My First Ever Political Rally

Tonight, I went to my first political rally. Michelle Obama was in town, so I wanted to hear her speak. It was an interesting experience. I was surprised that as they began, a singer came out and her first song was something about "praise the Lord, praise the Lord"...and then next came some song from camp that I don't care for the tune all that much, you know that song, "You came from heeeeaven to earth...to shooooowwwwww the way...from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high" - that one. Anyway, religious marketing at its finest in my opinion. Then came little talks by local politicians, which were in all honesty, pretty lame because they were all just hype and very little fact or anything. Then of course, the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem, and then a prayer, which was also some very fine religious marketing, as the reverend prayed to the Lord and mentioned "all of the people from different religions" and something about us all being "God's people". I just thought it was really ironic that everything had a decidely "Christian" tone, but this little phrase thrown in there made the people happy. To me, it seemed more insulting to those who don't believe in Christianity that someone would even act like it would be okay to have such blatently Christian things and then pretend as if it's actually representing all belief systems, because it clearly wasn't. Anyway, I was getting kind of miffed over it all, because there was just no substance it seemed like - it was like hoorah hoorah blah blah blah.

Then finally Michelle Obama came out, and thank God she did, because it would have been a cheap experience otherwise. I enjoyed her speech, and she seemed to be one of the only sincere things within miles. She offered a nice mix of personal experience and facts during her speech, and my personal favorite part was when a lady up toward the stage passed out and Michelle Obama just totally stopped the speech and was like "We've got a lady down here! Can we get an EMT and some water?!" and after all the commotion, the lady must have been okay, and Michelle Obama offered some humor about how many times she's fallen over to make the lady feel better. Anyway, while I heard the speech loud and clear, I could barely see a thing besides the back of the people's heads that were in front of me. I wasn't really too far from the main stage, but being only 5'2 (on a good day) didn't really help me out any. I think at one point, I may have seen Michelle Obama's shoulder. I am pretty sure that had I stayed at the rally after her speech, I would have been able to see her up close and personal as she was mingling with the crowd, but I didn't really want to stick around too much later because I was hungry and my back hurt from standing the whole time. Wimp, I know.

Anyway, here's a few pics, though they just basically show a crowd...which is what I stared at for two and a half hours...



Here, I was trying to get a shot of me in my political propaganda for Jesse because he so thoughtfully bought me this shirt. But, I didn't really get much of the shirt in there...I tried a couple times and then stopped because I felt stupid taking pictures of myself. But, for the record, I am wearing some very fine political propaganda.
So, final concensus - would I attend another rally? Yes, but I'd show up late so that I could skip the hype and go straight to the main event.