Fired up and ready to go: Photos from the Obama 2012 kickoff rally in Columbus, Ohio

Earlier today, I joined thousands of others at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio to hear first lady Michelle Obama and President Obama kick off the 2012 general election. You can read the transcript of their remarks here, but I was able to take some photos at the event and thought you might enjoy them—starting with the lovely and amazing first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama:

The crowd loves the first lady and her introduction of the president:

Here's the scene a few minutes earlier when Michelle Obama took the stage:

And President Obama is in the house!

Zooming in on the president:

Continue reading to see the rest of the photos.

You can see the house was packed:

After the speech, the first lady rejoined the president:

They waved to to crowd, holding each other arm in arm:

Here's the first picture of the first couple zoomed in:

And here's the second:

They were full of energy—the crowd was fired up and ready to go, even as they waved goodbye.

And the event was peppered with "Forward." signs, but none bigger than this one.

And finally, here's a link to the full video of the rally (and as mentioned above, the transcript is here).

p.s.: They did play the fired up and ready to go video from 2008 at the start of the event. And the crowd did get fired up and ready to go. And yes, the rumors are true: Mitt Romney sort of likes that slogan. At least he likes the "fired" part.