LIVE From the Forum- Obama’s Town Hall Meeting
It’s 1:45PM and I’m just about to start packing up to head over to the Forum for tonight’s Town Hall meeting with Barry Obama-
Check back for updates beginning around 4PM-
Obama is scheduled to arrive around 6PM-
Buckle up, kids- this’ll be a fun day!
4:02PM-
Aaaaand…we’re live.
Just got things searched, situated and set up for the day’s activities.
If the pre-show buzz outside is any indication, this Town Hall meeting is going to be a WORLD away from Hillary’s rally here a few weeks ago.
With barely 72 hours to put this thing together, the local Barak campaign-sters were literally scrambling to get this vessel launched.
More on the finer points of the circus-sideshow that was happening outside in a bit… (Photo by Christine Baker- PN)
But for now, the doors are open- and the VIP’s are filing in-
Dig on this as we get our day rolling-
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/wKsoXHYICqU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
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4:11PM
At first glance, the comparison of this event to Hillary’s first stop in Harrisburg is like comparing a home made Cessna to a Pine Car Derby car whittled away in the basement-
The visible disorganization of the Obama volunteers is somewhat amusing- entertaining thus far- volunteers are arguing amongst themselves about where the yellow tickets get sat “I was told they go over HERE” yells one- “No, no man! The yellow tickets go RIGHT HERE!”
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4:15PM
The stage is home to four rows of about twenty five seats each- the middle slowly being occupied by an unidentifiable group – but they sure ain’t the Hillary Soccer Mom Brigade – so far, the demographic makeup of this group seems to really embody a good mix of people-
6:16PM-
I’ve been wrassling’ with some technical difficulties for the past hour and a half-
It seems that there’s some hiccup in the DNS routing between where I physically am, my host server and then the parent
company that my webhost is reselling from -
So these posts are going from my email back to Riverview Manor where 31 Flavors is logged in and reposting.
So, sorry for the lame coverage this far-
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming-
6:21PM-
The remainder of the traveling press just arrived and our section just got extremely cramped-
Barack is only a few minutes away…
The music selection today has been pretty lame- a lot of Smooth Jazz type stuff- nothing like Hillary’s selections-
The crowd is getting rowdy- the predictable “Oh-Bam-Uh! Oh-Bam-Uh!” with the hand claps to go along with it-
6:24PM-
Two time Iraq War veteran Phil Nelson has just been introduced to a standing ovation-
He lives in Harrisburg and has recently completed his military service-
He also seems to have limited public speaking experience-
Talking about ending the war and helping folks at home-
“It is time to end the war in Iraq” he says “And we just so happen to have a presidential candidate running right now who plans to do just that…his name is Barack Obama”
6:27PM-
The forum is FAR overbooked today- standing room only everywhere I look-
And again- the juxtaposition of the Clinton gathering with the Obama gathering here at the forum is like apples and oranges-
Obama seems to have a SOLID cross-representation from all walks of life- all income brackets- and all demographics-
Sen. Bob Casey is onstage now- flubbing and seemingly stumbling through his speech…
6:31PM-
This crowd seems relatively subdued- until Bob Casey just introduced “The next President of The United States…Barack Obama!” And these people are going absolutely nuts.
6:33PM-”
“What a beautiful building, what a beautiful crowd…what a wonderful welcome” says the man of the hour-Continues with the thank yous- “…he’s just a decent, good guy- my friend, my supporter–Mr. Bob Casey: -
Okay, so now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get to down to business…
6:37PM
Senator Obama is commenting more about the war-
“A war which has not made us more safe”
“People all around the country are losing their homes…and if they’re not losing their homes, they’re struggling to get by”
6:41PM-
And now, we’re into the seeming redundancies of this speech-
“All of us, black, white” – and we’re into the hoo-hah part of this event-
“The American People want change…people feel like they’re forgotten”
This is a “Town Hall” style meeting; the meat and potatoes of this one is going to be whenever we get into the audience participation- all of this so far is planned out and contrived; don’t get me wrong, though, Obama is a fantastic public speaker- he’s charismatic, engaging and seems to be genuine- but I’m looking forward to some questions from the people….
6:45PM-
“Don’t know if you knew this or not, but Dick Cheney is my cousin” – and the crowd erupts in laughter-
He’s talking about gas being right at $3.50 a gallon- when a woman to my left yells “It’s already at 4!!”-
Obama takes it as an opportunity to continue to charm his audience by replying “You must be using premium…stick with regular-unleaded”
6:50PM-
After a few minutes talking about how we’re going to change the health care system- making it accessible to everyone and lowering premiums $2500.00 a year, Obama moves on to talking about the schools-
Talking about offering students a four thousand dollar per year tuition credit- but students would have to do community service to get it-
Senior Citizens will no longer have to pay income tax on their social security-
“We are spending ten billion dollars a month in Iraq…imagine if we spend a little bit of that here in Harrisburg”
6:55PM-
Still no clue who the hundred and fifty-or-so people on the risers behind Obama are- but it appears to be a 50/50 mix of races-
This crowd is MUCH more diverse than the mostly-white Hillary sect-
But despite the guy hustling bootleg Obama tee shirts (ten buck each) and the guy slinging Obama buttons (two for five) outside the Forum earlier today; and despite the economic and societal differences in the makeup of these supporters, things seem to be relatively more orderly than Hillary’s day-
7:00PM-
Okay, the opening remarks are finished and Barack let’s us know he’s got about twenty minutes to answer questions from the public-
“I’m going to do this ‘boy-girl-boy-girl’ to keep this fair” -
A woman from Carlisle is selected first and asks about what the elderly can do to cut down on Medicaid fraud-
*Yawn*
7:05PM-
Jesse Ross Sr. tells Obama “I used to be a Republican, but now I’m a Democrat” and asks the Senator “What can we do to get out kids in the cities to buy in to the education program” -
Obama explains “I was born to a teenage mom and raised by my Grandparents and I was given a good education…so I’m a testament to a good education” -
Goes on to talk about prejudices about inner city, immigrant and poor kids in Appalachia; and stresses that we need to treat ALL kids equal-
Says to teach parents how to teach kids
7:12PM-
Erica Bryce asks about how to encourage home ownership – considering that home ownership is at 35-40% and how it’s inversed from the rest of the country -
Obama begins to talk about predatory loans and bad deals for the consumers- how some people are “under water” and how the mortgage is worth more than their homes-
“All these banks who are giving out all these sub-prime loans and making all this money- but now banks have all this debt- and nobody knows just how much debt is out there- which is making it difficult for good people to get good loans and stabilizing the housing market”
7:15PM -
I shouldn’t have gotten a large coffee.
I knew I should have gotten a small.
7:22PM-
I’m wondering if the 2,200 people who are here really need to be convinced of anything.
By the roars and cheers after the key statements, it seems like everyone here is convinced of who they want as their next President.
Open government, better economy, universal healthcare…
They all really do say the same things-
I guess the message is all the same…but it comes from a different messenger-
7:39PM-
Why do politicians answer questions in such roundabout ways?
Last question- came from a Harrisburg resident who asked how he plans to change the federal bureaucracy?
Obama replied- “I plan to change the federal bureaucracy because the bureaucrats will work for me”
“I want people with integrity…I don’t want people who just want to cash in or help their cronies”
(Hey, Obama…if this presidency thing doesn’t work out, will you come be Mayor of Harrisburg?)
7:44PM-
Despite the seemingly poor organizational skills of the local Obama team, this event is running quite smooth…the audience is supportive, attentive, respectful– the place is absolutely packed…If the fire marshal were to come in here and count heads right now- someone would surely get fined- but things are under complete control-
7:46PM-
Taylor Davis – a sixth grader from Mechanicsburg- asks “What do you intend to do about the war for my generation…a generation that wasn’t even old enough to form an opinion on it when it began?”-
I’m wondering just how “random” these questions are…because that was a pretty intricate question coming from a twelve year old.
This is the last question-
7:51PM-
And it seems like this thing is wrapping up now-
The Senator is re-hashing now what he’s talked about for the past hour or so- get the troops out of Iraq, get more responsible spending in place, “Google for Government” which he explains would be a searchable database of every dollar spent by the US Government-
And the Senator has decided to take another question from a young boy who calls himself “Hollywood” (is that the opposite of Jersey?) and explains that he was the victim of an alcohol-related accident and he now travels around the country educating people about the perils of drinking and driving- lil’ Hollywood wants to know what Obama plans to do about stricter DUI laws-
And in summary, Barack explains that it’s mostly about education and prevention than it is about punishment-
7:59PM-
And that’s all for our coverage here today-
Obama, Clinton, McCain- are they all really that much different? I think it’s a matter of who they associate with-
Sure, we all want to get out of Iraq.
We all want accessible health care.
We all want a stronger economy and a stable housing market-
But who is the best candidate to get us all of that?
Time will tell…
As Barack leaves, Stevie Wonder’s “Signed and Delivered” plays over the loudspeakers-
And the people file out…
