Jeff attends a political rally and gets burned

I remember my AP History teacher told our class that our best chances of ever seeing a US president or someone who would become president is when they are campaigning to become president. It was with this thought in mind that I decided to attend a speech by Barack Obama, who had accepted an invitation to speak from the Arizona State University undergraduate student government last Friday, October 19. He was supposed to speak at 10 AM in a large common area right next to the building I work in.

I got on campus around 9:45 and there was already a huge line just to get into the area they had fenced off for the speech. I quickly find out that he's not speaking at 10 AM, he's running late and they're only letting people in at 10 AM. So I stand in line for about 20 minutes before I get into the fenced offed area. Some guy walks up with a form to volunteer for the Obama campaign. He made it sound like you had to fill it out to get in, but I didn't buy that. I didn't come to volunteer, just more out of curiosity's sake. I take the form, but give it to some kid behind me who entered the line late. They searched my bag before letting me in. I see a lot of anti-Bush t-shirts while I'm waiting in line.

Once inside I find a place to stand off to the left of the stage. I didn't go up to the front, thinking I would just hang out back. A few minutes later, I was near the front compared to where the crowd of people ended. I saw more Barack Obama shirts and quite a few Ron Paul supporters. There were even quite a few people from the community (non-students) there. I stood near a couple that drove 2.5 hours from Flagstaff just to attend. There was some music playing and a lot of people. However, I keep looking at my watch and it's getting later and later and we still haven't seen Obama. Two guys in suits approach the mike and one holds up a sign that reads, "Who wants a T-shirt?" and they start throwing out t-shirts. This causes some yelling and cheering, but I just thought, "We don't want you're stinkin' t-shirts. We want to hear Obama." Some people around me vocalized the same thought. This happens a couple times. It's getting close to 10:45 AM, so I've been standing for about an hour now, and it was getting hot. It got into the 90s on Friday.

Finally, someone comes and starts talking on the mike. It's a local radio host that gave some money to the Obama campaign, so they let her emcee the event. She starts introducing some locally-elected officials, and the crowd is obviously disappointed at this. After all, we came to hear Obama and not these people. They kind of set the mood for the Obama by bashing the current administration and praising Obama. They are all very confident that he will win the election because they used language such as, "I am pleased to support the next president of the United States," and, "when Barack Obama takes office...." The undergraduate student body president spoke as well. She didn't say much of anything political, just that we need to be involved in the political process. At the end of he speech she tried to lead us in this ridiculous chant that nobody obviously wanted to take part in.

At long last, Barack Obama takes the stage. It's about 11:15 now, a full 75 minutes later than I thought he was going to be speaking. He continues in the mood established by the previous speakers by bashing the current administration. He calls Dick Cheney the "black sheep of the family." (Since it was revealed this week that he and Dick Cheney are 8th cousins.) He laughed at himself when he mispronounced "Tempe," (the crowd let him know immediately) blaming it on his Chicago accent/upbringing. His main campaign promises were to bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, guarantee health care for every American, reduce the cost of higher education, and make it easier to legally immigrate to the US. He only spoke about immigration when someone from the crowd yelled something about it. The only time he kind of tripped up was when he spoke on immigration. He addressed his critics' arguments that he lacks experience by explaining that he's been involved in politics for 20 years, mostly in Illinois where he worked with both parties to get a lot of things done. He claims his relative short time in Washington is actually a benefit because he hasn't grown cynical and lost idealism like many, apparently, in Washington have. One thing he said that I liked was that he not going to say just what people want or expect him to say, but rather always give his own opinion. A major theme of his speech is that he wants to fundamentally change the way Washington works. However, in my opinion, he was quick to give promises, but wasn't specific on the details of how it could/would be done.

So, Barack Obama spoke for about 45 minutes. You can find his entire speech (and the riduculous chant) on youtube, just search for "Barack Obama ASU." I think in the end most everybody was satisfied. It was fun to take part in this. I've never been to a rally before. I'm not convinced Barack Obama (or anyone for that matter) is the best candidate for president, but it was good to go and see what his campaign is all about.

Now, for the burn part.

So, if you've kept count of the time I spent at this event, you'll know that it was close to two (2) hours that I spent standing in the sun. I was not expecting or prepared for this. Seeing that it was a Friday, I donned my normal Friday garb, a Hawaiian shirt. Well, the sun and the Hawaiian shirt left a nice, red inverted triangle burn on my chest, coupled with brighter-than-normal rosy red cheeks. It looks kind of like the Superman crest. Except I don't feel so "super" about it. I didn't even notice it until Michelle started laughing at me later that day when she noticed it. Here are some pics for you to chuckle at: