Barack Obama in Seattle Feb 8th, 2008

A group of us boarded the Monorail en route to the Seattle Center to hear and hopefully see Barack Obama. By the time we arrived at Key Arena around 12:30 there were large crowds gathered outside, an obvious sign that the event was at capacity. In fact, they had started turning people away by 10:30 AM. We originally gathered around the entrance, where we could hear the music playing inside and see the small TVs, but soon realized there was something going on to our left. Police and ’suits’ were mingling and talking on their radios and blackberries, police were moving barricades and blocking off areas, and a green Suburban was conspicuously parked in the middle of it all. We moved over in that direction, as close as we could get to the barricades. Within minutes the secret service and police officers began to scramble and cheers rang out as Obama came down and greeted the crowd. He was handed a bullhorn and gave an electrifying 3 minute speech that had the crowd in a frenzy. He touched upon battling global warming, ending the Iraq war, and improving our educational system and how his success so far stems from the power of “bottoms-up” political organizing. His presence, manner, leadership and the response of the huge crowd was truly inspiring.

The focus then turned indoors as the Mayor of Seattle Greg Nickels, Congressman Adam Smith and Governor Chris Gregoire, who earlier in the day endorsed Barack, introduced him. Thankfully, the sound was projected outside through speakers and we began to listen and watch the small 20″ TV monitors through the windows. Barack gave an extended version of the 3 minute speech we had just heard outside. He said that his campaign had brought in not only Democrats, but also Independents and Republicans, which he knew because he has had several people shake his hand at rallies and whisper to him- “I am a Republican.” He talked about all of the major issues and the crowd, indoors and out, was cheering throughout. It was inspirational to see so many people come out and in many cases stand outside on a cold February day to see this. As we walked back to the Monorail we saw that the food court of the Seattle Center was also full of people crowded around a TV to watch the speech. 20,000 people attended.

Duration : 0:3:12


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