Obamania

This weekend I spent a good deal of time outdoors and Oregon was unseasonable hot. For all my Texas chums, they will scoff at me, 2 days of 100 degree weather and another 2 days in the 80s. I must admit, I was sweltering, and I still am. And the raccoon eyes sunburn on my face, neck and shoulders doesn't help. Most of this sunburn came from the Obama Rally on Sunday.

I met a group of friends in NW in the late morning and we headed off on foot to Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown. Much sooner than I expected we found the end of the line, which was about 25 blocks long. And we waited and moved very slowly through downtown Portland telling inquiring passer-bys every few minutes, "We're waiting for Barack Obama", for about 2 and a half hours. The starting time of the rally was nearing ever closer and we still hadn't made it to the waterfront park and were starting to get a little nervous that all this waiting had been for naught. But, we arrive at the park about 10 minutes before Obama came on stage to find this crowd:
Final head count was about 75,000. And, although I'm not the most politically active person, and his speech wasn't the most awe-inspiring of all time (I could almost recite the next line in my head half the time) it was a pretty awesome experience to be amongst so many people who were there with a common cause (the most laid back crowd and three hour line I have ever seen) and to be seeing the person who might just be the next President with a little luck. God, I hope so...