Tuesday, May 06, 2008
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The Obama Rally, from Two Angles
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Posted by:
Mary Katharine Ham at
11:00 PM
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Reynolds Coliseum on N.C. State's campus seats 12,400 people. It did not seat that many tonight. Behold, the power of political staging:
The Obama rally, as seen on TV:
The Obama rally as seen from the other end of Reynolds:
Those tables in between my position and the rally you saw on TV are about a quarter full of milling, bored, tired reporters. The rally took up maybe a quarter of the floor space in the arena. Part of running a decent campaign is knowing how big a crowd you might have and planning accordingly so as not to embarrass yourselves with a woefully understuffed venue.
I realize it's standard practice to rope off an area of a venue for crowd-wrangling and appearances, but this is a little drastic. McCain's event at the Wait Chapel at Wake Forest today was nicely filled if not overflowing, but I imagine if he had held it at Groves Stadium and filled only the endzone seats, someone in the media might have said something about it. Obama doesn't have such worries, I guess.
I really didn't expect Obama's margin of victory tonight, even being from Durham, where I'm subject to the a high population of the ultimate in latte liberals. The urban turn-out must have been truly remarkable and a lot of it likely showed up in early voting. I would have thought the rural vote would counteract Obama's strengths much better than this.
Update: Another lovely bumper sticker, at the Obama rally:
Don't question their patriotism!
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You gotta love the phrase Latte liberal. It has alliteration and rhythm and means absolutely nothing. The pea-brains who love Bush use it when they refer to people who are actually intelligent and competent You know, different from the idiots who have run the country into the ground for the past 8 years. |
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Obama had a HUGE crowd for a primary "victory party.". You'll notice that many of these things take place in hotel conference rooms.
I remember many years ago when I organized Bush Senior's "after party" in Winston-Salem after he debated George Dukakis at WFU. We reserved the Ag center at the fairgrounds. The place was huge and we essentially closed off 95% of it, crowding people into a small roped off area, so everything would look good on TV. Bith sides do it and the media henerally respects that, unless, of course, the candidate lies about what's going on.
Now, if there truly are "crikets" that might get notice, but the Obama crowd was well sized.
You really can't compare it to McCain filling Wait chapel, a small venue with an immediate flow of students to fill it. It was day time, and accessible.
As to the "love America" sticker, it makes sense to me. America has positioned itself as standing alone int eh world. As our economy is slipping, the EU is is taking the lead in many ways. London's stick market is quickly becoming "the" place. That sticker says to me that while we love our country, we ought to consider seeing other countries too.
Saying you are the best country in the world and acting that way are two different things. We could stand to reach out a bit more. |
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Thanks for showing the two pictures. I would have never thought how few people showed-up until I saw the pictures. Never! When I watched Senator Obama's speech last night I was very focused on the crowd and ramined perplexed as well as questioning. First I thought, maybe Obama wanted all the older yuppy looking women behind him screaming with their plaster smiles...they all had good looking teeth. I live in North Carolina and I am a Democrat and throughout the campaign in North Carolina we kept hearing about all the ultra-liberal Democratic voters in the Research Triangle and maybe looks are deceiving, but I just thought...there they are! What I kept asking myself and I do it when I see both candidates at these rally's is where are rural voters and/or the people who can barely afford to live in this country? I have seen them in my medium sized North Carolina town and their teeth are not as straigt or white and they don't have the nice clothes these rally people have, and their smiles are not as happy and their eyes not as bright. |
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Thanks for showing the two pictures. I would have never thought how few people showed-up until I saw the pictures. Never! When I watched Senator Obama's speech last night I was very focused on the crowd and ramined perplexed as well as questioning. First I thought, maybe Obama wanted all the older yuppy looking women behind him screaming with their plaster smiles...they all had good looking teeth. I live in North Carolina and I am a Democrat and throughout the campaign in North Carolina we kept hearing about all the ultra-liberal Democratic voters in the Research Triangle and maybe looks are deceiving, but I just thought...there they are! What I kept asking myself and I do it when I see both candidates at these rally's is where are rural voters and/or the people who can barely afford to live in this country? I have seen them in my medium sized North Carolina town and their teeth are not as straigt or white and they don't have the nice clothes these rally people have, and their smiles are not as happy and their eyes not as bright. |
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"Apparently the redneck vote as she and amanda carpenter put it didn't come of of their shacks because of the Wright controversy."
You DO realize this was a Dem primary, right? Obama doesn't stand a hubcap's chance in Detroit of winning NC in November. |
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The bitter black gun owners came out I guess. Good for Obama.
Now, if Obama loses, will you keep your promise and move? Please? We have a great country and we'd like to rent your room. |
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"Oooo. Sour grapes, MKH?"
Maybe, but the photo is an inidcator that nothing is what it seems to be. We are at the mercy of the media. Someone should always be available to show the reality.
Thank you for the reality picture.
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"Oooo. Sour grapes, MKH?"
Maybe, but the photo is an inidcator that nothing is what it seems to be. We are at the mercy of the media. Someone should always be available to show the reality.
Thank you for the reality picture.
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Everyone knows that when that line is used, the relationship is way over. So, the point is? |
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is part of the political process, and it's edifying to see the phony reality -- thanks for sharing; it offers "truth to power," the new cliché for the 2008 run for the White House. Every time I hear a pundit (especially CNN contributors) say truth to power, I think of the stepford wives; mindless dribble for the masses. |
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I live in Charlotte, which is a blue city in a blue county (when MSNBC Nora O'Donell described it as conservative I laughed). I noticed several weeks ago that I had yet to see a single Hillary sign or bumper sticker around. I saw lots of Obama signs and lots of Ron Paul signs, but no Hillary.
Then finally, about 2 weeks before PA I saw my first Hillary sticker. Then a few yard signs began to appear, but they never became as numerous as Obama's.
Also the I think the national media overhyped the Easley endorsement. They made it sound like he would make a difference. I don't know who your Durham community views him. But I've found Gov. Easley is a non-entity. He was much more respected in 2000 when he was first elected. But if you remember, he confused a lot of people when during the months between being elected and being sworn in, he didn't pick his cabinet or make up a list of his nominees to various departments. He waited until late January to start work on that. So ever since then he's been viewed as quirky and aloof.
Easley's not hated, he's just not respected. Apart from crashing the two pace cars, which got lots of laughs around here, he's seen as aloof and disconnected. If you remember in 2004 he didn't really campaign much, he just ran TV ads and his opponent was a 39 year old Republican no one heard of.
His big issue since 2000 was pushing for a lottery, he always went to the lottery for paying for education. In his first term the lottery went no where. But he got it passed after his 2004 reelection, but now we know it was done by Jim Black through bribes and kickbacks. Also the lottery hasn't done as well as expected and Easley's legacy is as boring as his personality.
So that's may take. |
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