city in the US, so being the mayor is no sinecure. He could be going places.
After Liccardo came former San Francisco Mayor, now Lieutenant Governor, Gavin Newsom, another guy who is going places, most probably the California statehouse two years from now when Jerry Brown retires. He gave a rousing introduction to our next President, Hillary Clinton!
After a few words about Democratic unity and all the issues where she and Bernie Sanders agree, Hillary segued quickly to contrasting herself with Trump. The theme of all the speakers was diversity and immigration, befitting our location, a city made up 40% of immigrants. (Yeah, Trump does not have a lot of fans in Silicon Valley.) Hillary continued on that theme, and also spoke on global affairs.
Hillary had two modes of speaking, a shouty rendering of her stump speech, and a quieter, more intimate style where she seems like she’s just chatting with you as a friend. She used the intimate style as she spoke of foreign affairs, dismissing Trump as the blowhard he clearly is.
She recounted the story of the tense meeting in the Situation Room when President Obama and a few top officials were making the difficult decision of whether to go after Bin Laden. The President went around the room, asking each person what they thought. Was that odd building really where the world’s most wanted terrorist was hiding? Was the shaky intelligence good enough to risk our Navy Seals? Should we send drones? Should we do nothing? Then the President had to go off by himself and decide. Can we imagine Orangey in that situation? Obviously not.
She mentioned how Trump was praising that lunatic Kim Jong Un and wanted to meet with him, and then the Korean ambassador said the idea was nonsense. “I don’t think much of that regime,” she said, but they got it right in that case. Her tone of amused dismissal was perfect.
She finished up by urging us to fill out and mail our ballots if we already have them, and go vote on June 7th if we are election day voters. She left the stage and was immediately mobbed.
I would’ve liked to get a selfie with her, and maybe I could have, but there were a lot of people in front of me, so I headed out. Outside the door the local NBC news affiliate interviewed me, but I don’t know if they played the clip on the news. When I got to the sidewalk to go get my bike, I passed Andrea Mitchell doing, I don’t know, whatever she was doing.
Californians, vote on June 7th (or before)!
Sorry, everyone, I couldn’t get any good pictures. I’m not much of a picture taker.
UPDATE: Hillary’s speech: