Deep Romantic Boy: Obama Rally

I went to the Obama rally in Phoenix last night (scroll down for pictures). According to the Arizona Republic, there were more than 13,000 people in attendance. I got there early and volunteered as an usher.

About 15 minutes before he arrived they invited all the volunteers down onto the floor in between the stage you see in the pictures and the raised platform in front of the stage which is not pictured. He spoke from the raised platform, so I had a great view!

And, I got to shake his hand and Caroline Kennedy's hand as they left (this is cool, although it is only a person and only a hand shake and I am not a huge, "oh my god, he shook my hand" kind of person. But, it was still cool =)

His speech was, of course, amazing! Three lines struck me: one, he said something to the effect of, "It isn't right that we have people who work in America and are poor. If you work in America you should not be poor!" I could not agree more!

Then, he said, "It isn't right when a corporation ships jobs overseas and the CEO gets a golden parachute and makes thousands of times what a worker does and the CEO is the one getting a tax break from the administration, not the worker!" Amen, amen, amen!

Finally, in defense of his agenda of Hope, he said, "I know it will be hard to change, I know it will be difficult to battle against special interests* and entrenched Washington, but hope provides the vision to get there. JFK didn't look at the moon and say, 'It's too far to get there, we shouldn't even try', he had hope and hope inspires change!"
*He hasn't taken any money from corporations or lobbyists and he rightly points out that HRC has taken lots and lots of money from Health Insurance lobbyists and then claims she is going to change health care in America. How can she change the system to which she is beholdent through their lobbying dollars?
And, he believes change happens from the bottom up, not the top down...he believes in America and he believes in the market. But, he rightly, in my opinion, believes it is not a fair market and that corporations and the wealthy have a much stronger hand in bettering their lives than do poor or middle class Americans. He simply wants to level the playing field.

I encourage you all to vote for Obama in your Democratic party primaries. If you have specific policy concerns, please email or call me. Those who say Obama can't lead on day one don't know his depth of policy knowledge and I would be willing to have that conversation with anyone.

And, as Obama said last night, "It's not enough to be ready on Day One, you have to be right on Day One!"

BTW, here is a link to a story about a Hispanic radio host in CA who had Ted Kennedy on air today endorsing Obama. According to the article this radio host is very influential with Hispanics in CA and this endorsement could help Obama - nice!

Click on images to view larger version

The stadium when I arrived