In some diaries tonight I have stated that I was at the Town Hall in those comments. And I was, with my Grandma, a friend, my Mom and my Brother (though my Mom and Brother were on the other side of the stadium ). It was amazing.
Today at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, Obama held a Town Hall Meeting with a speech at the beginning. The line was about 200-300 feet long 30 minutes before doors opened (an hour and 45 minutes before he himself started to speak). I am pretty sure that many of you do not know how big Robinson is, well it is huge. It is 19th largest High School in the nation. If Obama used all the bleachers he would fill up approximately 7,000 seats, excluding a few hundred chairs for VIP people (lucky elected people). But, with what was used, the crowd couldn't be more than 4,000 people there, and that is my lowest guess. He gave out 4,000 tickets in less than 12 hours. That is very good marketing. I was lucky because my brother and sister had camps in the gym and got kicked out because they were preparing security, so we got a head start.
The speech was wonderful! It was the first time I saw Obama speak live. He touched on all the IMPORTANT family issues, such as high gas and food prices, low pay for women and how that that lowers the overall family income. He talked about raising Minimum Wage yearly and payed Maternity leave in his speech. He also talked about Sick leave, seven days required. He also talked about Michele having to balance work and family, and quote "looking pretty good while doing it." He also talked about McCain and how he said that his oil plan would only be a psychological benefit. The speech was terrific.
But the best part was the Questions. Though I wasn't able to ask a question I liked it very much. There were two questions that I would like to address. First one was the FISA bill. A man who said he was an attorney for a whistle blower group said that he was disappointed in Obama's support for the Filibuster. And Obama said his usual 'I wouldn't have drafted it this way, nor is it perfect' speech. But then I listened. He said that it has some very good things to it. And I realized that Obama thought that Bush would veto anything more progressive, so instead of losing all of those things, we could keep what we get and demand more later. The other question that I liked was a question about National debt. He said he would use pay-as-you-go. He touched on many things, like getting out of Iraq and stopping corporate loopholes. He said that to get out a hole you have to stop digging. And he addressed many other things. So, if anyone argues that Obama is bad at townhall meetings, show them this diary.
Then he left the stage, and headed into the waving hands to shake as many as possible. By the time he got to me (I was on the edge) I got squeezed out of my spot. But I got my book signed. WARNING: When getting a book signed be prepared to wait ten or fifteen minutes, a SS dude picks it up and brings it to Obama to sign.