ALAN: It is rare indeed when anyone witnesses meaningful history. Yet today Lauren and I were present for what may be a transfomative moment in the history of our nation. We spent much of the day today volunteering at the Obama rally in Newport News, and were rewarded with a chance to see, up close and personal, the next president of the United States, in what could be the decisive state in this election. The overwhelming nature of this experience cannot be overstated.
We were quite lucky to even be at the event as volunteers. On Thursday Liz Emanuel, the youth vote director in Virginia who was our first contact with the campaign when we arrived here, called and told us that the campaign had decided on late notice to do an event in Newport News. She wanted to know if we wanted to volunteer at the event. Our answer was an immediate "yes"! Liz gave us the name and cell # of Victoria, the field coordinator for Newport News; I called her from Charlottesville, told her we were ready to work the event, and left my cell #.
We knew that Obama would be speaking at 12:30 p.m. and that the event would be overrun with people. With that in mind, we arrived in Newport News at about 8:45, found on-street parking and worked our way through what looked like about a five-block long line of people and hunted down somone with a staff badge. To make a long story very short, we ultimately found Victoria, who knew about us and our journey and gave us volunteer badges. By about 9:30 we were through security and inside Victory Landing Park! But we had work to do; our task was to direct the crowd to the appropriate places where they could stand. We did this for a while, then rumors circulated that volunteers wouldn't be able to get up close to see the senator. At that point self-interest kicked in and we decided to blend in with the crowd as opposed to doing our job. But just as we positioned ourselves for a view of the podium, the volunteer coordinator told us that if we stood "guard" in the aisle between the barriers holding back the crowd, we might be able get a better vantage point. We took him up on the offer and "patroled" the aisle, making sure that people didn't jump the barriers. It was a civilized crowd and fortunaterly our skills weren't needed.
At about 12:15, some 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the speech, we decided to make our move toward a better viewing angle. We found it inside the press tent, about 150 feet from the podium. That's where camped out for the remainder of the event. We had a side view of Obama but were close enough for our satisfaction.
And then there was the crowd. I estimated it to be about 70 percent African-American. As I looked over this sea of smiling, energetic supporters, I kept thinking that for many of these people, the Obama campaign represents a gravitational force that has pulled them into politics for the first time. In talking with so many people at the event, it was obvious that they felt that Obama understood their problems--finding affordable health care (or health care at all), being able to pay for their children to attend college, as examples--even if he hadn't necessarily endured those same problems as a child. When I told people that we had come from Massachusetts to volunteer for the campaign, to a person they were quite appreciative of our efforts; two women even gave us hugs.
One moment in the pre-speech festivities stood out. Music played over the loudspeakers continuously during the event. At one point the song, "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" by Teddy Pendergrass came on. I remember this song as dating back to the late 1970s. When this song was played, you could hear people singing loudly in unison: "Ain't no stoppin us now, we're on the move....ain't no stoppin' us now, we got the groove." In those moments, where I saw people spontaneously line dancing, I saw faces of empowerment, of people who, for perhaps the first time in their lives (and many of these folks looked to be in their 50s or older), felt a connection to the process.
Barack came on at about 1:05, about 35 minutes behind schedule. He spoke for about 50 minutes, exclusively about health care. The speech was packed with substance. He laid out the case for health care reform, reeling off the changes he envisions and how he plans to pay for them. Some would even say the speech was too wonkish, with an excess of policy and too little of the traditonal rhetoric. What impressed me is that he made his arguments like a lawyer would at a trial. I foresee a great deal of difficulty in getting some of his proposed reforms passed by Congress, if only because the drug companies and insurers will try to lobby it to death. But the effort needs to be made anyway, and perhaps his and Biden's experience and relationships on the Hill will allow them to do what Bill Clinton couldn't do some 15 years ago.
The crowd was not as raucous as I had expected it to be, but was nonetheless enthusiastic and passionate. Obama is a master orator. His style isn't "preachy" as I had supposed it to be, but rather is more scholarly with a folksy twist. Although I've read stories of people crying and fainting at prior speeches, I saw none of that here.
It was over by 2 p.m. He worked the crowd for about 20 minutes but went the opposite direction from where we were. On the way out someone pointed to Obama's political strategy director, David Axelrod, who was standing about 20 feet away. I walked up, introduced Lauren and I, told him we were from Boston and had been in the state for a few days volunteering. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," he replied. After telling him that his strategy so far has been brilliant, I urged him to consider having the senator place more emphasis on change as the product of a partnership between government, people and their communities. For example, it would be perfectly to acceptable to say that investments in education work most effectively when parents themselves are invested in their children's education.
For Lauren, it was a day she'll never forget. I don't know that she could comprehend the scale and, to a lesser extent, the content and meaning of the event, but she sure was enthusiastic. The experience of sharing the moment is a memory that will last a lifetime.
And now I come full circle, back to history. This is totally unscientific, but what I saw today bodes well for an Obama victory in Virginia, the first for a Democrat here since 1964. The combination of a huge increase in the number of registered voters in the state, along with the "enfranchisement" of hundreds of thousands of previously disaffected voters, is a powerful 1-2 punch. My only regret is that I won't be here on election day to see it through.
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