scenes from the local joe biden rally

Events I want to attend don't often coincide with my days off during field season. But today I was able to go to a local Joe Biden rally. I've been attending political rallies of both parties for many election cycles. I don't learn a lot of facts from them, but they are educational nonetheless: what the candidates think is important to the local audience, the types of people that show up, how they respond, how the campaign mechanism is functioning.

This was the most crispy coordinated rally I've ever attended, and that includes those for vice-presidential and presidential candidates, even incumbants. There were tons of campaign workers collecting information from those in attendence (about 1000), systematically guiding people to seats, passing out signs and flags. I was especially impressed with how young many of them were -- for many this must have been their first election. The media had their own area, including a tent that included Internet hookups.

This rally was held in a very working class downriver community that is 95% white (the ratio is similar in the surrounding cities as well). The crowd was whiter than many other Democratic events I've been to, but a little more diverse than the regional demographics. Although I presume the percentage of undecideds at these rallies is fairly low, it was still appropriate that Biden started his talk outlining how Barack Obama was not "elitist" or some strange unusual person in the way he was sometimes portrayed, but "one of us." Biden told what I found to be an effective story about his grand-daughters wanting to have a sleepover with the Obama girls at the convention in Denver. So the candidates rearranged the hotel rooms and the girls got to order pizza, watch a movie, and have their sleepover. The story, especially as he told it, lent a nice authenticity to what he was saying, and helped get the point across that Obama was not so "different" after all.

Next Biden went on to pointedly give many examples of how similar Bush and McCain are. Most worthwhile were the reminders that Bush himself campaigned on being a reformer, how he promised to reach across the aisle, how he vowed to change Washington. Biden said we all know how that movie ended, and we all know that sequels are always worse than the originals.

Finally, Biden talked about economic policies, giving specific examples of McCain's voting record that were not only endorsements of Bush, but that stretched back through his career. He talked about policies that would be different in an Obama-Biden administration.

The crowd was attentive and peppy, although not boisterous. They were especially receptive to the economic message, and any mention of the tone of the McCain ads got lots of noise and boos. Joe Biden is extremely personable and comes across as very genuine and down-to-earth. He is a good fit, I think, for this audience. The talk had more substance than the last VP candidate I saw speak (John Edwards, at a rally in which he used the pig in lipstick analogy!). Some might argue it could have used more passion. and a little more venom, considering how that riled up the crowd. But it kept with the tone of the campaign; for 1000 people I don't think it would have really been worthwhile to go too much on the attack.

I know Obama will be here quite often in the next 7 weeks. McCain should be as well, although so far he's stuck to the mostly to the surrounding red counties. I hope to see them both if I can.

Comments

[John]

It looks like Michigan is going to get worked pretty hard this year with campaign events.

[sara]

I wonder how effectively he would handle the situation if his grand-daughters were busted for "illegally" downloading a Justin Timberlake album . . .

[dguzman]

Cool! Thanks for sharing your viewpoint on this event.