I attended my first political rally yesterday in Leesburg, VA. I was amazed:
These photos were taken from my friend's front yard. He lives on about a mile or so down King street from the rally.
Here is a photo of the line going to the park:
Here is the other direction:
More photo goodness below
I missed the coverage since I was there, and after the rally my friend and I headed to Ball's Bluff Tavern on King street. They were painfully understaffed expecting a crowd of only 10,000 and I heard there were 5 times that many in attendance.
I am accustomed to large crowds, but I was surprised to see how happy and nice this crowd was. Even when confronted by McCain supporters they were polite. When my friend and I were walking down king street after stopping at for a bite to eat and a drink we here even called socialists. At which point my friend laughed and I just asked if he was registered to vote.
The McCain supporters that live on King street stood in their doorways as the flood of Obama Supporters flowed back to their cars:
I must admit that we got there late. We did not make it to the park at 3:30 and got in line... What a line, it snaked through the isles of parked cars. It is difficult to describe the line, but here are some photos:
This is the line I wound up in, but there were at least 3 other lines of equal length.
This is the line snaking through isles of cars. In this photo the line wend down, back, down and back again.
The guy with the red hat backward announced himself as a lifelong republican voting for Obama (he received huge cheers):
More photos of the lines:
When 5:30 rolled around the line system broke down as it was apparent that we would not all get in and we all just made our way to the fence so we could get a glimpse.
If you look just to the left of the two girls up on shoulders you will see a light. Just above that light was Obama. My friend commented that he is a lot shorter in person :).
When he started speaking I could not stop the tears. It was not for the words he was saying, because the cheering drowned a lot out, but it was for the gravity of the situation. I was overwhelmed by this portion of American history that I am lucky enough to witness in real time. I am in my late 30s and will celebrate two things on November 5th. My birthday and the Election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States.
This is important to me in another way. My Ancestor Francis Kearney came to this country from Ireland and settled in Ohio. Obama's ancestor, Fulmoth Kearney, came to this country and settled in Ohio when his uncle Francis Kearney died and left him some land. I am not sure that these are the same people, but the timing seems about right.
More pics: