2.16.2008

On the campaign trail

Well today didn’t go anything like we had planned.

As Kates and I were eating breakfast this morning, I picked up the newspaper and one headline immediately caught my eyes …

“Hillary Clinton’s gonna be in Kenosha today!?” I shouted to Kates. I read further, and sure enough. Hillary Clinton was going to be at The Brat Stop, a popular bar restaurant, for a rally this afternoon that was free and open to the public.

“We should go!” I told Kates.

Hillary Clinton. Former First Lady. Wife of Bill. Prominent senator from New York. And perhaps the next President of the United States, not to mention the first woman to be elected President … It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’d regret it if we didn’t at least try to see her …

So Kates and I dropped our plans for the day, got ourselves cleaned up and were heading out the door a little after 12:30. My camera was strapped on my shoulder, and for the heck of it I grabbed a Clinton mailing we’d received the other day off the kitchen table. “You never know,” I said … But, I’m thinking, C’mon this really can’t work out can it?! We’re not that lucky.

The rally was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m., and the doors were supposed to open to the public at 2:30. But when Kates and I arrived at the restaurant a little after 1, there was no sign of the overflowing crowd I had expected. The parking lot was full, but we still found a space in the lot next door …

Inside the restaurant, we were quickly greeted by a man wearing Clinton buttons and stickers. “Are you here for Hillary?” he asked. We said we were, and the man steered us up a staircase to a loft where people were being “signed in.” … Those who weren’t there for Hillary were kept on the lower level …

Up on the loft, about a hundred people were gathered around tables and a bar area. Again, the crowd was much smaller than I’d expected. It was manageable and there was still plenty of room too move.

* * *

So now we were in. Next priority: some food … Unfortunately everybody there seemed to have the same idea. Sure, the crowd was manageable, but all of them seemed to be wrapped around the bar trying to place orders and the staff was running around as though their heads were cut off …

I had been passed over by three waitresses when a female bartender finally stepped up to take our order -- a bratwurst, a patty melt and a Mountain Dew. She hastily punched it into the computer, no questions asked. Then she gave me the total and I handed her my check card. “We can’t accept check cards,” she says. “You’ll have to go down to the ATM. Sorry!”

Ugh. So I weed through the crowd to the stairs and go down to the lower level. Find the ATM. Take out some cash, and go back up to the loft. Back to the bar, and wait another 20 minutes for someone to take my order … This time a male bartender finds me. But when I begin to give him my order, he stops me and says food orders are only being taken downstairs…

Ugh! So I weed through the crowd to the stairs again and go down to the lower level again. Wait about 10 minutes at the bar there and receive no help. Finally I just stepped into an aisle and stopped the first waitress to come toward me. “Can I just place a food order?” I said to the girl with some urgency. The waitress told me she couldn’t , but the girl coming behind her could. Fine … I gave the other girl the order, and -- bless her soul -- she sighed and said she’d do the best she could …

I returned to the loft and the bench where I’d left Kates, and proceeded to keep watch for our waitress. It’s about 2 p.m. now, and the crowd is starting to swell … Then about 20 minutes into my watch, I see the waitress on the opposite side of the bar, holding a can of Mountain Dew and clearly puzzled about where it needs to go. She has no idea, actually. Assuming she’s looking for me, I hurry to rescue her … “Oh, thank God!” she says when we make eye contact, and hands me the soda. I told her exactly where to find us when the food was ready and we parted ways again … About 10 minutes later -- and almost an hour after I’d first tried to get food -- the waitress reappeared in front of us with a tray of our food. Sweetness. “Now can you guys promise not to leave and wait here while I get your check?” she says to us. I answered, “Don’t worry we’re not going anywhere.” The crowd was continuing to expand and there was nowhere to go … By the time the waitress returned for our payment, we had finished eating. I handed her a $20 bill and said “Keep the change.” That meant a pretty generous tip for her, but she had saved our afternoon. Me and my pregnant wife were hungry, dang it!

* * *

By 2:30, a long line of people who had been waiting outside were allowed in. The crowd was really starting to buzz, and the place was becoming packed. Members of the Fire Department had appeared in the building and were counting heads to make sure the place wasn’t over its capacity. Police officers also were coming in and milling around. The security level was clearly increasing.

We remained at our bench on the loft. The stage where Clinton would speak was far out of our view, but we had a clear shot of the front doors -- if she came through them … But a little after 3, I was on the move. Seeing a crowd building around the entrance, I decided to find a spot on the staircase just inside the doors. I crouched down and figured I’d have a clear view when she arrived … Didn’t happen. After waiting there for about a half hour, a rumor swept through that she was coming through a back entrance and the crowd suddenly dispersed … Still I hung around the front entrance, and a few moments later I noticed a commotion and camera flashes down the hallway. I broke toward the small crowd, only to have a police officer call me back: “Sir, you can’t go down there.” Ah, but a police captain who I’ve worked with was standing close behind and told the officer to let me through … I joined the crowd and for a moment caught a glimpse of Clinton as she was signing an autograph and heading into the stage area. I raised my camera and got off one shot (see below). I thought, Man, how much would it suck if that’s the only picture I get after all this

As I passed back through the hallway to the staircase I reached out to shake my police captain buddy’s hand, and he gave me a wink … Little did I know the best was yet to come …

* * *

Now, if you’ve read between the lines on this blog, it’s not hard to see I’m fascinated and drawn to Barack Obama. There’s no denying he’s a charismatic, inspiring candidate and he’s delivering an intriguing message of optimism and hope and change …

But he doesn’t have the experience of Hillary. It does worry me a little that she’s entrenched in Washington politics, part of “the establishment,” they say … Don’t get me wrong, I will be very happy with either of them as president, but where Obama has been vague in his message, Clinton seems to have the answers and well-thought ideas. It’s been evident in her debates, and it was evident today. …

“On my way in, somebody told me whoever wins Kenosha wins Wisconsin!” she told the crowd to a roar of cheers. She made a strong appeal for us to support her in Tuesday’s primary, and never mentioned Obama.

In a 45-minute speech, she issued a strong proposal to fix healthcare. She discussed education, promising to get rid of the No Child Left Behind mandate and make college more affordable. She talked about a sustained Iraq. She addressed global warming, the housing crisis and fixing FEMA -- starting with appointing qualified people, and not some guy from the International Arabian Horse Association, to lead it …

And she, of course, took some nice shots at Bush, at one point saying, “You couldn’t make up the stuff that’s happened in the last seven years. I tell you, when the vice president shot that guy in the face, I thought, ‘That’s it. No one could make this up.’ ”

It turned out we got a good view of her after all. A few moments into Clinton’s speech, I noticed a thinner crowd along one corner of the loft and headed for that spot. Pieces of plywood had been laid over a couple of pool tables and a handful of people were standing on them. I didn’t hesitate jumping onto one of them, and there she was -- Hillary Clinton in a royal blue pantsuit, clear as day and speaking to a colorful, enthusiastic crowd -- which was estimated at 1,500. It was quite a site, and I soaked it all in …


* * *

When Clinton closed out her speech , she assured the crowd, “I want to meet as many of you as I can.”

So as the crowd dispersed, Clinton stayed put and began greeting whomever approached -- And once again, we’re thinking, why not? If we don’t try, we’ll regret it …

We made a smooth path down the staircase and caught a break in the crowd that got us right onto the main floor. Easily I joined the crowd around Clinton, snapping a bunch of photos and then reaching into my pocket to take out that mailing I’d grabbed on our way out the door … Standing just a few feet away from her now, I stretched my arm out over the crowd and waited for Clinton to take the pamphlet from me. After a couple minutes, she did and she signed it simply: “Hillary.”

With pride, I rejoined Kates and we moved outside, where we joined another crowd awaiting Clinton’s exit from the restaurant … We would wait another 30 to 40 minutes in the dropping temperatures, hoping for her to come out and shake our hands … Instead, she exited the building briskly with her staff and security, waving and smiling and shouting “Thank you” all the way to her black SUV. Finally, she stood on the floorboards, blew a kiss to the crowd, waved once more and disappeared behind the tinted windows …

It was a great day. And she’s got our votes on Tuesday.

1 comment:

Matt and Lynne said...

All it takes is a stop at the Brat Stop to get your vote? I saw (former Bull GM) Jerry Krause there last time I was in Kenosha. Would you vote for him.
Great story. Wrong vote!
(Congrats on the autograph - that's pretty cool.)