Observations from an Obama town hall meeting.

These are just some things I saw that I thought were interesting when I attended an Obama town hall meeting last friday.

The doors opened at 1:45 on a sunny Oregon spring afternoon.

Accoring to the grapevine, the first guy got there at 5:30 AM.

I got there around noon. Maybe two hundred people in line, ten minutes later the line stretched out of sight.

In line in front of me there was a young couple. They were undecided on who they would vote for in the primary, they got tickets because they happened to be in front of the Obama local HQ when tickets were available. In front of them was an elderly couple. She was an Obama volunteer, he was a republican, although he didn't like McCain (cited Keating 5). Behind me was a homeless teenage couple, living out of their car. They spent their time in line on their cell phone, trying to find a place to stay.

There was a man running up and down the line begging for a spare ticket. This gentleman happened to be the head (or chair, or commissioner, don't remember the title) of the Linn County Democrats. What made it even funnier was his really, REALLY bad toupee.

Screening was handled by the same contractors who do it in airports. That didn't instill me with confidence.

Once inside, I got a pretty good seat. Maybe seven or eight rows in front of the podium.

Contrary to the "concerns" of certain people, there were plenty of working class white people there.

First to talk was Craig Robinson. This is the new basketball coach at nearby Oregon State U. He's also Obama's brother-in-law. Gave a pretty good talk. Helluva family.

Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio was up next. He had just declared his support as a SD for Obama. He gave a short talk, but he really nailed McCain (cited the Keating 5!).

Then Obama came out and the place just went nuts. The lady in front of me was standing on her chair to catch a glimpse. You know, cynics such as myself often don't care for charisma. But charisma's what you need to win presidential elections. It's something we sorely missed the last couple times around. And it's something Obama's got in spades.

Technical problem during Obama's opening remarks. The microphones on the podium kept slipping down. There was a collective inhaling as the crowd thought this could be a gaffe. But out of somewhere Obama whipped out a spare microphone and stepped out from behind the podium to continue without missing a beat.

As expected, Obama gave his usual stump speech. Sounds great the first time you hear it, still pretty good when you've heard it as often as me. He did have a few new lines on the war, and on McCain. Both getting standing ovations.

He really dug into McCain's (and Clinton's) stupid gas holiday bullshit.

He only mentioned Clinton the one time. He's really running against McCain now.

I was really impressed when he opened to floor for questions. I would have figured only VIPs would be asking pre-approved questions. But he opened it to everybody, "no rules" (his words).

First question was on Ag policy! Even people such as myself with only a cursory understanding of Ag policy knows it's a sticky, antiquated, convoluted minefield of a mess. But he took it head on. He addressed that subsidies are too focused on corn (this from the senator from Illinois), and they need to spread out more too fruits and vegetables, that would have an impact on health, and people being able to buy locally. Also addressed subsidies need to go to small farmers not ag. corporations. It was as good an answer as you could expect give the setting.

He was asked if he'd give more funding to stem cells. Yes. He addressed how scientific grant funding has flattened over the last seven years (if you talk to anybody in the scientific community, that's THE issue). Said he'd fix that and double it. Mentioned teaching science in science classrooms (I thought that was an indirect attack on the Creationist issue.)

Lots of other good questions. Random people are better journalists that Stephanopoulos.

Some crazy old vet went on a long winded rant. Angered the crowd by suggesting that anti-war people are disrespecting the troops. Prattled on about his service (the guy was a cook during the invasion of Grenada). And had one good comment, he hopes Obama will run the VA the way he's run his campaign.

Obama handled that perfectly.

Unfortunately, Obama had to be in Eugene, so it ended sooner than I would have liked.

Like I said, a lot of people went into that hall not sure who they'd vote for. I think everybody knew once they left. Listening to Obama actually address real issues makes all the shit they talk about in the media, and 95% of what's talked about here, look really, really dumb.

It's like two different Worlds.

but it's like they can't stop themselves.

I watched the Q&A. He did really well!

It really is very cool, that we have our own reporters
at these events. You gave us some nice observations
that we won't get from the media.

Thanks again.

I wasn't able to see him in Minneapolis. The Target Center had filled up before I started to go downtown and that was in the middle of January. Brrr.

How did I miss that all these years? Thanks for the report. Bill is really campaigning hard here, I don't know if it will help but he's sure giving it his all.

or, better still, videos of all the town hall meetings distributed via DVDs for those who don't go to youtube and the like, it could very well garner Obama votes.

I don't understand why campaigns don't do it. I suggested it to the Kerry campaign in '04. It's almost as cheap as brochures and you've got a chance for the candidate to make a personal connection in a way a brochure can't, and cover a lot more info. People will look at it because it's a novelty. Good way to get around the local media in rural areas.