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We promised our supervisor, Bryan, that if he canceled work for us last night we'd all go see Obama speak.
And we did.
But earlier in the day another came to answer some questions: Chelsea Clinton.
The main floor of Pearson's Hall was already pretty full when Allison and I sat down at 1 PM. By 1:45 it was packed. A music mix was pumped through the speakers and we joked, was it Hillary's iPod? The athletes in front of us sang along with the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does It Magic" and the Smash Mouth cover of "Believer".
Though Chelsea was supposed to speak at 2 she didn't manage to get the microphone until after 2:30 because Tammy Baldwin, the representative for Beloit's district, was speaking of her long friendship with Hillary.
Chelsea answered our questions for an hour; everything from college tuition to the Iraq War. She told us exactly where her mother plans to fund all of these changes. She wasn't inspiring in the same way Obama was but she told us factually what would happen. She was humble about every question directed toward her and handled questions by the opposition with grace
On the walk back to my dorm I spotted the first of the Obama supporters. It was nearly 4 PM and they had been outside the Sports Center for nearly 2 hours. They would be there another hour before the doors were opened and they were allowed to stand in line.
Some email checking and dinner later and I bundled up with my camera, iPod and homework to see Obama. A few friends had gone over at 6 but I waited until 7. I quickly found Katie, Nicole and Allison in line and we stood/sat/leaned for the next hour and a half in line in the Field House.
We zig-zagged our way back and forth and they pushed the line tighter and tighter together. At 8 PM security opened and groups of 15 or so were let through and upstairs. Just after 9 PM we made it into the Flood Arena where we met up with Beth who had been volunteering for 4 hours.
The Beloit Memorial High Pep band was playing and the crowd was antsy. They continued to pack us in close, panning cameras over the cheering crowd on the floor and in the stands [we were on the floor].
Obama was to speak at 10 and we started counting down while singing to the music pumped through the speakers. A local singer sang a song by Rob Tamaro, a music professor, and some local coordinators pumped us up.
Amazingly, he started early!
He spoke for about 45 minutes of hope, change and the opposition. He roused the crowd and got huge cheers. Obama was about inspiration and hope.
Luckily, I managed to get one video before my camera’s memory card filled and the batteries died.
Over all it was really cool to see both of them speak; each was different.
++Images are MINE!++
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