Truman's Conscience

We're On!

6:45pm
Ok. We're off. The Wilson center is a center with several rooms and we are in a room I wasn't expected to be in. It looks like the room holds about 150 people and its already overloaded. I know the candidate will not show up until 7:30 because in political time 6:30pm means 7:30 pm.

6:51pm
The room is overflowing now and I've got a friend helping me with photos so we can get those posted right away. The Venue is really nice becaue I understand Sen. Edwards may take questions. Let's see if we can't get a photo or two down loaded.

6:59pm
Looks like they've closed the doors to the room and the overflow crowd is going to have to watch the festivities out in the hall on a wide screen T.V. Lucky me. Here's a photo of the room and stage area.


7:02pm
The pictures above are a general shot of the room and the lcoal town criers all in full press mode.. The buzz in the room is palatable along with the heat. To many people here and this many bodies is making it uncomfortable. But man, what a crowd!

7:12pm

No more photos on the fly until afterwards. The crowd is really getting larger. I can see more people in the hallway now because they have had to open the doors for some air. This is really awesome this many people showing up and it's April! I guess all these people in the room have their taxes done.....

7:18pm

The press looks bored. Good. I guess they haven't read some of my stuff about them, so I'm not getting dirty looks. There's a guy near the stage with a hat and a wooden donkey on top. You usually don't see that kind of stuff until convention season. I see Travis Bridges the DCDEC Chair all decked out. I can also see Leslie Gollier, former candidate for Dist. 5 City Council. She made an announcement to the crowd the Sen. is on his way, about 20 minutes.

7:23pm

These photos are upsetting my aesthetic sensibilities of the site. I'm seriously considering yanking them and posting the later with some commentary. Yeah, I think I'll do that by the next post to make this all more readable.

7:29pm

There, that's better. Let's see if I can make this thing go a little faster. I'll do a photo posting later. Live and learn. My formats were going crazy and I couldn't line anything up. I hate blogger.

7:31pm

Dignitaries are starting to fill the stage. Looks like local union officials. I can't tell if it's IBEW or CWA. Anyway, this surely means he's close.

7:33pm

This experiment isn't going bad. I just need to figure out how to manipulate Blogger better.

7:42pm

Still waiting for the candidate. Some people are standing and just looking around. I see Leslie Gollier talking on her cell. The Sen. must be here or close by. Everyone seems anxious and there is a cook buzz going on about the Senator. I already see a hat and a shirt I want.

7:45pm

The Senator is here. He's going to a ready room and then coming right in. A lot of people are standing now in anticipation. This is awesome. Wayne Hogan the host of the private fund raiser earlier just walked in, so the Sen. is definetly about to make his entrance.

7:48pm

I can hear applause out in the hallway so he must be making his way here. Now the student gov. rep. for FCCJ is now doing the intoduction. The poor guy is nervous....but he's saying he's glad the Sen. is here to speak about his vision for the country.

7:50pm

Actually I was wrong - imagine that - the stage is filled not with union but student gov. reps from the differnt campuses (sp?). The President of FCCJ South Campus is doing a more former introduciton. He's talking about Sen. Edward's bio a little and about Elizabeth (who's on Larry King tonight btw) .....now talking about the Sen. being the first in his family to attend college.

7:53pm

He. here! Standing ovation. He's right into it. Talking about Iraq....how we are seen as a bully.....a President needs to travel around the world.......America needs to be a nation that celebrates diverslty and how we believe in our heart and soul in equality. Elizabeth is doing very well.

7:56pm

Too many barriers for regular Americans now. The President needs to speak to the world. He's speaking about Darfur - good for him - Wow, he's going down the list about the Sudenese government - knowledgable- speaking about Africa and aids and the richest nation on the planet stands back and does not act. Says we need to stop spending 500 billion dollars in Iraq and do these things to change the world as being a force for good. What about our schools here? He's asking? The world needs to see we are committed to making the planet a better place. Talking about cleaning up our house first and we need to start doing something about Global warming. He's already talking about his ideas: Cap carbon emission by 80% by 2050; auction off the right to emit any green house gas and take the money and invest it back into clean energy technology and ban coal firing plants. Take a billion and put it into Detroit and have American make the most fuel efficient producer of autos. Also asking that we be patriotic about something other than war.

8:01

Now he's telling what sacrifices we have to make to get our county back..30 to 40 cents of every dollar goes toward admin costs in health care. Calling for universal healthcare - every American will be covered. Complete mental health parity - long term and chronic care - OUTLAW PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS - subsidize ah. misse that one talking too fast - - 90 to 100 billion dollars a year to pay for his healthcare plan rolling back the tax cuts to the rich......talking about Katrina now....

8:05pm

Talking abou this poverty center in NC. Talking about a book about ending poverty and he's going to talk about one anti poverty idea - - make it easier for kids to go to college - - his idea, College For Everyone. Qualify for college out of HS - state univerity - money for tuition and college costs with a WPA project where the student works for the college money and mke it affordable. Missing some of this - - applause loud - - Last year in America the top 300,000 income earners made more than the bottom 150 million. Something's wrong when that happens. We need to make the bottom 150 million feel part of the way up - - heading for Iraq now - - Says he has a simple view about Iraq - - America needs to be leaving Iraq. Sunni - Shia dispute is not solvable - need to engage in Syrians and Iranians and deal wtih Iraq honestly with ourselves and the rest of the world. Now he's asking us to work for these goals. Asking us to sacrifice - - talking about Elizabeth - - talking about asking Elizabeth what she needed on hearing the bad news about her cancer - - she told him she needed him to stay in the race and cause for America. Talking about his family gets great health care coverage. But what about he rest of America? When other people get the bad news they got they get up and go to work the next morning. We need to right this.

8:13pm

Now he's saying what are you willing to do for your country. Whar are you going to do for this country - - the room is quite - - you can hear a pin drop - - he's got the crowd in his hand - - here's a question for all of us? Will or can we make this country the country of the 21st Century? What can you do? When you leave tonight will you ask yourself what will you do for this country if you love it so much? Talking about the Texas Ranger now - - Bush saying go shopping - buy a computer - and Bush and Cheney will take care of you. Don't want them taking care of me. We are cowering in the corner. We are stong and courageous - its time to stand up - - time for the Democrats to stand up band be bold and creative - - time for us to lead again. The country needs US. Talking about what we need to do for the countyr - - we have to do it! Finshes up with a god bless you. Standing "O." Awesome speech! He talked so fast I couldn't get a lot of it and I know how disjointed it all was.

8:19pm

He's now working the crowd and signing autographs. Some people are standing back and just watching, but most are trying to get closer reaching out to him. Lot's of camera's going off. He's only a few feet from me and I can't get over how personable he is. Very nice job Senator. Going to drop the laptop here and walk over to see if I can get a nice close shot.......

8:27pm

Ok. The Senator just left. The crowd is dispersing. I just talked to Wayne Hogan and scored an interview ok with him in the near future. Well, getting ready to head out getting home to the family and putting up a wrap up post before the evening is out. This turned out very nice and it looks like I'll be doing this again. Next time maybe a little better now that I now the dynamic involved here.