OBAMA AT JMU

[Jone Brunelle]

I woke up this morning around seven and took the bus to the convocation center here at James Madison University. All three of my classes had been canceled for the event, but other students weren't as lucky. Bonnie and I joined the line, sitting on a purple blanket that served as a very thin barrier between ourselves and the frigid sidewalk--today was one of the coldest, windiest days we've had so far this season, and I spent it balled up in my coat waiting to hear Obama speak. Well worth it! The line grew longer and thicker over the hours, even ahead of me, so I didn't feel bad letting my friends jump in. By 3:15, we were a mob outside the doors. I was embarrassed at the litter people had left behind in their efforts to get ahead, especially since half of us held green pieces of cloth to to show our support for the environment. We went through metal detectors and got the wand treatment. My friend Curtis was told he had to leave because he had a swiss army knife on his keychain--he hadn't even thought about that. "No! He's been waiting for six hours!" his girlfriend protested. He took the knife off and passed it back to the crowd, requesting they pass it back and toss it somewhere on the ground by the doors. Unsurprisingly, it was gone when he went back to look for it later. We were in early enough to choose whether we wanted to sit in seats or stand on the floor in front of the podium. Nestling our way into the floor crowd, we threw our coats into a pile on the floor, finally free from the oppressive cold. Tim Kane and Mark Warner spoke briefly, and once the convo center was packed to its limit, Obama walked out to a crowd-gone-wild. It was like seeing your favorite cartoon pop out of a comic book (Oh my God, he IS real!). The place was full of students, kids, and adults from in and out of town. I thought Obama was well-spoken, inspirational, witty, (speech writers or improv? who knows), and overall a very likeable intelligent guy. He can definitely rile up a crowd. I will check youtube to see if there are any videos from his speech.
When we left, I found out that a lot of people who had been waiting in line as early as ten o'clock didn't get in (the convo center only holds a little over 7,000 people). Apparently Obama gave a very brief speech to them outside before the rally. I'm glad I actually got to go in, even though it required hours of braving the weather. On the way out, two guys with a camera asked if they could pose a couple of questions. Chris and I agreed, and they asked two extremely long, verbose opinion questions about the speech. In my exhaustion, I answered something that was probably unintelligible. I don't know what it was for.

Now I'm defrosting in my bed.

(look for pics on my flickr account, on the main page)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmCKur2U-U8 (pre-rally outside, for those who didn't get in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DWqU1GOiVc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLyNzEYa3qU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugjThUOeQas