hail to the chief!

President Obama came to Minneapolis to speak at a health care rally at the Target Center yesterday and this unashamed, lily-livered, pants-wetting liberal Democrat made the trek down to attend. Mama Shank drove up to go with and we had an incredible time; like one of those events in your life that you'll never forget. 30 years from now I can say that I saw Barack Obama speak.

It was absolutely incredible. Trying to write how it made me feel to sit with tens of thousands of people (in the most diverse crowd I've ever seen in Minnesota) and feel great together about something important would be a moot point. So I'll just try and hit on the experience.

We left my apartment around 8am (there's very few things besides the President of the United States that could get me up this early on a Saturday) and took the bus down to the Target Center. The line had to be a good half mile long (or more) and the doors opened at 9:30 for the 12:30 start. That being said, waiting in line was really enjoyable. The weather was great and, aside from the crazy, Bible-thumping zealots screaming at us at one point about who-knows-what, the crowd was in a fantastic mood. We were just there to see our President. By the time you got to the arena, it was evident just how many people had showed up. This is obviously only a small fraction of the crowd hanging around outside.
















Here's a shot of half the arena. It was packed.
















Once we got inside (about an hour and a half later) we finally got to sit down while we waited for the President to get there. When Air Force One landed at Twin Cities International they broadcast it on the jumbotron...and the crowd lost it. Here's the view of the Presidential State Car pulling away from in front of the 747. That is so cool.
















Before the President came out to speak the Secretary of Health & Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, came out to fire the crowd up. I'm a huge fan of The West Wing and, seeing a cabinet member up on stage made me nerd out a bit...or a lot.

As you can probably tell, a lot of the event was experienced--like a rock concert--through the huge television screen.

Halfway through, however, I realized that I wasn't really feeling any different than any other time I'd seen him on television. After that, I made a concerted effort to watch the tiny figure at the other side of the arena instead. That was the President right there across the room.















Click on that picture to enlarge it. It's not a great photo...but I was in the room with him--albeit with a bunch of other people--when I took it.

Towards the end he told this really funny story about why he likes to ask if people are "fired up." And you know what? That story was really funny and, luckily, I found the clip on YouTube. Around the 2-minute mark is where he starts in on that story and, whether you voted for him or not, it's pretty plain to see that he's a tremendous speaker.

Hail to the chief, indeed.

'Nuff said.

Back to work.