MissJean
December 10th, 2007, 01:16 PM
I went to the Obama & Oprah event at the Verizon Center in Manchester yesterday.
Over the past year or so I've read a number of articles on Obama and was intrigued. So earlier this fall when I was out on a road ride (bike content ;) ) and saw the sign for the local HQ, I road over and walked in, helmet, spandex and all, to see what there was to see. Fast forward a couple months - when they offered me some tickets to the event I said sure! why not.
Now, personally I love that every 4 years the circus rolls through NH. It's always so interesting to get a glimpse of the system at work. To listen to the candidates; to watch the press, who usually seemed sooo bored; to watch the young volunteers, who are always so pumped up; to watch the secret service, who all look alike; and to look at all the crazy activists for fringe causes.
So, last night I & 3 others went up to Manchester. We had to stand for about 30 min in a huge, long line in the cold. At one point a huge Hummer limo pulled up and let a bunch of people out. The Anti Global Warming activists came over stood near by and waved their signs a bit.
There was surprisingly little security when we were finally let in.
The arena was only about 2/3rds full, but because the press cameras were facing the stage, they made sure that all the seats behind and around the stage were full and those people all had signs. If you ever want to be interviewed by the press at one of these events, sit in the front row, and try to be a woman or a minority.
To huge applause, Michelle Obama came out and spoke. She was impressive, personable, and obviously a very smart lady.
She introduced Oprah, who came out to a deafening roar. She gave a thoughtful & engaging speech explaining why she decided to "step out of her box" (tv) and help the campaign.
She then introduced Obama, who came out to a very loud, but not deafening, roar. The first thing I noticed was he was relaxed and very at ease. He made some jokes about being the distant cousin of Dick Chaney. He spoke for sometime, was thoughtful & engaging too, touching on all the major issues, but not going into a lot of detail, more just keeping with the theme of change. The crowd was very responsive, applauding & cheering and occasionally shouting out. The loudest, longest response was to the statement that Bush administration is finally almost over.
I'm glad I went but I don't know if he swayed the other 3 people :) We'll see.
Over the past year or so I've read a number of articles on Obama and was intrigued. So earlier this fall when I was out on a road ride (bike content ;) ) and saw the sign for the local HQ, I road over and walked in, helmet, spandex and all, to see what there was to see. Fast forward a couple months - when they offered me some tickets to the event I said sure! why not.
Now, personally I love that every 4 years the circus rolls through NH. It's always so interesting to get a glimpse of the system at work. To listen to the candidates; to watch the press, who usually seemed sooo bored; to watch the young volunteers, who are always so pumped up; to watch the secret service, who all look alike; and to look at all the crazy activists for fringe causes.
So, last night I & 3 others went up to Manchester. We had to stand for about 30 min in a huge, long line in the cold. At one point a huge Hummer limo pulled up and let a bunch of people out. The Anti Global Warming activists came over stood near by and waved their signs a bit.
There was surprisingly little security when we were finally let in.
The arena was only about 2/3rds full, but because the press cameras were facing the stage, they made sure that all the seats behind and around the stage were full and those people all had signs. If you ever want to be interviewed by the press at one of these events, sit in the front row, and try to be a woman or a minority.
To huge applause, Michelle Obama came out and spoke. She was impressive, personable, and obviously a very smart lady.
She introduced Oprah, who came out to a deafening roar. She gave a thoughtful & engaging speech explaining why she decided to "step out of her box" (tv) and help the campaign.
She then introduced Obama, who came out to a very loud, but not deafening, roar. The first thing I noticed was he was relaxed and very at ease. He made some jokes about being the distant cousin of Dick Chaney. He spoke for sometime, was thoughtful & engaging too, touching on all the major issues, but not going into a lot of detail, more just keeping with the theme of change. The crowd was very responsive, applauding & cheering and occasionally shouting out. The loudest, longest response was to the statement that Bush administration is finally almost over.
I'm glad I went but I don't know if he swayed the other 3 people :) We'll see.