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Crossposted to Daily Kos.
UPDATE: Barack talks about pie:
The sun shines down over the Arch onto the crowd of 100,000 watching Barack Obama’s speech in St. Louis today.
For me, the most amazing thing about Barack’s speech in Saint Louis wasn’t or anything he said in particular, although it was a fine speech. It was the amazing crowd that had assembled to hear him speak. I’ve never seen Saint Louisans celebrate together so joyously, except maybe after a Cardinals World Series victory.
Even then, there was a sense of purpose and a spirit of unity than no sporting event could provide. The event was focused on the people in the crowd, and we knew it. Congressman Lacy Clay, Mayor Francis Slay, gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Jay Nixon, and finally Senator McCaskill spoke before Barack, but didn’t introduce him. Instead, that honor went to one of us, a high school math teacher, who talked about what was going on for him, his family, and his students, and why that lead him to support Barack Obama. When Barack spoke of job cuts and the need to bring jobs back to Missouri, a woman near me muttered “Bush cut my job and I wanted it back.” When Barack told the story of his mother fighting cancer and the insurance company at the same time, another woman near me yelled “That’s me right now!”
As for the speech itself, it was fairly boilerplate as far as policy details go, but he did have some good personal stories, including one about pie. What I liked best about the speech was his knack for weaving a sense of optimism about the future throughout the speech. When he talked about making college affordable, he repeated John McCain’s attack on him for “caving in to an interest group.” “Our youth are not an interest group – they are the future of our country!” he cried. And Obama wrapped up his speech with a passionate evocation of why we should not despair, why we should not get too bogged down in what is to the neglect of what ought to be:
We can do this. Americans have done this before. Some of us had grandparents or parents who said maybe I can’t go to college but my child can; maybe I can’t have my own business but my child can. I may have to rent, but maybe my children will have a home they can call their own. I may not have a lot of money but maybe my child will run for Senate. I might not be able to vote now but maybe someday my grandson can be president of the United States of America.
More pics below the fold.
The crowd extended all the way back to the Old Courthouse, blocks from the riverfront.
On the way in, every Metrolink car was packed with people going to the speech from every part of Saint Louis, from wealthy suburbanites in the county to the working poor in North Saint Louis. The last time I saw it this packed was when Obama spoke at the Edward Jones Dome before the February 5th primary.
If you look really hard, you can see Barack Obama standing at the podium. Ok, that’s pretty hard.
Can you see him now?
The crowd was really cheering Barack on today. The woman in the bottom right corner yelled “That’s right!” on almost every point Barack made.
Although signs were discouraged, a few enterprising folks put something together. The Republican for Obama hid his face to protect his secret political identity from his family and coworkers. The good people at the Rooster Cafe blended their marketing savvy with their progressivism for a little advertisement. It worked, too – located several blocks from the riverfront, there was an hour wait to get a table after the speech.
I looked for you 🙂
I didn’t even get in until Claire was getting ready to speak. The line was so long. Fortunately everyone was in a good mood and even the incompetence of the St. Louis Police (who totally screwed up the lines in an effort to clear LKS street for the Obama motorcade) couldn’t piss people off too much.
Once I was in it was a great rally. The pre-part? One of the worst organized events I’ve ever been to. Ever.
from my cellphone of how long the line was to get in. On the right is the casino and in the distance is the power plant at Biddle. We were in line to GET to Biddle so that we could turn around and be in a line heading the right direction.
I was seated near three teachers, all of whom had gotten on at almost the first stop on the line that morning. Two had come from St. Charles County. One was from Wentzville, the other from the Highway 94 corridor south of Highway 70. (They said they’ve been canvassing and phonebanking for Obama for about five weeks.) Anyway, that had to be a thirty minute drive to the station for them, plus the 45 minutes it took to get downtown that morning. The other woman was from the Rockwood School District, so I figure she had maybe a forty minute drive to get to the Metrolink station–plus the 45 minute ride on the train. She joined our conversation late, so I didn’t ask her whether she was a volunteer, but I’d be surprised if she wasn’t.
That train was a convivial place, full of people who’d gone to a lot of trouble to attend the rally.
I didn’t go. I was pooped from my neighborhood Wine and Cheese for Obama the night before. I’m in Jefferson County and there is alot of enthusiasm out here.It was slow to build at first because Jeffco was a solid Hillary county but it is taking off the last few weeks which are the most important in GOTV efforts.