Donuts And Politics

Toshia and I went down to VanAndel around 4:45 yesterday. There were hundreds of people in two pretty long lines wrapping around to the back of the arena. I read that some people were there at 9am this morning! Nonetheless, we really didn’t have to wait to long. I congratulate the security people on their speed and effectiveness. About 30 minutes later we went in and found some pretty good seats directly in front of the podium set up. Of course we were in the 2nd deck, but still, directly facing Obama. So we waited awhile. Its great to see the people at the event. We talked to an elderly African-American woman from GR next to us and a middle-aged white woman who had driven in from Lansing. In front of us were a couple Hispanics and there were youth and children and all kinds of people there. By about 5:45 Van Andel arena was PACKED FULL.

Yes that’s right, in downtown GR, heart of conservative West Michigan, over 15,000 people came out to see Obama, and man did we get a treat! I had read on the internets earlier a rumor that Edwards might be endorsing Obama tonight, but I didn’t feel I could get that lucky. But the lady next to us got a text and told us he was coming! SO exciting!

It was supposed to start at 7:00 but it started suddenly at 6:30. A worker from the Lear plant came out and introduced himself and said some nice words about Obama. He left and then 5 minutes later an announcement came on to welcome Obama! Out he came and the place WENT CRAZY. It was electric in there! So hard to describe. Think of the Lions winning the Super Bowl or something like that. Obama gets up and says he felt guilty about not being in Michigan for a few months and that he wanted to do something special for us. Then he said he brought a friend and out came JOHN EDWARDS! Now the whole place was going completely bonkers!! I think everyone in there knew how special that was and how important an endorsement it was and what it meant for Obama’s campaign. Phew! Can’t handle all this excitement!

Edwards talked about Clinton for a few minutes (the crowd booed at first) and then about how Obama shared his passion to cut poverty in half in 10 years I think it was. Obama got up to speak and the crowd roared again! Chanting O-ba-ma and Yes We Can! Now, we went and saw him speak in Toledo a few months ago and it wasn’t as great. Maybe cause I had heard his stump speech a hundred times already or he was tired or something. But today his speech was new and really hit on issues important to workers and Michigan and it was a dandy.

Well worth it and I hope he comes back soon! We did have to give up our umbrella to get inside and never recovered it, but a small price to pay. I’ll try to get the video up this weekend and you can really see how loud and crazy that place was.