So last week, in preparation for Wyoming’s caucus, Senator Hillary Clinton, President Clinton and Senator Barak Obama were in town! We haven’t had a presidential candidate come to Wyoming since 2000 when Ralph Nader came. Since I don’t think that counts, the last time we had a president visit was JFK in 1963, just two weeks before he was assassinated.
There was a TON of excitement generated from both Clintons and Obama’s visits. On Thursday night my former intern, Tiffany, and one of her friends, 7 year old Gerald and I went to see Clinton. We stood in line for more than an hour in the freezing cold only to be turned away when we could finally see the front door to the auditorium. (We were about 15 people back). I bet there were another 1,000 behind us. For some reason, whether it was the University of Wyoming or Clinton’s campaign manager, they choose a venue that only sat 1,200. This seemed strange to be when earlier in the day he had been in Riverton, Wyoming (a town with a much smaller population than Laramie) and 2,000 plus came out. Somebody wasn’t planning ahead.
As a side note, I’ve heard various conspiracy theories floating about town about this. Some think the Obama camp booked the larger venue, which seats 15,000, two nights to block Clinton. Some think the UW is taking sides, offering the larger venue to Obama the next night. Some think it would look bad on TV if there were empty seats, so rather than try to fill a large venue, they went small.
Anywaz, we were “re-directed” to an adjacent auditorium, the UW field house. Only about 60 to 80 sat in there and listened to the speech. There was no live feed TV, just his voice. It was still very exciting. He made a great comment about, “Wouldn’t it be great if Wyoming, the Equality State, would help elect the first woman president?!?” He went on to say, it would be just as cool to see the first African American president, Hispanic president, and in his lifetime, first Native American president.
Oh, I should tell you about Gerald. He is this super smart kid that knows a lot about the US President and wants to be one himself when he grows up. He stood in line with us, with his hunter orange jacket and cowboy boots, and didn’t even fuss when we got turned away. But he did want to stay and listen. He was so good. Half way through Bill’s speech, Tiffany took him back to the front door where the line had ended. There was a policy officer there and when Tiffany explained Gerald really wanted to see the President, he let him inside! He only stayed for a few minutes, long enough to tell us what color tie the President was wearing!
When we took Gerald home we read to him from the newspaper that JFK (his mother’s favorite President) had come to Laramie in 1963 and spoke to a crowd in the UW Field House. The same building we were sitting in. I think this boosted his spirits because he responded, “Wouldn’t it be cool if Clinton and Kennedy ran together?”
The next night Jason and I, and about 12,000 other Wyoming Democrats filled the basketball arena to hear Obama speak. I took the photos with my cell phone so no, they aren’t great, but hopefully you can see/feel the excitement that filled the room.
He made jokes about UW mascot, Pistol Pete saying his security guards took away Pete’s pistol so tonight, he was just Pete. He made fun of being related to Dick Cheney, saying something like; you hope when someone does your genealogy, they will find you are related to someone cool. With him that wasn’t the case, he was disappointed to learn he was related to Cheney. This statement could have been risky in Wyoming, where Cheney calls home, but the crowd roared with laughter.
He spoke about a lot of the same things Clinton did, the need for better health care, improved education, lower tuition, rewards for teachers, the war in Iraq and alternative energy production. I think most would agree, both Hillary and Obama stand for a lot of the same things.
Saturday I got up earlier than usual, 6:30 and made it to Laramie’s Civic Center by 7:15. There was already a line. Last time there was a Democrat caucus in Wyoming; only 300 showed up, this time, it was over a 1,000. There was a lot of enthusiasm for both candidates and everyone was generally very positive and hopefully about the possibilities.
This morning I learned that Obama got the majority of delegates from Wyoming.
Yes, I am proud to be an American. Proud that the youth of this country are taking notice, that there is a general feeling of concern and a need to be involved. I was proud to see so many Democrats in Laramie come out and caucus. It was a wonderful experience. My friend Alana says, “Wyoming (who is traditionally a Republican state) just doesn’t know it yet”. We are all Democrats at heart!
There was a TON of excitement generated from both Clintons and Obama’s visits. On Thursday night my former intern, Tiffany, and one of her friends, 7 year old Gerald and I went to see Clinton. We stood in line for more than an hour in the freezing cold only to be turned away when we could finally see the front door to the auditorium. (We were about 15 people back). I bet there were another 1,000 behind us. For some reason, whether it was the University of Wyoming or Clinton’s campaign manager, they choose a venue that only sat 1,200. This seemed strange to be when earlier in the day he had been in Riverton, Wyoming (a town with a much smaller population than Laramie) and 2,000 plus came out. Somebody wasn’t planning ahead.
As a side note, I’ve heard various conspiracy theories floating about town about this. Some think the Obama camp booked the larger venue, which seats 15,000, two nights to block Clinton. Some think the UW is taking sides, offering the larger venue to Obama the next night. Some think it would look bad on TV if there were empty seats, so rather than try to fill a large venue, they went small.
Anywaz, we were “re-directed” to an adjacent auditorium, the UW field house. Only about 60 to 80 sat in there and listened to the speech. There was no live feed TV, just his voice. It was still very exciting. He made a great comment about, “Wouldn’t it be great if Wyoming, the Equality State, would help elect the first woman president?!?” He went on to say, it would be just as cool to see the first African American president, Hispanic president, and in his lifetime, first Native American president.
Oh, I should tell you about Gerald. He is this super smart kid that knows a lot about the US President and wants to be one himself when he grows up. He stood in line with us, with his hunter orange jacket and cowboy boots, and didn’t even fuss when we got turned away. But he did want to stay and listen. He was so good. Half way through Bill’s speech, Tiffany took him back to the front door where the line had ended. There was a policy officer there and when Tiffany explained Gerald really wanted to see the President, he let him inside! He only stayed for a few minutes, long enough to tell us what color tie the President was wearing!
When we took Gerald home we read to him from the newspaper that JFK (his mother’s favorite President) had come to Laramie in 1963 and spoke to a crowd in the UW Field House. The same building we were sitting in. I think this boosted his spirits because he responded, “Wouldn’t it be cool if Clinton and Kennedy ran together?”
The next night Jason and I, and about 12,000 other Wyoming Democrats filled the basketball arena to hear Obama speak. I took the photos with my cell phone so no, they aren’t great, but hopefully you can see/feel the excitement that filled the room.
He made jokes about UW mascot, Pistol Pete saying his security guards took away Pete’s pistol so tonight, he was just Pete. He made fun of being related to Dick Cheney, saying something like; you hope when someone does your genealogy, they will find you are related to someone cool. With him that wasn’t the case, he was disappointed to learn he was related to Cheney. This statement could have been risky in Wyoming, where Cheney calls home, but the crowd roared with laughter.He spoke about a lot of the same things Clinton did, the need for better health care, improved education, lower tuition, rewards for teachers, the war in Iraq and alternative energy production. I think most would agree, both Hillary and Obama stand for a lot of the same things.
Saturday I got up earlier than usual, 6:30 and made it to Laramie’s Civic Center by 7:15. There was already a line. Last time there was a Democrat caucus in Wyoming; only 300 showed up, this time, it was over a 1,000. There was a lot of enthusiasm for both candidates and everyone was generally very positive and hopefully about the possibilities.
This morning I learned that Obama got the majority of delegates from Wyoming.Yes, I am proud to be an American. Proud that the youth of this country are taking notice, that there is a general feeling of concern and a need to be involved. I was proud to see so many Democrats in Laramie come out and caucus. It was a wonderful experience. My friend Alana says, “Wyoming (who is traditionally a Republican state) just doesn’t know it yet”. We are all Democrats at heart!
- Trey
P.S. Jason is a Republican. With, I might add, some very good solutions to gun control and school shootings. We find away to meet in the middle and explore our common ground. He is a good man!
No comments:
Post a Comment