On the evening of August 20 I had the pleasure of seeing Barack Obama live at a local high school. When I heard, the day before, that Barack was coming to town I never imagined I’d be one of the lucky few who’d be able to score a ticket. Well, I never imagined such a thing would happen after I got over the fact that he was actually coming to town. What lottery did he lose, I wondered. LOL! Just kidding.
I got the ticket because a good friend of my boyfriend managed to secure two. Her husband didn’t want to go and she knew I wanted to, so she rang me up and invited me to tag along.
I got to the school around 4, Susie was there a little after three. When I arrived I was thunderstruck by how long the line to get in was. It ran down the front of the school and down the sidewalk out front. I figured in about an hour it would be curving around the school’s property. Since Susie had gotten there so early I got to walk to the near front of the line and wait with her.
The mood of everyone there was upbeat and excited. A few McCain supporters were passing out documents comparing the two candidates…which is to be expected. Not long after I arrived, the door opened and people were 
allowed in.
There was about an hour and a half wait once we were inside, and I couldn’t complain about that. Many people who hadn’t gotten there as early as us weren’t allowed in because the gym was full. When Barack arrived, however, he spent time outside with them.
A funny thing about that evening was how whenever the announcer introduced a speaker, everyone thought that speaker was going to be Obama. Everyone would leap to his/her feet and start cheering, only to be deflated when someone else’s name was announced. It was funny and sort of sad for those who were announced, but they didn’t seem to mind. There was an overall feeling of celebration in the air.
When Barack took to the stage the audience went crazy. With rolled up sleeves and an empty platform he walked and talked with everyone. He spoke for about 40 or 50 minutes then had a 25 minute question period after that. He covered topics like the economy, saying that at the end of President Clinton’s term per family income had risen $6000 but at the end of President Bush’s term people are making $1000 less than they were at the end of Clinton’s term. He reiterated how similar Bush and McCain’s economic and foreign policies are and stated what he would do to make college more affordable for people.
All in all it was a great night. I’m so grateful to Susie for taking me.
September 1st, 2008 at 5:09 am
Glad you had a great time seeing Obama.
What about Extreme? I want pics!
September 1st, 2008 at 5:11 am
My Extreme pictures came out awful!!! I’m so disappointed. I’ll just have to try again.