Finally a kindly stranger, seeing me wandering about aimlessly, clued me in that it was a block over:
Oh, yeah, this must be the place.
That pic was taken from the Capitol steps, looking toward the City and County Building, just in front of which the stage was set up. In other words, there were lots of people. The Post:
More in a sec. Let me wedge some pics in.Standing in front of more than 100,000 supporters in Civic Center park, Barack Obama said today he is ready for the final nine days of the presidential campaign and vowed to stay focused on improving the country's faltering economy.
"Do you ever have small crowds in Denver?" Obama asked the crowd, which shouted back "NO!"Civic Center park holds 34,000, and there were several thousand more in the streets surrounding the park and on the steps of the state Capitol.
Obama pin.
Framed letter signed by Obama thanking Obama-pin seller for sending Obama a pin.
Obama bling. No thank-you letter.
The Estate of Charles M. Schultz for Obama.
Obama Sound College t-shirt.
The speakers before the main attraction appeared roughly in their order up the food chain (I'm missing a few, but they were little people): Denver mayor Chickenpooper, former Denver mayor and Obama campaign biggie Federico Pena (I'll dig up a tilde later), Rep. Diana DeGette, Gov. Ritter, and Senate candidate Mark Udall. None said anything interesting.
First up, though, were the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star-Spangled Banner, both included no doubt to prove to the rest of America that Democrats really aren't (all) communists. Unfortunately, the guy leading the P of A got it wrong. He said, "And to the NATION for which it stands . . . "
Thus: communist. The woman who sang the anthem gave it the decreed-by-law gospel-blues-squeal treatment. Whitney stinkin' Houston, I hate you. At least this one sang the right anthem.
More pics:
Well, I'm the one I'VE been waiting for, anyway. Give us a kiss.
One follows the other totally by coinkidink.
More entrepreneurship:
More shirts:
Drummer. He stood right next to the (single open) entrance to the Park with his goddamn bongo. Totally captive audience, really bad drummer: OOOOOOhhhhhhhh-Ohohbama! (Cudda-thunk cudda thunk cudda thunk cudda thunk). OOOOOOOHhhhhhh-Ohohbama (cudda-thunk cudda-thunk cudda thunk cudda thunk) . . .
Some gink tried to smuggle a camp chair through the metal detectors. The TSA was wise to the ploy, and he was tasered and subdued. (Kidding, I think.)
Obama was only about half an hour late. He spoke well, but didn't say a whole lot (where have I heard that before?). Actually what struck me was what struck many about his speech at Invesco a couple of months ago: it was a letdown for a crowd that had really cranked itself up. Barack's rhetoric seemed just a little deflationary. More Post quotage:
"It's true that I want to roll back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans and go back to the rate they paid under Bill Clinton," Obama said. "John McCain calls that socialism.Oddly, the Post left out the part right after he said "98 percent of small business owners" where he added, "and 99.9 percent of plumbers"--a dig, of course, at you-know-who.
"So let me be crystal clear: If you make less than a quarter of a million dollars a year — which includes 98 percent of small business owners — you won't see your taxes increase one single dime. Not your payroll taxes, not your income taxes, not your capital gains taxes — nothing. That is my commitment to you."
More pics:
Sound it out.
The Post doesn't mention it, but Obama also talked about placing a three-month moratorium on foreclosures. Maybe that's new. At least, I hadn't heard mention of it before (which means nothing, of course).
Relaxed: No armor, no crap cannon, no feces bombs, no "Fucking do it again!™."
Note "ha-ha"s. By then I was gettin' a little grungy myself.
Oh! Yes We Can.
Not ten, not twelve. Yes, that's Jimmy Carter lower right. Did you know he's been attack-rabbit-free for almost 30 years now?
What is this "wack" of which the smirky young man's undershirt speaks?
Update II: The Post also has a local version of those "can we overcome our racism and vote for Obama?" stories. Apparently we can:
Late one afternoon, Roy Loeks rushed into the Obama campaign office in a Castle Rock strip mall and signed up to volunteer.That's a news story. Incredible.
In Republican-leaning Douglas County, it's easy to assume this Franktown retiree — with his steel-gray hair, plaid flannel jacket and denim jeans — might be less than thrilled at the prospect of a black Democrat as president.
But he's proof that looks can deceive.
"He could be one of America's great presidents," he said of Barack Obama.
Like Loeks, Americans are not always what they appear to be. They may say one thing and think another, hold deep-seated prejudices they themselves don't quite understand — or they could surprise themselves and rise above race entirely.
Update III: El Marco has his inimitable pics up. Can't believe I missed the Bush Whacker.
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