Continue below the fold as I talk about the excitement for Obama and his message by various people at the event. I highly recommend reading the whole thing because I believe each interview I conducted helped to illustrate a new reason why Barack Obama needs to be elected the next president of the United States.
There are always long lines waiting to get into Obama rallies, but this was absolutely amazing. In weather that never made it above 50 degrees, there were rumors that some people had camped out overnight in order to get a good spot for Obama's appearance. While I couldn't confirm these reports I did speak to several students who had arrived bright and early in the morning. One group, for instance, had arrived at 6am and hadn't brought much besides their coats and enthusiasm for Obama. By about 2pm they became so hungry that they had a friend deliver a pizza to their spot in line.
There were also many students who knew they could expect a long wait and brought their books with them so that they could study for tests that they had coming up. A math major told me that she had taken a test that morning, had a take home quiz due the next morning, and had another exam worth 25% of her grade that she needed to study for. When I asked her why she had brought her books out to the rally instead of studying in the peace and quiet of her dorm room, she said that it was "a once in a lifetime opportunity" to be a small part of this historic election and she simply couldn't miss it. One of her friends chimed in and said that most professors understood that this was a very unique opportunity. Some professors canceled class for the day and others sent out emails saying they understood if students were absent but would be responsible for making up the work they missed.
A group of nursing majors told me that they were excited about having the opportunity to see Obama in person. As their major suggests, they are extremely interested in health care policy. They are supporting Obama because he truly wants to help improve our health care system and promotes policy such as making sure preexisting conditions are covered. As a real world example of why having preexisting conditions covered is important, one of them pointed out that many students are on their parents plan. If they are dealing with any long term illness, it could be difficult to have it covered once they graduate and are no longer covered by their parents' plan.
With a crowd of 12,000 inside the arena and about another 10,000 watching at other locations on campus, there were obviously many people in attendance who weren't students at JMU. I spoke to an older couple who had come out to hear Obama speak, for example, because they wanted to be able to hear Obama's plans directly from him and not from the pundits. They stressed that they were supporting Obama because his policies would help those on Main Street and not just Wall Street. After I asked them a few more questions I found out that they had come directly from John Hopkins where the husband had been received treatment for the cancer he is currently fighting. In my humble opinion, I thought this was truly inspirational. Here was a man who was going through an extremely tough time in his own life, but he wanted to come down to Harrisonburg to show his support for Obama and be a part of history.
Obama's speech hit on several themes that he's discussed throughout the campaign but focused on his economic plan. While the McCain campaign has been launching dirty attacks in recent days Obama talked about how he wanted to make sure that everyone in the country has an opportunity to succeed if they are willing to put in the hard work.
In this country, if you try you should be willing to make it. That's how we create not just more millionaires, that's how we create the middle-class that has been the foundation of our society, of our culture. That's how we make sure that businesses have customers that can actually afford their products and their services. That's how we've always grown the American economy - from the bottom-up.This speech gave many people in the crowd a reminder of the inspiring message that Obama has been promoting. A message that focuses on the need to restore faith in the government both at home and abroad and truly return power to the people instead of just the special interests in Washington. As she hoped to get an opportunity to shake Obama's hand after the end of the event, one woman told me that she was moved to tears by his speech.
The four hours worth of driving (two hours each way) was definitely worth it because it gave me yet another reminder of what this campaign is all about - "change we can believe in." I'll be posting even more commentary of my interviews and more of the photos I took like the one above, so keep checking back.
Thanks from this Virginia voter living in Japan.