Well, what I saw today was more or less what I expected. It appears that my impression about Obama's campaign was not wrong. Enthusiastic and pretty well organized. They had planned an event starting at 4:20 (is it just me who wonders why 4:20 instead of the routine 4:00 or 4:30?) and opening the doors at 2:15 (again).
When I walked toward Savage Hall around 3:20 to have my second round of observation on campaign rallies, I could guess that the 9,000 seat arena must have been already packed. And I knew that I had to stand in a long line with little chance to get a seat. However, I didn't have any idea that it wouldn't take me so long as Hillary's rally to get in the building (security check was not as tight as in Hillary's).
There were notices from the US Secret Service in English and Spanish on the building entrance doors informing people that "by passing this point they would consent to body and material search". Interestingly enough, the search wasn't actually done by the Secret Service (and it's not their job); rather, TSA and TPD officers would search people (and I wondered what TSA had to do in a city). I passed the security check about 4:15 but the arena was already packed and there was no way in and people had to wait in the west wing waiting area and lounge.
There was no closed circuit TV here either, but there were some accommodations and provisions. They had placed some loudspeakers so that people could at least hear what's going on in the arena. And that was not all.
I used to think of Obama as a nerd from Harvard who has somehow managed to improve his social skills to appeal to people with his charisma and eloquent words. I realized that he was not just a nerd. There was some surprise for me and the rest of the folks waiting outside the arena.
Realizing how unhappy we must have felt by failing to get a seat inside, he came to us before beginning his speech inside the arena. Actually, he gave a short speech on a small platform (that I'd not noticed before) expressing his sympathy that we couldn't get in, thanked everybody for their support and enthusiasm and then took his time to shake hand with as many people as possible before going through the backdoor. And people were ecstatic. It was impressing even for me who (as an outsider neutral observer) was not a fan. I was not so obsessed about being in the arena. I could've simply left just the way I did in Hillary's rally. But this made me stay to see more.
Also, I was curious to see how he would react to Hillary's last round of angry barrage. Hillary's campaign has been all about negative campaigning since the beginning and there's no surprise that she's losing her ground day after day. And she's known for her volatile mood and flying off the handle easily (and that provides further ammunition for Hillary-haters). But this "Shame on you Barack Obama" thing yesterday was quite a shock after all those apparently nice words just two days before, that she was "honored, absolutely honored being with Barack Obama" on Texas debate. To me, both (the artificially kind one in Texas and the genuinely angry one in Ohio) sounded like an already lost campaign. To supplement her campaign even more, she added some mockery of Obama in Rhode Island today. It reminded me of Guiliani mocking Hillary time and again. And now he's long gone (I always wondered why he ever ran for President). Anyway.
When Obama entered the arena and went on the stage (which was almost in the center, not on the side), the crowd went wild with cheers, clapping and foot stupming. And he gave his not-so-short (yet as always eloquent) spirited speech with the same composure he's kept all over his campaign. Gradually, I could find my way in the arena to have a look. And although I have very low regard for emotional election-time speeches and emotions determining people's political opinion, I couldn't help think about the hope and confidence emanating from this Harvard nerd turned into a media celebrity. And I could see how and why he's being compared so much with JFK, another young ambitious candidate who represented American Dream.
Looking at the people, I could see for myself what I had found in various statistical analyses that he's not the candidate for any certain demographic group. I could see whites and blacks, male and female, young and old. And almost all evenly represented. And I could see hope in their faces.
And now for the sidenotes and other observations. I could see people holding the Audacity of Hope and his other books hoping to have them signed by the author. And he actually did that at the end of his speech after going through a hand-shaking marathon around the arena (and at times baby holding photo-ops).
And apart from attacking Bush (which has become the usual ammunition for all candidates, Republican or Democrat), I didn't see any personal attacks or negative campaigning neither in his speech nor in various Obama stuff sold outside Savage Hall. Those stuff are not necessarily produced or promoted by a candidate's campaign. But the nature of advertising for a candidate, even if done by third parties, could give you an idea about the candidate 's fans and support base.
And right before leaving the arena, I saw something that made me think again about this media celebrity. What I saw would not had surprised me if I'd seen it in my country and in my culture. But here, it made me think that perhaps to some of his ardent supporters, he's more than a celebrity or merely a symbol of hope. While people were leaving the floor and the staff were beginning to clean up, a black kid (teenager or maybe younger) jumped on the now empty stage and snatched from the side of the podium, the bottle of water that Obama had partly drunk during his heated speech (and I doubt that Obama drinks directly from a bottle in his daily life).
But probably, Obama prefers to remain a celebrity. His campaign sold tickets for preferred seats since days before this rally. And this preferred seats happened to be on the arena floor very close to the center-stage. Still, I could see people with tickets in their hands who couldn't even get into the arena (even sitting on non-preferred seats; i.e. far upper level seats). I'm not sure how much they had paid for tickets, but nevertheless, it doesn't sound right to me. If you want contributions from people, you can ask them directly and unconditionally. Why take money from people so that they can sit close to you? Maybe I'm a little bit cynic about this, but it sounds like what lobbyists do to politicians, just on a lower popular scale. If you are going to fight lobbyists in Washington, why accustom ordinary people elsewhere to the same reprehensible practices?
And although I'm not usually carried away by emotions and celebrity-dominated atmosphere, I have to admit that I was not completely successful to maintain my neutrality and detachment here. There were many people who tried to capture photos/movies of this widely covered celebrity with their cellphones or cameras. I did not follow suit by this. But when I saw people struggling with taking their shots from above other people's head, I would lend a helping hand, holding their cameras and cellphones above my head for a few minutes so that they could get a better take of their historical moments with their celebrity.
When I walked toward Savage Hall around 3:20 to have my second round of observation on campaign rallies, I could guess that the 9,000 seat arena must have been already packed. And I knew that I had to stand in a long line with little chance to get a seat. However, I didn't have any idea that it wouldn't take me so long as Hillary's rally to get in the building (security check was not as tight as in Hillary's).
There were notices from the US Secret Service in English and Spanish on the building entrance doors informing people that "by passing this point they would consent to body and material search". Interestingly enough, the search wasn't actually done by the Secret Service (and it's not their job); rather, TSA and TPD officers would search people (and I wondered what TSA had to do in a city). I passed the security check about 4:15 but the arena was already packed and there was no way in and people had to wait in the west wing waiting area and lounge.
There was no closed circuit TV here either, but there were some accommodations and provisions. They had placed some loudspeakers so that people could at least hear what's going on in the arena. And that was not all.
I used to think of Obama as a nerd from Harvard who has somehow managed to improve his social skills to appeal to people with his charisma and eloquent words. I realized that he was not just a nerd. There was some surprise for me and the rest of the folks waiting outside the arena.
Realizing how unhappy we must have felt by failing to get a seat inside, he came to us before beginning his speech inside the arena. Actually, he gave a short speech on a small platform (that I'd not noticed before) expressing his sympathy that we couldn't get in, thanked everybody for their support and enthusiasm and then took his time to shake hand with as many people as possible before going through the backdoor. And people were ecstatic. It was impressing even for me who (as an outsider neutral observer) was not a fan. I was not so obsessed about being in the arena. I could've simply left just the way I did in Hillary's rally. But this made me stay to see more.
Also, I was curious to see how he would react to Hillary's last round of angry barrage. Hillary's campaign has been all about negative campaigning since the beginning and there's no surprise that she's losing her ground day after day. And she's known for her volatile mood and flying off the handle easily (and that provides further ammunition for Hillary-haters). But this "Shame on you Barack Obama" thing yesterday was quite a shock after all those apparently nice words just two days before, that she was "honored, absolutely honored being with Barack Obama" on Texas debate. To me, both (the artificially kind one in Texas and the genuinely angry one in Ohio) sounded like an already lost campaign. To supplement her campaign even more, she added some mockery of Obama in Rhode Island today. It reminded me of Guiliani mocking Hillary time and again. And now he's long gone (I always wondered why he ever ran for President). Anyway.
When Obama entered the arena and went on the stage (which was almost in the center, not on the side), the crowd went wild with cheers, clapping and foot stupming. And he gave his not-so-short (yet as always eloquent) spirited speech with the same composure he's kept all over his campaign. Gradually, I could find my way in the arena to have a look. And although I have very low regard for emotional election-time speeches and emotions determining people's political opinion, I couldn't help think about the hope and confidence emanating from this Harvard nerd turned into a media celebrity. And I could see how and why he's being compared so much with JFK, another young ambitious candidate who represented American Dream.
Looking at the people, I could see for myself what I had found in various statistical analyses that he's not the candidate for any certain demographic group. I could see whites and blacks, male and female, young and old. And almost all evenly represented. And I could see hope in their faces.
And now for the sidenotes and other observations. I could see people holding the Audacity of Hope and his other books hoping to have them signed by the author. And he actually did that at the end of his speech after going through a hand-shaking marathon around the arena (and at times baby holding photo-ops).
And apart from attacking Bush (which has become the usual ammunition for all candidates, Republican or Democrat), I didn't see any personal attacks or negative campaigning neither in his speech nor in various Obama stuff sold outside Savage Hall. Those stuff are not necessarily produced or promoted by a candidate's campaign. But the nature of advertising for a candidate, even if done by third parties, could give you an idea about the candidate 's fans and support base.
And right before leaving the arena, I saw something that made me think again about this media celebrity. What I saw would not had surprised me if I'd seen it in my country and in my culture. But here, it made me think that perhaps to some of his ardent supporters, he's more than a celebrity or merely a symbol of hope. While people were leaving the floor and the staff were beginning to clean up, a black kid (teenager or maybe younger) jumped on the now empty stage and snatched from the side of the podium, the bottle of water that Obama had partly drunk during his heated speech (and I doubt that Obama drinks directly from a bottle in his daily life).
But probably, Obama prefers to remain a celebrity. His campaign sold tickets for preferred seats since days before this rally. And this preferred seats happened to be on the arena floor very close to the center-stage. Still, I could see people with tickets in their hands who couldn't even get into the arena (even sitting on non-preferred seats; i.e. far upper level seats). I'm not sure how much they had paid for tickets, but nevertheless, it doesn't sound right to me. If you want contributions from people, you can ask them directly and unconditionally. Why take money from people so that they can sit close to you? Maybe I'm a little bit cynic about this, but it sounds like what lobbyists do to politicians, just on a lower popular scale. If you are going to fight lobbyists in Washington, why accustom ordinary people elsewhere to the same reprehensible practices?
And although I'm not usually carried away by emotions and celebrity-dominated atmosphere, I have to admit that I was not completely successful to maintain my neutrality and detachment here. There were many people who tried to capture photos/movies of this widely covered celebrity with their cellphones or cameras. I did not follow suit by this. But when I saw people struggling with taking their shots from above other people's head, I would lend a helping hand, holding their cameras and cellphones above my head for a few minutes so that they could get a better take of their historical moments with their celebrity.
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