not a good day to forget the good camera..

 when one ends up being 15 feet away from the Next President of The United States at a rally in Philadelphia. 

This will have to do... Again, and as usual, the cell phone takes the pictures. I am a servant of the cell phone.

We left for the rally that started at 8:15 at 5:00 AM. Stood on line for an hour or so with the nicest people in the world and ended up a lot closer to the stage that we had any right to be. The crowd was amazing.

     Obama is a smart guy, and I will vote for him without reservation, but what really astounds me and delights me is the movement that is his campaign. The folks "on the ground" are terrific. I haven't felt anything like this in a long long time and I have been doing stuff  like this for about 40 years. It really is inspiring.  He has a lot to live up to. The hope in the faces of his supporters is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time. I've seen that look before. It hasn't ended well. But that was then, and this is not then. This is not then. 

     It certainly has been, so far, a very interesting ride. David and I always seem to end up getting all teary eyed at these events and believe me, we are two of the crankiest cynics I know. But not right now. That feeling won't last long, it never does, but right now, for two people whose political consciousness ' were formed watching the March On Washington on the TV in 1963, this feels right. 

     The Senator showed up at 8:15 and did his usual campaign " stump speech" with some mouth watering allusions to pie ( for some reason), specifically sweet potato pie, and that made us hungry so after the rally we had a lovely breakfast. But not before taking a picture of some of our  crowd mates which you see above. I don't know who they are but for about an hour they were our very good buddies . And we saw Barack Obama speak, for the first time, together. I think that means I have to send them Christmas cards and stuff. 

    We did get a look at Chris Matthews of "Hardball" fame ( MSNBC) and his hair is really scary in person . 

   Tomorrow more voter registration and then possibly, for me, an extended visit to Montgomery County, Pa.