$0.00 donated so far. You can be the first to donate.
It does not have to be a lot; even a dollar can make a difference.
Posted on March 2, 2008 | Category: Events, News
Senator Barack Obama visited Rhode Island College yesterday, and he drew a purported crowd of 10,000 plus people. The line was huge and the weather miserable. In fact the line to get into the recreation center went all the way down the road at least a 100 yards and probably even up to a quarter mile or more at times. The crowd was heavily composed of minorities and younger people, many of whom show extreme devotion by beginning to line up hours earlier in the inclement weather and waiting for hours. An estimated half or about 5,000 people were actually able to get inside before the secret service sealed the recreation center while the other half of the crowd stood outside in the freezing rain for a shorten version of Senator Obama’s speech.
Nonetheless, I did hear one person upon leaving say the conditions were so bad that she was now committed not to vote for Senator Obama. I believe Senator Obama was probably well informed of the conditions and realized that a lot people had been waiting outside for hours in order to get in and see him so he did spend some time greeting the crowd outside in the rainy conditions. Anyone who was outside for Obama’s shorten speech, with the exception of campaign volunteers and media, was locked out of the recreation center and could listen to the speech on loud speakers set out outside. However, the rain became extremely bad not long after the Senator Obama began his speech inside changing to a fierce freezing rain, which actually stung a little upon impact. These conditions pretty much cleared the crowd outside to only the most devoted.
The conditions inside were reportedly not much better, in fact I witnessed one young lady who was taken out the media door to receive treatment from an EMT. According to other reports someone had fainted inside, I now believe she was probably the one who had fainted. They probably were not able to open doors to allow for circulation, despite Senator Obama’s requests because of security reason, and so the body heat from the masses of people in the recreation center probably raised the temperature inside quite a bit.
Just to give you an idea of the level of security they had at least one armed guard stationed at the media door and a bomb sniffing dog making rounds in the area of the media door as the speech was occurring. The level of security at this event was a stark contrast to the level of security at John McCain’s rally just over two weeks ago. John McCain has actually turned down Secret Service protection before, so although he had a reasonable level of security of course and likely some federal agents, there was nowhere near the amount or the type of stringent security force at John McCain’s rally as there was for Barack Obama’s rally yesterday. Obviously there is a trade off to having high security, on the one hand you keep the guy safe, and on the other hand you make access very more difficult for your constituents. Of course we need not look any further then the recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto to see the need for our massive security infrastructure. It seems taxpayers understand the necessity for the $110 million-plus bill for campaign protection this season and the subsequent millions for protection once a candidate is elected. On a plus we are saving a little money on Hilary Clinton, who also spoke at Rhode Island College last week to a crowd a third the size of Obama’s, because she already gets protection anyway being a former first lady.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
» Filed Under Events, News
Leave a Reply
Top|
XHTML |
CSS |
Copyright © 2005-2008 Jonathan Haynes. All Rights Reserved |
Design:
YGoY