We attended Obama's rally in Newport News. The lines were long and it was hot, but we got through security with few delays and heard Glenn Nye (Democratic Candidate for VA 2nd House District) and Bobby Scott (D-VA-03) warm up the crowd. Obama was relaxed, and extremely detailed in his presentation of his healthcare proposal. If you've heard anyone say that Obama's calls for change aren't specific enough--that's moose hockey.
He took apart McCain's radical "healthcare" plan piece by fraudulent piece, pointing out that taxing healthcare benefits provided by employers would mean millions of Americans would lose the healthcare coverage they have now. The tax credit McCain proposes, Obama said, would not even provide half of the money a family would need to buy a policy on their own. The crowd responded heartily with shouts of "that ain't right!" as Obama ticked off the problems with McCain's proposal.
The Virginian-Pilot quotes "officials" as estimating the crowd at 18,000. That's pretty conservative. We would estimate 20,000+, since the line extended from the park on 23rd Street 5 blocks along that street and wound around to 29th Street. It was 4 to 10 people wide at most points. We couldn't see much of the stage from as far back as we were as you can see from the middle picture above. We saw Barack's face twice and the top of his head several times.
The only small "downer" of the day was a street preacher with a helper holding a megaphone loudly hatefully haranguing the line to "repent" for trying to see Obama (bottom photo). To their credit, people on line treated him kindly as he slandered the savior he claims to serve.
In the crowd, people shared water, helped people sit on the grass if the heat got to them, and were otherwise very considerate of each other. A very tall man in front of us was helping people by taking pictures with their cameras. Then, he noticed a little girl--maybe age 5 or 6--beside him and her father asked if she could get on the man's shoulders so she could see Obama. The tall man swung the girl up on his shoulders and pointed out Obama. Then he said, "Baby, remember this moment. Remember this moment for the rest of your life. That man up there is going to be the next President of the United States, and you got to see him." She said, "yes, sir" she would remember.
Think about it. That little girl won't live in the same America we know. She'll have a new reality to live in, where someone who looks like her can be President, and it's just accepted as a perfectly normal occurrence. What a day!
First photo above from Daily Press. More photos here.
I think you're right that there were more than 18,000 people.
It was a great day. About killed my feet and back lugging case after case of bottled water. Folks in the crowd would take the water and pass it back to people who needed it. People were really good to each other, just like Barack wants folks to be. I was really proud of everybody there.
GObama!