Second, yes, mention of Lil Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's name drew many boos along with applause. A woman standing next to me even asked if he was a Republican. She added that she wasn't sure about him. I said I thought of Sarah Palin as Luke in lipstick and she nodded.
Third, in that huge crowd I did happen across a couple of people I know: Lindsay "I Heart Pgh" Patross (she posts about the rally at MetBlogs) and Khari "Diondega 412" Mosley.
Now on to the main show.
OK, admittedly not such a great photo:
But, I was standing way up here:
Here's the best shot -- both looking towards my end of the arena and in focus!
By the end, I think everyone was on their feet:
I didn't take notes. Barack Obama gave what is now known as his "closing arguments" speech. But I wanted to be there in person and soak it all in and it was a beautiful thing to see so many Pittsburghers cheering on the person who must, must, must be our next president.
UPDATE: Laurie has lots more photos here.
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14 comments:
"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
http://texasswimming.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-do-these-men-have-in-common.html
Senator Obama was inspirational. I hope you all will volunteer in the next 7 days in the GOTV effort.
From my seat 1 section above the local Democratic officials I got to watch Ravenstahl and his minion Yarone hanging out with Jeffrey Romoff, his child bride, and the blonde chick who does the UPMC minute commercials on TV.
The booing for the mayor was really loud where I was and Lil Luke seemed to be disturbed by the negative response. LOL!
That blond chick who does the UPMC commercials is at a lot of political events.
Dan Rooney, who is not a young man by any means, has been spent his last two Saturdays riding a bus with retired Steelers and officials from the USW, in support of Obama. I was privileged to see them on Saturday, in Beaver. (Have my "Steel Blitz for Barack" jersey on as I write this.)
And, yesterday, there was Dan Rooney intro-ing Sen. Obama.
I point this out because Dan Rooney looks pretty frail. Surprisingly frail. But he's willing to ride a bus, and spend time speaking and shaking hands with people from Johnstown, PA to Canton, OH. That's dedication.
God bless you, Mr. Rooney.
maria,
i'm certain that i will seem woefully ignorant to some for this question, but... what exactly is soooo bad about mayor ravenstahl? i musn't be paying attention. every time he's referenced on here, its negative and snarky. i'm sure you and dave both have reasons, i just don't know what they are.
i'm kinda' indifferent on the man. *shrug*
it looks like it was a wonderful event.
as to socialism, every resident of alaska gets a check because of the oil there.
what would you call that?
If I might step in to answer on the Mayor,
He has turned out to be a serial liar. I probably won'table to reproduce all of the stories, but it started before he became Mayor (or I believe, Presdient of Council). He was involved in an altercation at a Halloween game at Heinz field, he said words to a cop (maybe pushed) during a situation where peole were tryingto crowd into the game (and the Mayor was intoxicated). The Mayor was handcuffed and then mysteriously released. He denied the incident had occurred (untill a blogger, John Mcintire, broke the story) and still says that no influence was used in his release.
Next the Mayor promoted three police men, all three of whom had domestic violence issues. This fermented for a while until council held a public hearing, to which the Mayor was invited. No, he couldn't attend because he was in Harrisburg, lobying for Pittsburgh. Except he was actually at a celebrity golf tournament. And his ticket was paid for by UPMC and the Penguins. Th Mayor had recently finished making appointments to the long dormant ethics board (brought in existence legislatively ten years ago, but never staffed!). So the Mayor was the first case they heard! Of course, they couldn't do more than rebuke him, although he sees it as an exoneration.
There is the trip to New York with Ron Burkle after getting the Penguins arena deal done (and keeping the Penguins in town). He blew off a neighborhood association meeting then enxt morning becuase he was still in New York.
There was the use of a Homeland Security funded ppolice SUV to go a Toby Keith concert out at Starlake, and the accompanying fallout.
And this does not begin toaddress the fact that the City is in lousy shape, still under an Act 47 5 year plan that will end soon, and the Mayor's own budget projections show us going into the red in about two years, and yet the Mayor has made no plans, and has made no public statement about how we will survive. The only thing he has done is release the Nordenberg report for city/county merger, that would effectively end city government (and any representation of city residents beyond one county council member) and still leave us with our current billion dollar debt.
And that's not even talking about Pat Ford.
Here's a half dozen or so reasons after a quick search (I see edheath already mentioned many of these):
The Thing With Two Heads
Luke Ravenstahl's Big Bad Media Day
Why does Luke Ravenstahl Hate America and Love Al Qaeda?
No, really. Why?
L. "Scooter" Ravenstahl: Third Documented Incident of Luke LYING
Brand Ravenstahl TM Revisited
City Council Hearing This Thursday on Promoting Cops with Histories of Abuse
Photo of Mayor Luke with Tiger Woods!
Mayor Luke's Baby Pics Revealed! ...In His Campaign Mailer
"Must, must, must" be our next president? You have GOT to be kidding me. An anti-Israel, anti-life, anti-captialism, anti-American man as our next president?
Are you out of your freakin' MIND?
And the crowd yesterday at the rally responded with cheers after Sen Obama introduced and thankded Rendell, cheers for Doyle, cheers Casey, not many cheers for Onorato, and clearly "Boo" from over half of the audience for Ravenstahl. Very interesting.
The bar is relatively low in this context -- these are strong Democrats, ready to cheer -- so a Democrat has to work hard to earn boos at "shout out" time.
Doyle, Casey, Rendell -- none has stepped in buckets of crap lately, so it's raining cheers.
Onorato -- people don't like the fact he still shows no signs of understanding his mistake on the drink tax. Democrats dislike unfairness. Therefore, no cheers for Dan, even from "his people." A bad trend -- he's been getting this treatment for almost a year -- with no end in sight.
Luke -- he's doing the best he can. Which, of course, explains the boos.
ed, maria, thank you. i'll look into all of that.
and lk, you're right. it's not "must must must be"
it's HE WILL BE!
lol.
live with it.
I was there and I don't think half the audience booed Opie. There were some definite, loud boos however in response to his name being mentioned. I also don't think he's quite as stupid as Sarah, but...if I lived in Pittsburgh, I wouldn't vote for him either.
But, why wasn't the Democratic mayor of Pittsburgh on hand to welcome the Democratic presidential candidate? The governor, a senator and a Congressional representative managed to be there. Where was Luke?
Hey, stone cold - why is it OK for the Republican party (with sign-off from Democrats) agree to partially nationalize the banks?? Oh, is it only "socialism" if a Democrat suggests such policies?
More rally info and photos:
http://pl524.pairlitesite.com/blog/2008/10/photos-from-barack-obamas-pittsburgh.html
Laurie,
I think one of the reasons he was booed is because is always seems to be missing from Obama events or slipping out early...
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