In a desperate attempt to feed my addiction of all things political, and after being robbed of a Dover Obama fix Friday, I dragged my kids and my eager 17-year old nephew to Manchester on Saturday morning with the HOPE of catching Barack Obama at the downtown rally. I wanted to see and hear the push-back" against the McCain campaign to prove to myself that dems aren't always wooses (is that even a word?)
Gates opened at 8:30am, we weren't able to head west until 10ish, but the "program" was scheduled to begin at 10:30am. In campaign speak, that usually means that the headliner will be on about an hour later. So we hit Elm Street at 11am, and as we were driving BY Veteran's Park, we heard Obama's voice booming over the loud speaker. WHAT? On schedule?? How can that be??
I parked the minivan in downtown Manch-Vegas and unloaded everyone, and we briskly walked back toward the venue. Just as we had one more street to cross, the throngs started heading toward us. Gobs of them. All leaving just as we were arriving.
We swam against the current enough to check out the goods being hawked, and to see the signs, t-shirts, and buttons of all the lucky and happy on-time people. At the gate, we were told by uniformed and surprisingly chatty secret service agents that we couldn't go in the park (I wanted to show my nephew the set), and that they estimated 10,000 in the crowd. I didn't do any fact checking, but all news accounts I saw later just said, "a crowd of thousands." Apparently, crowd sizes are a touchy subject lately.
I managed to buy an Obama t-shirt from one vendor, and a deck of Presidential Cards from another. The cards are to complement my Dean Deck obtained free at a 2004 debate at UNH. For this new deck, Bush isn't the only Joker. McCain is one, too.
My nephew did a good job of hiding his disappointment, and the kids were rewarded with lunch at Chuck E. Cheese. Mommy/Auntie, however, still needs her fix.
