Here at Obama rally ready to roll!

[crispini]

I'll post pix at my flickr stream.

Flickr.com/photos/crispini

[Justyce]

1. How early did you show up and was it already packed?

[crispini]

2. here at about 7:30

line is already long, looks like 1000 in line already

Reunion holds 16,000 so come on down!

[crispini]

3. there is an entire school here! nt

[derby378]

4. Waaah!

ginbarn and I can't make it, but I'm sure you'll find a bunch of other DUers there. Represent! :toast:

[Subdivisions]

5. Are you inside yet? I'm over in Cleburne and I'm thinking about

dropping everything and coming over there. What's the latest you would advise? Has the line grown much?

What time is he scheduled to speak?

[crispini]

7. how far are you?

the line is looooooooooong now. Big crowd. He goes on at 12. Come find us if you come! I'll pm you my cell. Doors open at 10:30 so really soon now!

[Subdivisions]

8. Do you think I'll get in? It'll be 11:30 before I can get there. n/t

[crispini]

12. I dunno

its kind of a madhouse here - I can't see the end of the line and I have no idea how many ppl are here

Also I am sure traffic will be nuts

Check some of the Dallas news sites

[Subdivisions]

13. No time. I'm on my way. n/t

[crispini]

19. Did you make it?

[Subdivisions]

21. Yes, I made it, but barely. It's was an amazing

experience. I had a cool experience and then a bad one then a cool one again. I had positioned myself where I could get a better picture of Obama and as I was listening to his speech I began looking around. The crowd was amazing and Reunion was packed to the rafters.

As I was looking around I realized that I was standing squarely in the middle of sevaral Dallas city councilpersons. That's was the sorta cool part because I was familiar with most of them including Al Lipscomb. And I got to meet and speak for a moment with former Mayor Kirk.

The bad experience was two-fold. First, I missed my best opportunity for good pics as Obama was working the crowd after when the batteries gave up on my camera. So, I had to switch to my cellphone as Obama got closer to me. I knew he would get within arms length of me because I was standing right beside Lipscomb. But as he got closer, I aimed my cellphone at him and right at that moment, the crowd behind me surged to try to get pics or a handshake and caused me to lose my balance and I lost me best chance at a good close up pic as well as my opportunity to shake hands with the senator.

Afterwards, I was walking back to my truck when I realized my route had taken me to the motorcade exit from the arena. So, figuring traffic was bad, I decided to wait and watch the motorcade depart. As his vehicle passed, he looked right at me and waved. That was the second cool thing.

I thought Emmitt Smith's introduction was very cool and he fired the crowd up. Mayor Kirk spoke eloquently as well. The only way it could have been a better experience for me is if hadn't already heard most of his speech. But, overall, a very cool experience.


Lipscomb was standing beside me when I took this pic. By the time Obama was shaking Limpscomb's hand, I was being pushed from behind by a surging crowd that was trying to get closer to him.


Obama speaking.


The turnout in perspective.


A shot of the turnout.

[crispini]

23. Great! Sounds like you had a great spot!

Awesome pic!

It's pretty fun to be in the middle of it for once.

[Subdivisions]

24. I was adding more pics as you posted. Yes, it was cool actually

being there instead of watching on teevee. What kinds of conversations did you happen to pick up while you were there? I kept hearing people expressing amazement in the turnout. Some spoke of hope. A man near me was telling his wife that this was the second best moment of his life after marrying her. Lots of cool stuff happened. It was fun.

[Blue_Roses]

17. they're airing it live here:

http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?nvid=57424&live=yes

I've already posted my 3 thread limit today, so if anyone wants to put this in GD: P feel free;)

[Blue_Roses]

6. I'm thinking of coming

wish I could meet up with some of you.

[crispini]

9. His motorcade just got here!

and they just gave us tickets.

[crispini]

10. they're working the line telling everyone about the precinct convention

I'm revising my estimate of attendees at my precinct to 80 or 100.

[WolverineDG]

11. I bow in your general direction

I wish he was coming here! :cry:

dg

[crispini]

14. maybe he will

this is nuts!

[sonias]

15. thanks for the live blogging crispini

You rock!

:yourock:


Sonia

[crispini]

16. You're welcome!

this is quite the event!

More crowd pix soon

[CoolOnion]

22. Great pics! Thanks for posting them!

[crispini]

18. on the floor! nt

[CoolOnion]

20. We got in!

We parked at Lake Cliff Park and walked across the bridge from Oak Cliff. We started out around 10:15 and made it to Reunion Arena by 10:30. We thought we could just walk from the bridge down one of those orange stairways to Reunion Arena, but were directed by a police officer into the parking garage across the street, where we spent the next hour or so in line! Thousands of people came in after we did, including Will Pryor & family, who I saw briefly through the myriad snaking lines. We waved and he flashed the peace sign, and I eventually lost sight of them as we hustled through the lines.

At last, we reached the "final stretch," which included funneling the line single-file between a concrete pylon and a metal pole!

We finally got to the main entrance, where volunteers urged us to "hurry up." Yeah, right. I wanted to tell them to manage the parking garage, 'cause that's where the "clog" was, but I didn't, I just walked as fast as I could (they told us "no running") to the entrance, and we got into the building around 12:45. They had assured us in line that Obama had posponed his speech until 1:00, to accomodate the crowd still being seated.

When we got in, the only seats available were 'way up at the top! We got there just as Ron Kirk was finishing up his speech, and heard Emmitt Smith. Then--OBAMA! It was thrilling.

During Obama's nearly 50-minute speech, more people filtered in, and eventually, nearly every seat was filled.

On the news, I saw that some people didn't get in, and were trying to see in through the doors. There were pedestrian & car traffic jams downtown--even people who didn't get into the rally made big difference yesterday, and showed everybody how many grassroots Democrats there are in Dallas!