Keith and I went to Barack Obama's presidential campaign rally in Oakland last weekend (on St. Patrick's Day). I met Senator Hillary Clinton while she was visiting some executives at work a week earlier, so I thought it only fair to meet her competitor. Unfortunately Keith and I didn't exactly get to meet Obama. We were in the middle of a crowd of 12,000 people that gathered to hear him speak. The red dot in the picture below shows where we were in the crowd.
Most of the time I couldn't see the stage because I am a foot shorter than the guy that was standing in front of me. And when he wasn't in the way there was a lightpole blocking my view. The good news is that the crowd shifted a bit once he started his speech and I was able to see him through a tiny gap in the crowd for most of his speech. Keith was able to see pretty well and got some good pictures. Here are a few:
The rally was in front of Oakland City Hall. It was *so* crowded!
This is a shot of the crowd behind the stage and podium. Obama made his entrance through the middle of this crowd.
This was Keith's view of the stage. Obama gave a great speech and the crowd loved him. I've never been to anything like this before. It was a good moment for me as a registered voter. It made me feel connected to my country and happy to be able to participate in a public expression of democracy.
