Paoli PA Obama Rally Pics (dial-up warning)

[Hazelrah]

I just got back from the ”ON TRACK FOR CHANGE” rally at Paoli train station located in the outer Main Line.
Here are a few pics, as you can tell I’m no professional.

Cool sign that got major applause from the crowd when it was first shown.
When Obama arrived and saw it he laughed and applauded.



There was a large crowd. If I had to make a guess, I'd say a thousand maybe more



Bob Casey does the introduction. For the first time I saw a person campaigning sans jacket and didn't think it was a calculated "just one of the guys" move.
It was boiling hot standing in that parking lot with no shade and tons of bodies creating extra heat.















Okay this one is silly, but when I saw it all I could think was --She's crushing his head!-- (kids in the hall, anyone?).




Anyone wants high-rez copies, non-cropped copies just PM me.
I'm so glad I finally got the chance to see him live.

[sniffa]

1. Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

What was the reaction like? How long did it go? Any lines that were different? :hi:

[Hazelrah]

8. Mostly a stump speech

very similar to what he said last night in Philly. People were pumped but we had been standing in the sun for hours and it had taken a toll on the older people and young kids. Couple lines got a major response surprisingly not about the economy or health care but about being told the truth and not crap to make us feel better.


The line that got mad applause was something along the lines of "I'm not a perfect man and I won't be a perfect president but I will always tell you the truth". Crowd roars. Being treated like adults who are capable of reason, how awesome is that.

:bounce:

[Nitrogenica]

2. Thanks, great pics.

[quantass]

25. .

[rurallib]

3. Great pics - thanks!

"middle aged white guys for Obama" sign in top pic LOL

[DemsUnited]

4. love seeing these kinds of pics! Thanks for posting. EOM.

[whistle]

5. Exactly what did Obama say in his speech to the crowd?

[grantcart]

6. k and r

[blonndee]

7. Thanks for the pics! You got up close!

[livetohike]

9. Your pictures are great!!

:hi: Thanks for the report too. It's nice to hear about the crowd reactions.

[stillcool]

10. Thank You! Looks like a really...

nice day for it...How long were you/he there?

[Hazelrah]

13. Got there around 11:15, Obama at 2, all over by 2:30.

That was a loooong time to stand in the sun but it was worth it. People were giddy. I was too young to see MLK or Malcolm or Robert Kennedy or JFK for that matter. I felt this need to see him in person because I think one day it will be a story I tell my kids.

"Listen, children. One hot spring day, I went to the train station and saw the 44th president of the US and this is what he said. . . . "

[stillcool]

23. Good for you!

I love when you guys go and report back. The pictures are awesome! Looking at them it all feels so damn positive!

[Hazelrah]

11. I got amazing close.

I was at Colbert on Thurs and learned my lesson.

Get there early, wear comfortable shoes, bring a book, a bottle of water and plenty of aspirin.

[4_Legs_Good]

12. Freakin awesome!

Amazing that you got such a great spot! When he was in Santa Barbara we got maybe within 50 feet at the end, but there was such a sea of people.

Anyway grats on seeing him live!

David

[intaglio]

14. But But But ...

He uses teleprompters whenever he speaks - did you see any Hazel?

[Hazelrah]

18. Not a prompter in sight.

Anyone wants proof they can ask for my originals and I will gladly email them. ;-)

[Vinca]

15. Where is Paoli in the state? nt

[Hazelrah]

16. Pennsylvania: Paoli is the spot where the Main Line goes blue collar.

If you drew a straight line from Philly to Gettysburg, Paoli would be on the outer rim of the Philly burbs. It gets more rural after you pass Paoli and you start to cross over to Amish country in another 10-15 miles or so.

[Vinca]

17. Your photos are great. It must have been so much fun! nt

[futureliveshere]

19. awesome.. good for you.

[Arugula Latte]

20. Good pics...I like the "Middled-Aged White Guys for Obama" sign.

:thumbsup:

[quantass]

21. thanks..fun stuff!

[1776Forever]

22. Great pictures - I live in Florida so we didn't even get the chance to see him here

Thanks!!!

:hi:

[Hazelrah]

24. Hey, there's always the general!

A grandmother who had brought her granddaughter turned to me as we were walking out and said, "I hope he comes back to PA".

I said, "Hey, remember we're PA and we 'swing'. He'll be back in the general".

That will go for Florida too, won't it?

Maybe that's the lesson:

Go purple or go blue and you will get to see Obama too.

:toast:

[1776Forever]

26. Sweet - thanks for the reply - you made my day!!!!!

[PM7nj]

27. He's smart about the towns he is stopping in...

Not Ardmore or Radnor, but Paoli and Downingtown... smart!

[powergirl]

28. Thanks hazel_rah - What part of Pennsylvania is Paoli in?

About what is the population? I live in Texas and am not familiar with the great state of Pennsylvania. Your pictures are great. I saw Obama in Dallas. I let my 13 year old son skip school and I'm glad he did. The nuns will forgive him! Anyway it was a moving experience. He is the right man at the right time and I wish you in Pennsylvania the best of luck on Tuesday.

:toast:

[tiptoe]

29. these may help a little:

1) Obama Regional Polling for PA Whistle-Stop Cities scheduled for Saturday

Click on the Area Code links available above to locate City and County.
For example, "Paoli" is Area Code "610"
Click "610" ...Scroll down to "Paoli", find County is "Chester." See County map below.


2)


3)

[powergirl]

33. Thank you - this is useful

I have learned so much about PA! I have really enjoyed it. Now, make sure Obama kicks some butt there! I tried my best in Texas. :toast:

[Hazelrah]

32. Paoli is the outer edge of the Philadelphia suburbs.

If anyone was watching Real Time w/Maher last night the areas they did the story on were not far from Paoli, in fact my Mom lives in Norristown. This is the kind of place where you will see "Bikers for Barack" tooling around and some of those bikers will be blue collar while others are running fortune 500 companies. Funny place, I drove by one house and saw a BMW and a "hog" in the same driveway.

On a side note:

Paoli is a big train stop and as you can tell from the pics of the building behind Obama, it is completely run down. More people are taking public transportation every day and there has been little improvement to the current stops in years. During the crunch time when SEPTA was operating in the red, they canceled bus lines, reduced the number of trains and let our train stops begin to sink into disrepair. That pissed a lot of us off.

We want to use public transit for our wallets, for the planet and for our sanity (sitting in traffic for 2 hours every morning sucks!) but as the transit system becomes less and less available to us, we are left with little choice but to rely on the almighty car.

[powergirl]

34. Good information - isn't Clinton depending on this demographic?

I really want Obama to make this happen. I feel your pain about relying on the almighty car. In Texas, home of the Bushes and Oil "Barons" public transportation is roundly discouraged. For the last 10 years or so, we finally got a rail system to take us from the burbs (where I am) into downtown Dallas. It was met with INCREDIBLE resistance. Oh, and I'll take George Bush back here in Texas (he's going to live in the Dallas area - so pray for me). I'm glad to do it to protect the rest of the country. :patriot:

[Hazelrah]

35. She can depend all she wants, I doubt she will get it.

I work for a major Philadelphia company with locations in center city and in the burbs (sorry it has to stay a secret or I will get in trouble). Early in primary season my dem co-workers and I all split into different factions. I started out as an Edwards supporter but over time as the group narrowed to Obama and Hillary the majority became Obama supporters including me. My independent and republicans friends (you must have them too, being in Texas and all) who have been disgusted by Bush and were never Clinton fans began switching to Dem so they could vote for Obama in this primary. From this small sample of "random people hazel_rah knows", I say Philly burbs is going Obama.

Little sister attending Temple down in North Philadelphia says her friends are going Obama. Hanging out in West Philadelphia this week the students of Penn campus seem to be trending Obama and the amazing turn out for Obama at Independence Hall last night tells me that Philadelphia in general is going Obama.

Everyone in the "know" who I talk to says Obama will likely lose PA as Hillary was up by 20 just 3 weeks ago. That may be true but I will be surprised if she wins by 10+ and I think it is much more likely that either Obama will pull it off with a win (very small win) or she will win by 5 to 8.

It may be wishful thinking on my part, but it would be wonderful if PA went Obama and we could start "not counting" just like the Texas caucus. ;)

Don't worry about Bush returning to Texas, once the War Crime trials start I'm sure he'll flee to Argentina or possibly Brazil. Wouldn't it be funny that by consistently pissing off the world when the time comes for him to hide no country will take him in. Funny in a sad, "what have we all come to" kind of way.

[powergirl]

51. That rally last night in Philly - 35,000

should make the Clintons and McCain - oh hell, I'll just call them McClinton - tremble in fear. Those super delegates need to remember that crowd of 35,000 before they even think about handing this nomination to Clinton. Ouch!

I too, began as an Edwards supporter (in 2004 also). My dem crowd up here in Collin County split about 60/40 for Obama. My county primary and caucus went for Obama. (Our population up here is about 1 million - most are wingnuts though!). But I had many Repubs liking Obama. Because they HATE the Clintons.

I am predicting Clinton wins this by about 8%. And she will declare herself the "comeback kid." And then more superdelegates will force her to stop the show. The party needs to end.

btw - Argentina won't take him. My mom (deceased) is from there. My dad was in Argentina in March. He said the folks in South America are talking about Obama being the next president. They don't even know who McCain is!

[cooolandrew]

30. Looks like a great day out. Looks like he's still fired for PA.

[butterfly77]

31. Good pictures...

[mystieus]

36. Thank you hazel_rah for the pics.

[Zachstar]

37. Thanks for the images!! It looks like it was a great stop!!!

[panader0]

38. Didja notice how the roofing guys spilled roofing tar on the facia?

Sorry, I'm in construction. Great pics. I'm jealous of the chance to see him.

[Hazelrah]

39. Dude, I have no idea what you just said.

. . . but I totally take your word on it. ;)

Here another pic with more detail on the roof and, oh yeah of Obama too.

[hisownpetard]

40. Last picture: Crush, crush, crush!!!

Thanks so much for this post - and welcome to DU!:hi:

[Hazelrah]

41. Thanks for the love!

But I'm been here for years, lurking, reading the brilliant snark-ridden posts of others. Only recently I started overcoming my own shyness to post something besides "kick n/t".

It's funny when you see someone build up 1000+ in a few days while I've been here since 2004 and I'm only just getting to 100.

Guess some of us are just late bloomers. :blush:

:hi:

[hisownpetard]

42. Well, that just proves the point, that good things are worth waiting for.

:toast:

[mamalone]

56. Me too!

I've been here for 6 years... it took me 2 yrs before I even registered, lol... and look at me!

Love the pictures... and love your username too:)

[Adelante]

43. Here is another Paoli pic for you

[Hazelrah]

45. You were on the bridge?

Lucky! I was in the crush of people on the right side of your photo, I think you may have caught my back actually on the lower right side.

We were watching security force people off the bridge and a few speculated that it was to prevent a sniper (an actually sniper). The grandmother next to me said we need to doing anything we can to prevent another JFK.

I hate that we are all so scared about this but every time I see him talking to a crowd like this I get a little paranoid.
I should work on that.

[Adelante]

46. No, no, I wasn't there

The pic (I think) came from Obama's site. It's been making the rounds.

[Hazelrah]

47. Ahhhh, bad assumption.

Still a cool pic. :)

[Phoonzang]

48. How in the world does the Sec. Service

protect their ward in situations like that? He's completely surrounded and out in the open. I'm sorry...that's the first thing I think about when I see that picture.

[Hazelrah]

49. I know nothing about security measures but this is what they did.

Set up metal barriers around the podium. To get near the podium we had to go through metal detectors. All bags were searched. All electronic equipment (cell phones, ipods, cameras) had to be turned on and checked to make sure they were what they actually were.

Security patrolled outside and inside the barriers. There are train tracks behind the building and podium, as trains stopped each person exiting the train was met with security (and their dogs) and escorted out and around the barriers.

The bridge that goes over the train tracks (and had the vantage point shown in the earlier pic) had additional security. People were not allowed to stand there, police officers were shouting "Keep walking, No Stopping" as people walked across.

With all this, I still (and I wasn't the only one) felt scared for him.

[Phoonzang]

50. Seems like a lot of security measures but...

I wish Obama wouldn't do events like that, as much as they might help him.

[Hazelrah]

52. I'm conflicted about it.

I want him (and us) to be safe but I also want to believe that we will no longer allow others to scare us into not living our lives as we choose. By standing out there as any other candidate would, we all become fearless.

I don't want to live in fear anymore but I'm scared not to. How insane is that? What the last 8 years has done to us.

[Phoonzang]

54. I hear you..

I'm tired of constantly being afraid too. I really have a hard time remembering what it was like before this culture of fear we live in these days.

Anyway, Sen. Obama's a braver man than I am. I'd be constantly tense, thinking about possible snipers and such.

[Willo]

44. Middle-aged white guy for Obama - Cool!

aren't they like the hot-ticket items this primary?

Great pictures Hazel, thanks!

[Cha]

53. Good Shots, hazel rah!

You can see "the story" by their expressions! Thank you.

[catgirl]

55. K & R!!

[blue horseshoe]

57. Brilliant Post 24, again!! :)

Another great post. Looks like you were almost on stage too!

This post rivals the one you did from the Colbert Report.

If anyone hasn't read it, here's the link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5560343&mesg_id=5560343


Bravo!!

[Hazelrah]

58. What up, horseshoe?

Isn't it past your bedtime? ;)

[JimGinPA]

59. Great Pictures...

I heard there was a really big turnout there too.

K&R