Yes, I went!
I was one of the lucky 200 who won tickets to last Thursday's debate here in Austin between bigwig hotshot libtard leftists Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Ahem. You guys know I'd never stoop to the level of a Limbaugh and actually seriously use the word "libtard", right? Right? And that on the political continuum, I'm much closer to the socialists than the Republicans?
I got the call on Wednesday at about 5:15. Turned out I was very, very lucky... the Texas Democratic Party had already sent me an email, which I'd summarily trashed. I get a LOT of junk mail from the Texas Democratic Party, and I usually don't pay much attention to it. Had I missed out on this, it would have had to rank in the top ten stupid things I've done in my life, probably just above that time I fell down with my arms stuck in my leotard and had to have ten stitches in my dumbass chin.
The very nice, and very tired, young man on the phone told me I was to report to the Recreational Sports Center (NOT the LBJ library, as lots of media outlets erroneously reported) between 4:30 and 6 for the 7 o'clock debate. I was to have on my person a photo ID, no weapons, no recording devices, and of course NO UMBRELLAS.
No umbrellas? Were they afraid of a repeat of Georgy Markov's 1978 slaying?
After some reflection, I think it was more because each of us peon debate attendees were given about 10 inches of assroom on bleachers so uncomfortable they, too, could have been Soviet.
Let me back up for a second.
Being the worrywart I am, I arrived at 4:25 to an extremely long line. When I finally made my way up to the front, I was told "you're green" and shunted off to the left, where a scrubbed UT student fitted me with a green wristband. People around me were given blue and yellow, and I later saw some red in the fancypants politicos section.
After that, there was only the trip through the security magnetometers before we were ushered onto the floor of the gym, totally retrofitted by CNN into some sort of debate mecca. "Green's over on the far side of the room," said the chirpy volunteer handing out programs.
My ass first hit the bleacher just after 5 PM. At 5:15, 5:37, and 5:53 we were told to squeeze. "We're Democrats, we all get along!" harried organizers shouted from the floor. Meanwhile, the bleachers across from us, which seemed to be populated by yellow armbanders, were half-empty. Much grumbling was heard as our stairs filled up in defiance of fire code. (Don't call the fire dept., the flouters did eventually get moved.)
I chatted with the lovely Martha from Lakeway to my right, and spoke a little with the CNN meteorologist and his grandmother sitting behind me. Martha said "If you work for CNN, why couldn't you get your grandmother better seats?"
Just before the doors closed at 6, a wave of state elected officials took over the center of the floor and provided minutes of entertainment to us lowly bleacher-sitters. A group of them would sit, but as a new senator or representative made their way over to their seat, everyone would bob up and down shaking hands and embracing. From above, it looked like a perfectly choreographed dance. Not a waltz, though. A line-dance. We are in Texas, and they were sitting in rows, right?
At 6:15, I lost ten minutes off my life when the UT marching band started in with a BAM and a BOOMPA BOOM and a "Deep in the Heart of Texas (clapclapclapclap). Those of us who knew the words (not me) then got to sing along to "The Eyes of Texas" and make lots and lots of "Hook'Em" signs in perfect unison set to various UT fight songs.
Look, I went to the University of South Carolina, and made it to one football game my entire college career. I'm not the best person to offer insights into the mass insanity of collegiate loyalties.
Then, we got speeches from the president of the UT Democrats (must have been a pretty cool day for her!) and the head of the Texas Democratic Party and the president of UT and the dean of the LBJ school.
And we pledged allegiance and listed to a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem by a group of people in ill-fitting button-down burnt-orange shirts. Not a flattering color, UT.
When Chelsea entered at 6:55 the whole place broke out in applause and all the reps bum-rushed her.
Then we all got to meet Campbell Brown (the girl with no TV says "who?"), and we enthusiastically followed orders to applaud as she said... something I couldn't hear because we were applauding. And then, the debaters were introduced. Hillary came out to applause that I thought was wild until Obama entered and people...
My notes say "freaked the fuck out," which is true, if crude, like me. The women next to me, who'd been speaking in Portuguese, started stomping their feet so hard I was afraid for the structural integrity of the bleachers.
I'm not going to subject you to (or make myself write about) a detailed discussion of exactly what they debated about. After all, it went out to everyone over the teevee. I will say, though, that I agree with the conventional wisdom about Hillary being a much better debater than Obama... he started out distracted, like he was afraid he'd left the gas on back home, and recovered only a little. Yes, he does have those flourishes and lots of populist lines that the crowd ate up, and he did negate some of Hillary's attacks, but over all, she's just a bulldog who doesn't let go.
Listening to her made me sad. I really could have seen myself being a fairly enthusiastic supporter of hers, but for the dynastic aspects of her run and the brand of politics she and her husband have been playing.
I was actually surprised at the times the crowd hissed at her, though.
And, if you were wondering what goes on during the commercial breaks, well... the candidates rushed off the stage, presumably for bathroom breaks and makeup reapplication, while flustered makeup people came out to powder the anchors. And every single person in the bleachers who was capable of it stood up so as to take some of the weight off of their by now thoroughly misshapen posteriors.
That's why I'm honestly not sure if that last "standing ovation" received by Hillary (after her line about "we'll all be OK, and I just hope that's true of the American people") was really a standing ovation, or just people taking some of the pressure off of their backsides because they thought the debate was over. There had been some confusion before the end of the very last commercial break five minutes or so prior, when things just kind of trailed off and some PA or AD yelled "THREE MINUTES OVER" - so most of the crowd was actually surprised when we came back for the last segment, and kind of unsure how long it would be since we'd already run over.
So there's your bit of controversy from someone who was actually there.
I didn't try to get their autographs. I was far enough back in the bleachers that I'd have had to elbow people and leap over them to get to the candidates before they left. Instead, I exited the recreational sports center and dodged lots of people with recorders or TV cameras or selling rinky-dink cheap shirts with grammar errors (there's a Obama in each of us, indeed) and ran back to my car to get my poor unused camera.
And here's the shot I was able to get of the debate.
Thanks for sticking with me for all that talk and all that lack of photographic evidence. It was so wonderful to be able to go to the debate. Now, on to the primary and the caucusing! (We get to do both in Texas. Isn't that bizarre?)
i'm a huge new fan (from your typepad mention) and don't understand why you don't have like 300 comments a day of praise.
Hours after reading this post yesterday I still laughed aloud thinking about the leotard/arms fall.
anyway i look forward to lots of lurking here and excellent writing and insights and photos and everything, thanks!
Posted by: emilie | Tuesday, 26 February 2008 at 01:23
ps i live in kenya (i'm american) in case you happen to have any Africa thoughts/desires...
www.theflametree.typepad.com
Posted by: emilie | Tuesday, 26 February 2008 at 01:25
Aw, emilie, thanks! I really appreciate your kind comments, and I'm so glad you found us through typepad!
It's amazing that you live in Kenya - my aunt spends a good chunk of her year in Nairobi. I look forward to checking out your blog!
Posted by: girlie | Tuesday, 26 February 2008 at 19:55