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Getting up at six is hardly new to me, I get up three or four regularly for the job I do (inventorying Walmarts) but today was hard, after a week of getting up early. However, I managed to pull through somehow, and damn, was it worth it. I picked up my girlfriend at her house around six thirty and we drove around New Hampshire, ending up getting completely lost because her GPS was lost too, ironically.
Eventually, with the help of some awesome locals, we arrived at beautiful Mount Sunapee Resort, where the campaign would be providing shuttles to Unity. Shuttles because Unity is such a small town (1600 people) that there would be no room for parking. Shuttles came from Twin State Speedway in Claremont NH and Sunapee Resort.
All pictures were taken by my girlfriend, an aspiring (and I think talented) amateur photographer. =)
Here is the line for the bus, we were about halfway through, arriving an hour early:
Here is my girlfriend Michelle on the left, and me on the right, wearing a sticker from Jeanne Saheen's campaign, andour breakfast, chex mix.
The buses arrived early, and we had to wait a while, discussing with the absolutely hilarious bus driver about the rising cost of gas and food. He was a previous warveteran. He spends almost $125 a day on gas to drive students to school. Eventually, we ended up getting to Unity NH. We waited in the MASSIVE line for about ten minutes, expecting to be in the huge mass of people staring up at the podium. However, we got lucky.
Amazingly lucky.
Out of all the people there we were selected to sit behind the Senators!! My girlfriend was ecstatic, andI was pretty happy as well.
Here are the bracelets they gave us to let us into the back area:
Here is the NATIONAL news media directly across from us-we ended upon all the news channels for an hour and a half, which is insane. Right over Clinton's shoulders and right behind Obama:
It took awhile for everyone to file in, so we discussed politics and Obama with some people sitting nearby. One Woman had driven ten hours from Canada to be here. One man had just so happened to volunteer for the campaign a week ago, and was happy to work here today. An African American woman was very happy that this event was taking Place. She had voted for Clinton in the primaries, but loved Obama as well, so this was an amazing event for her.
There was a Clinton supporter carrying around a sign saying "The Democratic Party is a House Divided," upsetting some people. I watched her carefully during the speeches, and afterwards she tore up the sign and asked where to volunteer.
Here is an artistic photo of one of the stands before they started to fill up:
Eventually, congress-critters Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter came and spoke. Hodes gave a small speech, consisting mostly of asking the crowd "Can we change, do etc...." and having the crowd respond enthusiastically "Yes we can!" He hit a lot of positive and optimistic notes, and gavea great introduction to Shea-Porter.
Shea-Porter spoke about How Hillary had opened the door for so many woman, noting that she was so happy that these historic primaries had taken place, and noting that Obama would need more Democrats in Congress to help change Washington as she introduced Jeanne Shaheen.
Jeanne Shaheen came up and talked to the crowd about how the primaries shad affected her, especially as a woman and as a teacher of one of the first-ever integrated schools in the Country. (Mississippi.) She also made the note that her and Michelle Obama had talked about how Obama would need more Democrats in Washington. Her supporters managed to get a lot of help for her at this event, a great job was done by all, signing up volunteers.
She invited John Lynch up to the stage, who gave a short speech asking the crowd if they were ready for a president who actually respected us, would help restore America, etc. He would ask these questions then receive enthusiastic applause. A funny moment occurred when he Started asking the third or fourth question "Are you ready for a president..." and someone screamed out "YES!" Funny, but it gets to the heart of the matter that the Current shame in the White House shoulden't count as a president. He was selected, not elected.
NH Politicians: John Lynch in the blue shirt, Shea Porter next to him, and Paul Hodes next to her, waving. Random peeps in the background:
Saheen coming up to the stage, and speaking
Lynch on stage:
Some pics of the crowd waiting. It's nothing like the Oregon Rally, but it's a huge rally for New Hampshire, and extremely important for the Democratic Party:
Finally, the 'honory mayor' of Unity, because they don't have a real mayor, came to the stage and gave a hilarious speech, being completely surprised by the crowd dwarfing his town. It was a humble and powerful speech (one of my favorite) introducing Clinton and Obama.
Finally the Main event came. I cannot put into words how good I felt Clinton's speech was. It was one of her finest moments. I had times when I got angry at her in the primaries, but I always felt like she was really on our side. I will leave it up to finer commentators to describe her eloquence, but she made me tear up more than once. I still don't support a joint ticket, but I feel like she has finally redeemed herself.
Her speech, including the hilarious line of
In the end, Senator McCain and President Bush are like two sides of the same coin and it doesn't amount to a whole lot of change.
was great, hitting all the right notes. She bashed McCain, encouraged her supporters to get behind Obama, Rethug-bashing, and she encouraged building the Democratic Party like never before.
Obama's speech was nothing special to me, as I have heard the general gist of it repeatedly, it was a standard pep talk/big rally speech, but the was grateful and graceful, noting that Clinton had opened up the field for his daughters and many others. It was a good speech overall, but the event was more about them coming together as Democrats and Americans.
Pics below:
They both walk in:
On Stage together:
HRC and the Crowd:
HRC Smiling:
Obama smiling back at up at some commentator:
Pics of people there:
Them on stage:
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