What a night! While Liberty and I hashed out the finer points of Barack's speech over dinner, one thing was clear: the setting was pretty unbelievable (for reasons we'll get into soon.) Wading through the mile-long line to the Mile High Stadium, we scored front and center seats — so front and center, we were right under the Oprah, Kanye, Angela Basset, Gayle King, Forrest Whittaker suite.
Shawn Johnson leading the pledge and Jennifer Hudson singing the national anthem was just the beginning. From Sheryl Crow to Stevie Wonder, to Will.i.am and John Legend, the stage was a parade of stars before Barack even thought about taking the stage. I'm telling you, when Oprah showed up, the screams from the crowd? I thought someone had died, or worse. The weather was like bathwater, and was a perfect stage for the speeches — the real main event — that we'll get into very soon, because we sure didn't see eye-to-eye on this one. In the meantime, take a peek at who else took in the view tonight.
To see Will.i.am and John Legend's performance of "Yes We Can," read more.
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Shudoo
Vanessa Bruno
Karen Walker
This can't be helping his "I'm-not-an-egotistical-wannabe-rockstar" claims.
1the speech was such a bore
2amazing night!
3I was blown away by his speech!!!!
4The whole thing seemed surreal to me, it was like watching a movie.... it was very odd IMO.
5can we move on from the rockstar narrative? please? aside from jealousy, and fear, why tamp down the honest excitement of voters? why does appreciating a candidate like barack obama automatically make you a starstruck fool? you could just as easily argue that voters in 2004 chose bush a second time around because they were homophobics, bigots, gun nuts, and religious zealots who only paid attention to 1/100th of the issues (the ones that were most important to them). but i know plenty of smart people who voted for bush in 2004 too. so i know that not EVERYONE who rallied behind him came from that camp. at least we can all admit this: there will always be people who vote down party lines... but this level of excitement is really unprecedented in over a generation.
obama really owes george bush a big thank you - after all, he's the one who's been pissing us off for 8 years and mobilizing us all to demand something different!
6Did you see Oprah cry her eyelashes off?
7Having a lot of people there for the moment isn't egotistical. It means that a lot of people want to share this with you. I know the McCain campaign could never understand because they don't have a fraction of the volunteers that Obama does, but sincerely, Obama's campaign is a people's movement that is the result of thousands of people's hard work. It only makes sense to try and share that with everyone and let them be a part of the moment.
8What did he say...
The McCain campaign is making a big election about little things?
9Like stardom? Yep.
I thought it was a great speech and I think it's exciting to watch a person's strengths emerge the way Obama's have as more people pin their hopes for the future on him. It really is sad that his mother didn't live to see this. (I was thinking last night how amazing it is to think what the person at the law firm who assigned Michelle to work with Obama set in motion!)
10Yay Yesteryear! I agree with your comment completely. And Jillness, of course, great points. People are excited about Obama. They are excited about his policy ideas. He has made them interested in politics and the democratic process. That is not a bad thing and it is petty and small of the McCain camp to paint it as something negative.
11Off topic....CNN is reporting that they believe Sarah Palin is McCain's VP choice. They base that on a private plane arriving from Alaska. Trying to score the Hilliary supporters by choosing a female VP?
12why did oprah cry? i listed to that speech, not cry worthy.
I dont give a rip about celebrity endorsements, i usually ignore them.
I understand why people are excited for Obama, i just dont get the freaking out part. i have seen some straight up "the beatles just landed in america" spaz's
13If she's the choice, it's yet another reactive move by McCain. I really expected him to define himself, not let the Dems dictate.
14You're right Stephly. I think he's scared.
15Well, if he chose her for executive experience, she has a good track record in Alaska, however, she has only been Governor for two years. Her son will be deployed to Iraq in September so that is sure to score points with some. I don't know. There are going to be just as many people who don't want a female VP who didn't want a female President. Nothing to do but wait and see if this is true.
16Just goes to show that the glass ceiling does exist.... just only on the Democrats side.
17Its pretty arrogant to think that only Obama sets the tempo and everyone has to follow. Palin is an excellent pick for many factors, like her consistent conservatism, her follow through, her ethics leadership, her ability to actually DO what she says she will do when it comes to standing up to party leaders to get rid of wasteful spending.
But its much easier to just cast her off because she's female. Funny how feminism only works when it someone feminists agree with.
18Palin's name has been in the mix for quite a while, as well. It's not as if her name is just now coming up.
19Caterpillar, I think a lot of people are freaking out because something they believe in is finally succeeding based on hardwork of people coming together.
Obama's campaign built a team of volunteers who know what it is like to work your booty off with people who are so different than you, working on a common goal to make the world a better place. It is hard to describe the sense of civic community, but it is a very powerful thing.
And I think that everyone was ready to critique him for soaring oratory, and when he gave them so many nuts and bolts and policy positions...well now they say it isn't soaring enough??
20Just hasn't been covered here kim
21It is official it is Sarah Palin. Good for her. I like her better than Romney.
22Everyone is calling it for Palin!
Bad day for Hilldog.... maybe she'll pull a Lieberman!
Where is HF?? We can totally get her on our side now! YES WE CAN!
23kas - romney was my pick but i dunno, palin is looking really good.
24Jill, having a lot of volunteers is nice, but Bush also had a large army of volunteers. It's certainly not the most important thing.
McCain's volunteers also work side-by-side for something they believe in. The fact that there are fewer of them means they have to work twice as hard. As a group, they don't seem to be as fanatical as Obama's supporters.
25"Just goes to show that the glass ceiling does exist.... just only on the Democrats side."
Wow, the claws come out with Cabaker!
Just because the female wasn't the top pick for Democrats doesn't mean that our party oppresses them. I surely hope the GOP isn't running on this platform, especially when McCain doesn't support women's rights like equal pay, health insurance covering prescribed medications like birth control, etc.
Perhaps he felt the need to pick her, because Biden's son is going to Iraq as well. It just seems like such a coincidence.
26I don't think it's official for another 22 minutes.
27hey jill any stats on tha avg. hours that an avg. obama volunteer works?
28If it was only on the POSSIBLE (he may not have chosen Palin) vice presidential pick, I would agree that it's ridiculous to say that Obama sets the tempo. But if you look at the campaign since June, McCain's been doing much more responding than leading. He's attacking Obama's positions much more intensely than he's defining himself.
You're making a big assumption that I'm 'casting' off someone just because she's a woman. There are several vice-presidential possibilities that McCain could choose that would suggest he's in a reactive mode - she's just one of them.
29Oh man, such a GREAT speech. I had tears in my eyes.
30I am glad you can assess the group so well when you haven't worked with them.
And Cabaker, Harmony supported Hillary for many more reasons than her gender.
31I doubt it has anything to do with Biden's and Palin's sons, seeing as McCain's son served in Iraq.
32Jill 1) McCain's son is in Iraq so that point is entirely mute. and 2) McCain's campaign pays its female staffers equal or more to its male staffers. Obama's camp pays its female staffers less. So I ask you, who is not for women's interests?
And my glass ceiling comment was a half joke.
33I was talking about his supporters, not just his volunteers. I have had A LOT of contact with them. Just because I haven't worked with them doesn't mean I don't have the right to offer my impressions of their attitudes.
34Jill I'm kidding!!! Remember when we used to kid around here?
35Good point Jill. Remember the Democrats were the ones who put those "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling." Palin was appointed by one man who I believe is going to try to use her gender to sway those 18 million Hilliary supporters.
36You seem very willing to assess Republicans by saying that Obama's success puts a "shiver down their spines." I guess it's ok for you to offer assessments of a group you haven't worked with, though.
37What are the positions of the staffers?
38I think that equal pay for equal work is expected, but just looking at someone's gender and what they make leaves out too many details to make such a vast assumption. It doesn't show that they aren't being paid equal for equal work.
Jill are you defending McCain or Obama?
39Just asking because what you said is basically what McCain said when talking about that issue.
40And actually, I do work with Obama's volunteers every single day. About half of the people in my office are Obama supporters and many of them volunteer. Just about everyone at the organization where I volunteer is an Obama supporter and/or volunteer. I know some people (not you, Jill, or anyone else specific, just a generic some people) surround themselves with people who are politically similar, but I have to say, the majority of people I know are actually strong Obama supporters. (At least until I visit Ohio; my county is very red.)
41kas - i could see that point is palin was grossly unqualified or had nothing to contribute to the white house, but thats so clearly not the case. why is it ok to take away all of her accomplishments because she's a woman? why do those go away because of her gender?
she's much more qualified than obama and she's just a VP pick, not even a presidential nominee. yet go forbid anyone say that obama's gotten so far because of the color of his skin. to me, this seems like a huge double standard that relies heavily on partisan politics.
42With the volunteers thing, what exactly are you trying to argue? Someone asked why people were so moved. I was saying that for many people that volunteered, this is a powerful moment. Why did this become about Bush having volunteeers, etc?
43Wow i didnt know this was "you can only talk about political issues if you can answer 20 questions to my satisfaction"
44No jill I was wondering how many hours the avg. Obama volunteer actually volunteers or if they count if they just sign up. My argument was going to be that its not how many volunteers you have, but how much they are willing to do. Thats all. So I thought you'd know that information.
45I wasn't arguing with what you said, I was just saying that the ability to motivate volunteers is not exclusive to Obama. I was offering a different perspective.
46i have to say bravo on strategy for mccain. i've had the news on for the last 2 hours and haven't heard anything about obama's speech last night. and announcing this longshot right before a long weekend? brilliant.
you gotta admit, the GOP knows how to play the game.
47"Just asking because what you said is basically what McCain said when talking about that issue."
From my memory, that isn't what he said when the Supreme Court reversed the decision of a jury ruling that found that woman who worked at Goodyear was paid less because of her gender.
In April, he skipped the vote on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would have rectified the Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear “that made it much harder for women and other workers to pursue pay discrimination claims.”
In fact, on that very same day, McCain said that if he had been in the Senate, he would have voted against it because the bill “opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems.” He also dismissed the importance of equal pay, saying that women simply need “education and training.“
48Kim, I think Obama staffers and supporters are so "fanatical" because there is finally a Democrat presidential candidate to get excited about. People only got really excited about Gore after he lost. And Kerry, for all that he is a good senator, my senator, isn't an inspiring leader. For many of those staffers and "fans" this is the first election where they can get behind some one they truly believe in. That's a pretty powerful feeling. He's made a lot of people interested in politics and the democratic process and that's not a bad thing. Just my opinion though.
49I agree, kastarte, I am just pointing out that he is not the sole owner of the ability to excite people.
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