President Barack Obama Visits Tampa Bay

In 2008, I was incredibly inspired by the man we would call President. It was the first election I could vote in and I couldn’t have felt prouder to be an American than at the moment when I selected Barack Obama’s name. I promised myself that someday I would see him speak in person. On September 8th, that dream finally came true.

I first heard about the Obama rally following the Democratic National Convention while waiting for my evening class to start at USF. As if the President’s appearance alone wasn’t enough, this rally was going to be held at St. Petersburg College’s Seminole campus which probably meant that his speech would focus on students. I was going to do whatever it took to get a ticket to the rally.

There were several ticket stops around the Tampa Bay area for this rally. I decided to go to the one in St. Petersburg, located downtown at President Obama’s campaign headquarters. Unsure of what time to get there or what kind of line to expect on a Wednesday afternoon, I played it safe and got there two hours ahead of time, at 3 o’clock. There were probably about 50 people in front of me. The worst part was the wait, as I had no idea how many tickets each location had.

The wait went fairly quickly with an iPod and friendly people to small talk with. Volunteers for the Obama campaign passed out water bottles and led cheers to keep the crowd fired up. The ticket distribution started on time and went swiftly. I had to fill out a form with my information on it, handed it to a woman who, in return, gave me a ticket!

I got out of the area as fast as possible because it got hectic quick. No matter how corny it sounds, I got a little emotional while walking back to my car. I couldn’t wait for Saturday!

(I didn’t take any pictures at the ticket distribution because I wasn’t certain I’d receive a ticket. No ticket meant no blog post. But, the Tampa Bay Times wrote a good story about not only the line in St. Petersburg, but the lines all over the Bay area. Oh, and someone’s picture made it in the paper! Check out the story here!).

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I often have dreams of oversleeping for important events. Not wanting to allow any of those to come true on Saturday, I didn’t go to sleep. Lots of Mountain Dew and coffee assisted in this effort. I had heard on Friday night that the President was supposed to speak at about 11am, with the doors opening at 8:30am. Keeping this in mind, I left my house at about 5:00am.

Police cars blocked the entrance to the campus. A policeman told me that I would have to wait across the street until Secret Service had cleared the area. I parked in the adjacent recreation center parking lot and headed to the back of a line of about 20 people. I passed the time by watching news trucks and buses arrive at the campus.

There was a scary moment sometime around 6. A man walking down the street apparently asked a passerby what he thought of all of this. The passerby was an Obama supporter and told him so. The other man then apparently started to unbutton his shirt and said, “This is what I think.” There was what appeared to be suspicious material under his shirt. A woman from the line I was in ran across the street to report this to police. Soon after, three police cars rushed over and arrested the man, who was wearing a fake beard and appeared drunk.

This was when the morning became one of the most confusing/disorganized mornings of my life.

Everyone in the line noticed that it wasn’t growing. A couple people went across the street to see if there was another line…and they never came back. Soon enough, there was a stampede across 113th street. At least 150 people were “lined up” near the campus on a curb outside the recreation center. It was then that I realized that it wasn’t going to matter what time you arrived, but rather how in shape you were. I had my tennis shoes on and was ready to run wherever.

Good thing because there were two or three more stints of running to different locations on the campus. I’m not sure what caused all of this chaos, but I’m guessing bad communication between Secret Service and police. I wish I would have gotten pictures or video of this  scene, but I never knew when a safe time to take out my camera would be because who knew when we’d have to run somewhere else?

At last, probably around 7am, police led the growing crowd in golf carts to what would be our final lineup spot. This was equivalent to the final sprint of a race. Somehow I ended up in front of a crowd of hundreds (at least). I’ve never had a more genuine fear of being trampled in my life.

The line started to spread around the lake as the morning went on.

It was written on the ticket that to gain admittance, we would need to go through airport-like security. This was the most organized part of the morning.

After being packed in like sardines for around 45 minutes, we were let in, about 20 people at a time. I was in the second group of people let in. We were told not to run onto the field where the President would be speaking and I was more than happy to follow this request. After about three and a half hours of running and standing, I couldn’t have asked for a better spot.

There were two press stands. One for local media (which I was standing in front of) and one for national media (to the right of me).

Local:

National (more journalists came out later to pack these stands because they were inside the building talking with the President):

Snipers took to the buildings about 30 minutes before the speech. They surveyed the area with binoculars. I counted five of them and those were just the ones I could see. A helicopter circled overhead during all of the speeches.

The ceremony began with the Pledge of Allegiance, National Anthem, and a prayer. There were also two speeches made by a local student and a volunteer for Obama’s campaign.

After those introductory speeches came the opening acts. Representative Kathy Castor began.

Following Rep. Castor was Senator Bill Nelson, one of my favorites.

The crowd’s energy was at its highest right before the President’s introductory speech came. More of the blue “FORWARD” signs seen in the above pictures were passed out. Cheers erupted throughout the crowd. And on an upsetting note, at least five people in my area alone fainted due to the heat. I can’t imagine waiting for six hours to hear the President speak and fainting right before he took the stage.

To introduce the President was former Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Although he was a Republican Governor, Crist’s views leaned more left upon leaving office.

Take a look at the estimated crowd of around 11,000 right before the President spoke.

At last, after no sleep and six hours of standing, the President of the United States took the stage!

As you can imagine, I was snapping like crazy trying to get at least some good pictures. Luckily, I got plenty. I’m only posting the best here.

My favorite moment of the speech was when the President was talking about tax cuts created by Republicans. Jokingly, he said that they have tax cuts for everything; tax cuts to help you lose weight, tax cuts to help your love life, etc. A guy standing two people down from me shouted, “They haven’t helped my love life!” The President said, “See, they don’t help your love life” and looked toward the guy.

He talked for probably 20 minutes, mentioning the problems students are facing to afford a college education. Before I knew it, he was wrapping up and waving toward the crowd.

Although I was in the first row of general admission supporters, the President only shook hands with those in front of me, in a different section. Next, it was time for me to fight the crowds to my car.

I couldn’t help but notice the large amounts of water bottles littering the ground. I’ve run ten half marathons; never have I seen so many water bottles!

The walk back to the car was crowded, but more organized than trying to get into this event! Several Escot buses shuttled supporters to and from the nearby Seminole Mall. I was really glad I got there early enough to secure a close parking spot.

Another scene you won’t see often; 113th street closed with thousands of people walking back to their cars.

Even though I had a close spot, I couldn’t leave. 113th street remained closed until the President’s motorcade left the area. This was when my sleepless night caught up to me. I sat down in my car and almost fell asleep. I really did want to see the motorcade, though, so I tried hard to keep my eyes open. After about 40 minutes of waiting, the motorcade made its way right past me. It was worth the wait!

Nothing screams campaign trail like a massive Presidential bus! And, with that, my brush with President Obama was over. It took me a few days to truly take in what a once-in-a-lifetime experience that was; to be within feet of the President.

Needless to say, this is my longest blog post yet. Thank you if you’ve made it all the way through! It’s a day I’ll certainly never forget. No matter your political preference, I hope you enjoyed reading about what it’s like to be at a Presidential appearance; and the excitement and frustration that goes along with it.

Vote November 6th!