OBAMA IN DALLAS 02/20/2008
Obama was in Dallas today. I went to go see him. I did not go to hear his message, I've heard it before. I went to take my friends and to see the Dallas reaction. The crowds were amazing.
I did not expect such a huge mob of people. Parking was incredibly frustrating. I saw an old beatup Ford pickup parked next to a brand new Bentley Continental. The venue was inadequate for the event. Reunion Arena was configured for maximum seating for just under 20,000 people with large standing room only arrangements next to the stage. The place packed shortly after people were allowed to enter.
It was impressive to see so many people. The young and old alike were there. You saw the suits and next to the blue jeans. The crowd looked representative of Dallas with all races in attendance. Were it not for my two young friends convincing a young lady to let us in line I would have been left behind with the overflow crowd. The people in front of me in line were an older couple and wow were they pissed at George. They appeared to be people of money from their clothes and the baubles the lady adorned herself with. Behind me were two gorgeous young ladies of color (they let us cut in line). They spoke multiple languages, were very friendly and laughed a lot.
Security seemed light. I didn't notice anyone older than 20 handling the crowd and saw no weapons. Plenty of dangerous cameras abound however. There were media trucks parked along one side of the building with satellite dishes. I was not frisked nor handled unfortunately. The only scary part was when we got closer to the building and the lines collapsed into a rush of people who were desperate to get their Obama on. They would wait no longer. I was swept in with them luckily.
We waited for a short while as the arena quickly filled. It was a party or pre-game type atmosphere. The wave went around many times. Signs were handed out but they were quick to run out. I was seated half way up the lower deck about 150 feet from the podium. Unfortunately, I had left my long lens at the house so I was not able to get good close ups of Barack.
Former Mayor Ron Kirk opened. He introduced Emit Smith who is still very popular around here. Everyone teased him about his ballet again. Obama appeared up shortly after that. He did a very near facsimile of the speech he did in Houston yesterday. I left just before the Yes We Can's broke out. I wanted to stay but could not afford the hours it would take crawling back from Egypt in traffic. We were glad we left a bit early. The doors burst open and the mob was back on the street as we headed out!
The last slide above is another parking garage of people who would replace us for his "overflow" speech. I saw many happy faces. The only boo's Barack got was when he said he would retire George and send him back to Dallas.
Based on the reaction Barack got, I recommend George reconsider. He ain't much liked here it turns out.
