18,000 strong "Stand for Change" in Virginia Beach

Yesterday morning when I got my newspaper and on the front page it had the poll numbers in Virginia, Obama - 53% and Clinton - 37%, I said to myself oh please let this be true. Well seeing 18,000 (the biggest political rally ever in Virginia Beach) people out and standing in line for hours sealed it for me, I can't wait to vote tomorrow.

Well I wanted to make sure I got a good seat (or I should say a good place to stand as the rally was called "Stand for Change") so I arrived at the Convention Center at 12:30 p.m. at that time there were about 30 of us there 5 hours before the doors opened. One young man had been there since 9:30 a.m. Yes it was a long wait and a very long stand but the weather was pretty good the temp held at 60 which made the strong winds not feel to bad. But being amongst Democrats was the best thing of all (Virginia Beach is a very red area and why I chose the name I have here at DU), the conversations alone made my day.

There was one specific theme in all the conversations everyone wants change in the White House and the country but they also want change in our party for the future. It was a great political junkie day. :-)

So on with the pics. Now I have to explain I am not a photographer and just got a new camera and messed up a bunch of pics, I also took some on my cell phone but I definitely have to get myself out of the habit of having my finger show up in the picture. :rofl:

The early birds


By 2 p.m.


Finally inside at 5:30 p.m.



And the crowd grows,they actually had to remove all the partitions to fit in everyone, it was wall to wall people by the time the first speaker Congressman Bobby Scott spoke



The speaker before Governor Kaine was a Republican changing over to Democrat and voting for Barack Obama, YAY, she had showed up in the local Obama office earlier in the week and they asked her to speak of why she is choosing Obama. ( Sorry, I don't have a pic of her, I was busy listening to her.) Then came Governor Kaine and he was "Fired Up. Have you've ever heard 18,000 people shouting "Yes We Can" inside a building before? I would have loved to see that recorded on a seismic monitor.



Then came Barack. I have more pics but they only show a shoulder or an arm, I sort of had this really tall guy in front of me blocking my view and then when I finally honed in on Barack was moving to make sure he was speaking to all the people. :-)



One more pic I could not leave out, the Barack shirt dudes. I tried to get there pic but couldn't but I did find thia one online. This guy actually knows how to take pics and he has a lot of them from the rally at this http://www.flickr.com/photos/hankins/2257559452/">link

It was a terrific day and I am so glad that I stood for change. Now it is time to GOTV!!!

GOBAMA!!!

PS: I almost forgot , I got to shake Barack's hand. :-)

I've been looking for you to post :) Glad you had a good time! You guys had a huge turn out there!

A friend of mine tried to go but got there way too late (an hour before it began), so she and her husband gave up and went back home. Still, they were amazed at the amount of people.

standing in line (and then standing in place) for such a long time. I'm kind of bummed now that I wimped out and decided not to join you. I just didn't want to face the long drive home late at night. Thanks again though for your post. These are awesome!

If you don't mind a precocious 7yo, 2 cats and 3 month old puppy. heh

Jeez, that is some kind of dedication! But I guess if you got to shake his hand, it was worth it! You be sure and let us know if you hear any turn-out problem tomorrow so we can all double our gotv efforts.

Thank you!! And a handshake to boot, how fun for you! :-)