I Shook John Kerry's Hand Last Night... (pics of the rally inside)

[Misunderestimator]

I have touched the hand of the next President of our country. Was a good night.

(Qualification: The pics contained herein were taken with a dinky phone camera taken reaching high over my head, so please don't judge my photographic skills by them :))

I went to the rally for Kerry/Edwards in St. Petersburg, FL last night. They hadn't expected a huge crowd since it was a last-minute decision to come there. So they booked a 2,000 capacity hall and ended up turning almost 10,000 away. I was lucky enough (and anal enough about being places on time), that I arrived at 6:15pm, with already 300 or so people waiting outside the hall. They were not due to arrive until 9:00pm. Within half an hour I could no longer see the end of the line (4-5 people wide) behind me:




Waiting outside in the 95 degree heat and sweltering humidity, I felt happier than I've felt in a crowd in my life. Lots of yellling and chanting and laughter. Across the street there were a group of about 15 or so Bush supporters protesting. A funny sight to see with their crude signs, the tired "flip flopper" phrase, or "2 Johns too many." A group of union guys crossed the street and lined up in front of them so they couldn't be seen. Thirty minutes later, police cars arrived and they were nicely escorted back. Here's the HUGE protest crowd (they are the ones behind the fence, with our people standing in front of them):




Once inside, and again, only 2,000 of us were let in, we waited another hour for them to arrive. At about 10:00, John, Teresa, John and Elizabeth came onstage... and the crowd was LOUD.

John Kerry is a truly magnificent statesmen and orator... he moved me last night, and Teresa was elegant and mannered and well-spoken. Elizabeth Edwards spoke about all her close relatives who live in Florida (where she was raised), and JOHN... WHAT A PICK FOR VP!!!! This man KNOWS how to work a crowd. I have NEVER seen a politician more comfortable on the stage. And with all his well-timed gestures and well-timed pauses and well-timed marches across the stage, it never came across as rehearsed.

All together they were up there for an hour (about halfway through taking their jackets off.. and thank god, no sweat stains on either of them). They came down to the front of the crowd at the end.

Here is John right before I made my daring leap to grab his hand:



When I left, many of the thousands that were turned away were still there. They were rewarded with their hours of waiting when they were greeted by the next President and VP and their wives outside.


And here is a pic of them at the very end of the rally from the St. Pete Times:




In this article, they say that there were about 100 protestors. For the 3 hours I stood in line, I saw only about 15-20. Maybe they gathered after happy hour, after we'd gone inside... dunno.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/07/08/Worldandnation/Thousands_from_bay_ar.shtml

After last night and feeling the energy of a crowd in an area that wasn't expected to have such a turnout... the energy of anger and frustration and sadness and new hope. We WILL have a new President this term. I can FEEL IT!