A good friend of mine who I met through the blogging world had the hook-ups and asked if I would be interested in going. I've never seen a current president speak before, so I was in. (I saw President Carter when I was a student at UCI).
After an hour and half in rainy traffic, I found the first parking structure and parked. I spent a good hour or so running around trying to find where I was supposed to go since most of the student volunteers didn't know squat. I had two a blue ticket, which denoted I would stand closer to the stage than those who had green or yellow tickets. According to this story, 37,500 people came out to see him.
The organization of the event was shit, and I thought to myself, "What. The. Fuck. Today was supposed to be a good day."
I waited 2 hours in a line just to get in. People were cutting and a volunteer told me to get into another line but didnt direct me to which one so I returned to the first line behind some more people, blah blah blah. It was utter ridiculousness.
I finally got into the park, passing through the intense secret service security check point. I was literally right in front. I shimmied over to a good spot and were entirely satisfied to how close we got, despite being one of the last groups to get in.
The rally was like a freaking concert.
The Trojan band performed, a chorus sang a pretty bad song to everyone, Lady D's favorite band came on (forgot the name), the dude from Harold and Kumar came out to speak, Jamie Fox was playing host, Barbara Boxer, Jerry Brown, and a few student speakers also shared some words....
I must say that I was very impressed with all of the rally's speakers. Each one of them, even the student speakers, were articulate and spoke with enthusiam and energy. Jamie Fox was hilarious. He kept filming the audience and commenting that he was posting on Twitter.
When President Obama came out, the cheers got louder and every single camera and phone shot up into the air. Being there and seeing him live was incredible. You couldn't help but smile the entire time he spoke.
The message of course was to go out and vote Democrat. Nothing was over the top, and even the Rabbi who led a prayer was great. At first I was uncomfortable cause I hate it when religion mixes with politics, but the Rabbi did a wonderful and neutral job that didn't make me feel like an awkward turtle.
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| Paparazzi. |
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| President O |
4 comments:
Ozomatli (that's also what she said?) :-P
Nice post tho!
Had to be a cool experience. I got to see Pres. George H.W. Bush once, but remember very little about it.
That said, I've gotta say I'd be a lot happier if Obama stuck to doing his job, which should NOT include rolling into L.A. with his entourage, spending taxpayers' money to stump for fellow Democrats. I'd have a problem with any president doing that.
I love the "we're going through hell in this line but I'm going to sit here and take a picture anyway" picture. Sounds like a shitty day but FUCKING WORTH IT!! Luuucky.
Mike: Thanks!
Josh: I agree, but it was still cool seeing him.
Jamie: HA! I know right. Very worth it.
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