I wish this were a report from the field, but as the morning turned out, it is merely a report from the neighborhood... The neighborhood in Eau Claire, WI where Senator Obama appeared this afternoon at 1 p.m. to speak to an enthusiastic crowd of 3,500. Sounds like a small number? Well, it's not. Follow me over the fold...
(Thank you accupajo for the link to the speech: WQOW-TV **Click on the red projector above Obama's head to watch**)
Senator Obama came to the campus of UW-Eau Claire this afternoon as part of his Wisconsin tour. I live one block from Zorn arena where he appeared. The doors opened at 11 a.m., but we had the entire street parked up by 7 a.m., which is not normal for a Saturday. We were going to stroll the twins over to go see him, but this being their birthday week, I decided not to be a selfish mommy and risk getting them sick. We've got mad flu going on around here.
People were lining up at 6 a.m., so it is no surprise the arena filled up almost immediately. It's capacity was a max of 3,500 - we don't really have any bigger gathering places in Eau Claire. But at least 1,000 people remained gathered outside the arena to listen on the speakers. Now, had this been two days ago, that would be a feat of some stoicism. But as it was today, it was at least 20 degrees, which is flip-flop weather in Wisconsin.
He slightly mispronounced our Chancellor's name, but who wouldn't? Levin-Stankevich. The speech was wonderful - the regular stump speech, but with what I thought was a greater emphasis on both education and the environment. The tv commentators described the crowd as wild, but it was a little hard to tell by the rather limited camera work. Because, yes, even though he was a mere block away, I was watching on tv.
My twins were ecstatic though. Never getting to watch tv, they enthusiastically rushed the screen, shouting, I think, "Bah! Bahma!" When they crowd applauded, they slapped the screen.
Several people in the audience were sporting Eaubama '08 t-shirts. Just the kind of cleverness you expect to see come out of the frigid north. Obama spotted one and said "I have to get one of those!"