So after the whirlwind that was the Democratic National Convention in Denver last weekend, Obama and his running mate Joe Biden made a stop in Columbus this past Saturday. Having nothing better to do, I headed to the high school stadium in the northwest part of town that held the event and waited about four hours to festivities begin.
It was worth it. I wasn't blown away by much; not by the speakers, which included Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and Governor Ted Strickland, nor by the crowd, which the news later reported at around 20,000 and was sprawled all over the football field and into the stands. But I was impressed by how well planned the speaking portion of the event was.
All the speakers leading up to Obama--including Biden--wore either a suit, shirt and tie, or shirt/coat/no tie combination. Obama was the most casually dressed, wearing dark slacks and a light blue dress shirt. Not only does he pull off that look very well, he presented himself as the one most reaching out to the thousands of people gathered, most of us dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. So this was all very smartly run.
The other key difference between Obama and his Democratic partners was in speaking style. Before Barack's keynote address of the evening, all speakers before him spoke behind a podium mounted on the stage. Obama took the microphone off of the podium and walked around the stage as he addressed the crowd, another way of making himself seem more approachable to the audience. I think Barack's a fantastic speaker when he's prepared and up for that big moment, like he was Thursday night, but when it comes to being off-the-cuff, he seems like he still has work to do. He stuttered a few words and let out a few "ums," and it reminded me of some of his debate struggles with Hilary earlier this year. He'll need to be prepared again for that first debate with McCain, I think in early October.
In spite of that, Obama does have two huge factors in his favor:
1) People go crazy for Obama merely by making eye contact with him. He would turn towards a group of people clustered near the stage and they would start screaming. I'm not making this up. Obama didn't ask for this kind of celebrity status, it came to him.
2) He has such a natural, relaxed charisma with his public speaking. As he and Biden (who is also a fine and exciting speaker) strode to the stage, Obama had a huge smile on his face as he shook hands with people, and continued to smile during the introductions of the two candidates. I think this natural connection Obama has with his supporters is so damn intimidating to McCain's campaign staff, they can't help but compare him with Britney Spears.
The highlight of the rally happened during Obama's speech, when a woman about thirty yards away from the stage fainted. Obama asked (on the mic) for EMTs to assist in the heat-stricken woman, and then said, (and I'm paraphrasing), "Actually, we probably have some water here." He went behind the podium and pulled out a bottle of water, tossing it into the crowd so they could hand it back to the woman.
The crowd went nuts over this. He might as well have turned the water into wine.
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