Friday, April 4th - Adventures in Hillaryland - The Visit

Even though it is almost a week after the fact, I am finally here to document the visit that Hillary Clinton made to the west side of Indianapolis last Saturday. For someone as politically inclined as me, it is pretty amazing that this is the first time in 32 years of life I have ever attended a campaign rally, but when you take into consideration that presidential candidates have avoided Indiana like a two headed step sister for 40 years, then it really isn't all that surprising.

The event started at 10am, but the doors were opening at 8:00. Blanche and I decided we should get there at 7, after I emphatically said there was no way in hell that I was going to get there at 6. Ben Davis High School is one of the largest high schools in Indianapolis. So, I figured, even if there was a large crowd, we would still be able to get into the arena without any problems. By the time we got there, there was already a pretty long line, and unfortunately, it was very cold. However, despite the cold, it was evident that there was a lot of excitement in the crowd to see Hillary. Of course, this may have been because there were enterprising individuals walking up and down the line selling buttons and tshirts ("Get Your ICE Cold Tshirts Here!). Outside of the soccer mom behind us who insisted on talking baby talk (you okay, gorgeous) to her, at least, 6 year old, it was a pretty pleasant experience.

At 8:00, the line finally started to move inside, where we were met with what was basically a smaller form of airport security. Just as with the airport, there were some lines moving fast and others moving like a 90 year old man. I made Blanche jump lines so we could get in quicker, which was pretty funny because some other guys that were ahead of us were sill standing in line when we had our seat and I had come back out to use the restroom. As you walked in, almost every 5 feet, there were Ben Davis students trying to get you sign up to volunteer. It was great to see, but it was pretty annoying to hear it that much, especially since we were already signed up. When we entered the arena, we saw some of the volunteers that we met at the first meeting, and they let us get seats on the floor about 20 feet from the state. SWEET! All in all, we were pretty much in our seats by 8:30, which meant an hour and a half of just sitting around watching the local media make fools out of themselves interviewing some of the more crazily attired people in the audience. Oh, and I had to sit next to a pudgy 10 year old who was more concerned about filling his gaping maw than watching Hillary, and since the chairs were very close together, if he had elbowed my kidneys one more time, he would have been launched at the Secret Service.

It was 10:15 before Joe Hogsett, Indiana Chair for the Clinton Campaign, came out to start the cavalcade of introductions, and while Clinton supporters will never be the zombie chanters like the Obama folks, the excitement in the room was wonderful. It was great to see people of all ages and backgrounds standing up and cheering for Hillary. This to me was the best part of the whole thing. Since I am such a political junky, I have heard pretty much every iteration of her stump speech, and since I have seen and shook hands with her before, I was much more interested in gauging the crowd reaction. There were a lot of great questions from the crowd in the town hall portion of the event, and it just struck me again just how brilliant this woman is, which leads me to being extremely annoyed that she has not sewed this all up already. There was one gentleman who was physically shaking at the opportunity to read a letter that he head written. He was coming from the standpoint of a deeply Christian man who gets some ridicule for supporting a Democrat. He compared her to Esther from the Bible, and Hillary was obviously moved by his story. That moment was pretty much a great summation to a wonderful event.