This certainly may be a case of faulty objectivity on my part, but given the wildly huge numbers forecasted for tonight's Obama shindig at UNM, don't you think the Journal is slightly underplaying this event? Outside of the above, and another brief mention of how much parking is going to suck for the blue hairs going to the Popejoy show tonight, that's it.Obama in Albuquerque: Gates open at 7 p.m. for Barack Obama's rally at the University of New Mexico's Johnson Field. Tickets are not required, but an online RSVP at www.NM.barackobama.com is "strongly encouraged" by the campaign. Comedian George Lopez and Gov. Bill Richardson will start things off. Parking for the Obama rally tonight might be difficult, in part because of a symphony concert at nearby Popejoy Hall. UNM is urging Obama rally attendees to park in its T, M and Q lots or at University Stadium — though it is not offering shuttle service. The Obama campaign urged rally-goers to carpool or use public transportation.
-from "McCain, Obama Focus on N.M.", Jeff Jones, Albuquerque Journal, 10/25/08
- We're talking thousands and thousands of people, folks.
- We're talking most probably at least two typical Lobo football crowds of folks engulfing the SE corner of the UNM campus.
- We're talking George Lopez.
- We're talking sizable numbers of folks milling up Central throughout Nob Hill.
- We're talking about the outdoor seating at Kelly's being assimilated into the huge circle emanating from Johnson Field.
- We're talking folks trying to decide whether to park at Marquette and Carlisle, or Silver and University.
- We're talking about UNM parking lot Q, R and Z, and we have no idea what the Hell "parking lot Q" means.
- We're talking Bill Richardson, even though nobody really cares about Bill Richardson at this point.
- We're talking Saturday night at the cultural epicenter of our little town as the site of a combined Mardi Gras, Halloween carving party, political rally and mega-State Fair gone ballistic, people watching freak show.
- And we're talking Obama, Barack Obama, who not only looks like the next President of the United States, but better bring his Franklin Delano Roosevelt A-Game from Day One starting January 20th or we're gonna be in even worse shape that the crazy bad condition our current condition is in.
Objectivity or no, tonight's show has to be about more than crappy parking.
P.S.: Hope to see some of you there (even me, anti-social dude, has about 457 different friends/acquaintances I'm scheduled to run into). Let's treat it as the first in a series of ecstatically happy Bush Administration, New Orleans Jazz Funeral shindigs. I'll bring the big bass drum, you bring an umbrella.
7 comments:
I don't know what you look like, so you should say hi to me if you see me-- I have unnatural red hair and will probably be wearing a BoingBoing hoodie and a cape.
It'll be interesting to have a 'child' of the 60's Radicals assume the Oval Office in January...
All the 60's Social Radical/Activists are smiling proudly these days...
fun...fun...fun
I expected more from the evening news coverage as well.
I made many new friends last night. It was surprising how friendly and polite the crowd was and how easy it was to strike up a conversation with just about anyone.
I was struck by the diversity of the crowd and how everyone seemed to come together, politely, clearly in unity.
Maybe there really is hope...
i only had to walk six blocks to be there. I was in line about two hours, and more hours waiting. (And I just CELEBRATED 7 decades on this earth, so my feet were not happy with me.) But, what the hey!! Just to hear that young whipper-snapper talk was worth it. (He's the age of my son.) And yes, so many people to talk to! I met a couple with child who drove from Phoenix to be there (with her aunt, from the Gallup area).
The diversity of people! A small group playing cards while they waited: a Hispanic, an African-American, an Asian, all teenagers, with a Caucasian woman. A couple with two SE Asian children. People of all kinds!
As we talked, we agreed that it was nice to have an EDUCATED person running for president.
Maybe a new era for my grandchildren and my sons. Maybe a realization that naked greed is not the best value, that all people on earth are valuable. Maybe. But we have to help, not just now, but in the years to come.
In five years of living mere blocks from UNM this was easily the loudest event I've witnessed there. All evening we could hear a Charlie Brown like voice go:
"waah-wah-wah-waah-wahh"
then "rooooaaaar"
then "waaah-wah-wah-wah-waaahhh"
then "rooooaaar"
At least, that's what we heard until heading over to a Pumpkin Carving Kegger.
My favorite video of the Obama event:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86942391@N00/2977781899/
Let's try that video link one more time.
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