Obama Biden Rally (Adv. Journ. & Med. Gov. )

On Saturday, August 23, 2008, nearly 35,000 people were a part of history in the making as Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama, shared the staged with his newly announced running mate, Joe Biden in Springfield, Illinois. And to be one of the thousands of people in the sweltering crowd that stood for hours to see these two together was a wonderful experience. It is certainly something that I will remember for a lifetime.
It wasn’t only Obama’s and Biden’s speeches that made me feel good about where America could be headed (and what our country could become under them); it was also the little things I saw in my four hour wait that bolstered my once-shaky faith in our society. In a word, I saw pure, unadulterated decency. People around me shared food, water and ice with one another. Everyone was making sure that women and children were okay. I felt that most people were genuinely concerned with the well-being of those around them. A really tall man standing next to me even lifted me up into the air so that I could see Senator Obama when he appeared in front of the crowd. These are the people that, along with Obama and Biden, can be a changing and positive force for our nation.
The set-up of the event was actually very organized, reminding me of my departing flight from Heathrow International Airport last winter. Volunteers gave directions to the crowd before they entered the security checks, which led to less hold-ups going through the metal detectors. Inside the event, the biggest problem, however, was the lack of water for a crowd that waited in 80 degree heat for hours on end. With secret service not allowing bottled water in the area, event coordinators didn’t plan well for the combination of not enough water, too many people, including infants and toddlers, and a high of 88 degrees.
In regards to coverage of the event, the State Journal Register offered readers many different angles of the event in its August 24th issue. They not only covered the event itself and the speeches, the SJ-R wrote pieces covering the problems that arose, such as their not being enough water and people needing medical attention. Also, they featured different members of the crowd and their thoughts on the events as well as a brief bit about the competing Blues and BBQ festival. And the SJ-R even featured an article against the Obama-Biden campaign with quotes from U.S. Rep Shimkus. Overall, I think the State Journal Register did a very good job of covering all of the bases when it came to covering such a historical, yet local, event.
Other articles I found, however, spent less space covering the event itself and more space covering what Biden brings to the Obama campaign. An article in The New York Times talked about the process that Obama went through in choosing his running mate. I found that article to be interesting because I had never known about how that worked. I thought it was a little different and slightly more interesting than some other articles I found. Other articles I found came from The Guardian, The London Times and CNN.com. Mainly these articles either analyzed what Biden brings to the table or began to play off of Biden previous remarks of Obama’s inexperience. They also threw back and forth the pros and cons of the Obama-Biden team and whether or not the team will succeed in winning the White House.
In conclusion, I am very pleased about what I saw on Saturday, both on stage and in the crowd. What happened that afternoon gives me hope – hope in people, hope for our country, and hope for change.