Young JimGinPA took this shotWe got up at 4:30 so we get there early enough to get good seats. While my boys (16 & 12) were getting ready my younger son got sick, so he ended up having to stay home. My older son has been canvassing and phone banking for the last few weeks. He asked me if he could help a while back and he's been very enthusiastic. He's gotten plenty of praise from our team leaders too. On the way home he told me he's looking forward to when he can vote so he can help re-elect Obama.
Young JimGinPAWhen we got to the school the campus security told us we weren't allowed on to the property until 8:00. As we were driving off we saw some other people on foot heading in, so we just parked on the street and sort of followed them. I ran into one of the campaign organizers for our area and he showed us to the building. There were already about 50 people lined up so we got in line. About 15 minutes later a whole bunch of the security detail showed up and told us we had to move outside the back gate.
After we got settled outside, we chatted with all the people around us. There were 5 really nice middle aged women in front of us. Two of them were "converted" HRC supporters that had become disenchanted with her, the other three said they were Obama supporters from the beginning (though one of them said she liked Edwards too, at the start of the primaries). There were two kids from Millersville University behind us, and they ended up getting selected to sit on the stage area behind Obama (on my other OP you can see them in one picture at the very top left). Just behind them was a middle aged couple that were from the town I live in. The man had a "Republican For Obama" button on. I also saw a bunch of volunteers from the Lancaster office I know while we waited. One of them called a friend of his who was able to use my extra ticket since he hadn't been able to get one.
Then between 6:00 and 6:30 the press started setting up outside filming and interviewing the people in line. The Mayor came by and was working the crowd, and then Bruce Slater, the Democrat running against Joe Pitts (our asshole congressman) came through and introduced himself and shook everyone's hand in line.
At 8:00 they let us walk in and stopped us at the door. By that time the line was about 3/4 of a mile long. We went through security and waited inside in our seats until a little after 10:00 until things got started. Sen. Casey wasn't there (I thought he would be) and Obama was introduced by a lady who is a nurse and an official with the SEIU. When Obama came out the place literally went nuts.
He spoke for about a half an hour before he took questions. A lot of what he said were things I've heard him talk about before (I listen to a lot of his speeches) that covered most of his main themes. He also had a few lighter moments. He mentioned his bowling the other day - didn't work out too well. He said he was getting advice from an eight year old but he really hadn't bowled since he was eight. He also talked about going to some sports bars and drinking some beer. He said he played basketball with Sen. Casey (he said neither of them got hurt), bottle fed a calf (I saw video of that) and that he had met Joe Paterno and "The Bus" & Franco.
Then he took questions for about 45 minutes and you could tell there were no "plants". One of the questions came from a guy who had been a little way behind me in line all morning. Then he spoke about another 1/2 hour to close it out. We didn't want to get into the crush to try to shake hands with him. The crowd was very exuberant throughout, he hit all the right tones and I think everyone there was more than satisfied hearing all the things he had to say. The big rallies are great and I'm hoping he comes back to the area closer to the primary to do one hear, but it's great to see how quick he is and how he has an honest and intelligent answer for even the toughest questions. He didn't duck anything or reframe any question to give some pat answer as so many other politicians do.
All in all it was pretty much what I expected. It was a really great day, especially listening to how fired up my son was on the way home, and then listening to him describe it to my wife and my younger boy when he got home.
On a side note: The technical school where he spoke is named for Thaddeus Stevens, one founders of the national Republican party. He was an early crusader against slavery. Funny how things have come full circle.
Rather than post the pictures I'll just link to my earlier OP;
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5328808&mesg_id=5328808 
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