Barack Obama came to Great Valley High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, today. The school is just down the hill from me, so I got some media credentials and showed up early. There were only about twenty people in line an hour before the doors opened, but people queued up quickly as the event grew nearer.
A cadre of Obama volunteers starting working the line, getting commitment cards and signing up phone bankers and door knockers.
The Deadheads for Obama were represented. If you look carefully you’ll see that the guy has a copy of the Audacity of Hope in his right hand. He later was privileged to ask Obama a question about restoring our reputation in the world, and about the crises in Darfur and Tibet. (Also, that’s me in the background).
The event was held in the school gymnasium, which holds about 1,500 people. I’m sure he could have filled an arena three or four times as large, but it’s the best this community can provide. Two hundred and seventy-six high school students were able to attend, but 30-40 kids were turned away for lack of space. The whole middle and high school student body was able to watch the event on close-circuit television, however.
The high school assistant principal was milling about. Interestingly, the school got this gig because a political science class wrote letters to all three campaigns. Only Obama’s campaign responded.
Former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford was in attendance with his son Dan and grandson Andrew. Obama was pleased to wish him a happy 82nd birthday. I actually had a nice conversation with Sen. Wofford two weeks ago at Obama’s West Chester headquarters. He recognized me and gave me the thumbs up right before this three-generational Wofford picture was taken.
Obama was running about an hour late, so the crowd had to entertain itself for a while. If you look closely at the right-edge, you’ll see CabinBoytheElder and CabinBoytheYounger.
Here’s a look around the room as it looked just before Obama took the stage.
Obama came out looking like a thousand bucks.
And he gave a strong speech.
But by the time it got deep into Q&A time, CabinBoytheElder’s mind was wandering.
I think this is a cute picture of Barack. But it does look like he should be more concerned about the flesh-eating zombies that are right behind him.
Interestingly, there is 40 member-strong Students for Obama group, and a Students for Democrats and Students for Republicans group. But there are no student groups for either John McCain or Hillary Clinton. All the students in the gym will be old enough to vote in November.
Obama had to cut things a little short to make up for lost time and skip over to Levittown in Bucks County. If you missed it, there was a GREAT article on the challenges Obama faces in Levittown in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. He’s going into the belly of the beast with that event. But here, in Chester County, there is nothing but Obamamania. Although, someone did steal my Obama yard sign two nights ago. Witnesses reported a shady figure leaving the scene in a pantsuit…she appeared to be ducking sniper fire.
