WOW! And a wonderful time was had by all on Monday evening when Barack Obama was in town for the NAACP convention. His speech was shown on the jumbotron on Fountain Square and our noisy, happy crowd was cheering all the way through! What a good time!
My friend Pat arrived at 5:45 and was able to get us the last 2 chairs on the Square. I got there at 6:30 after picking up sandwiches at What’s for Dinner. We spent the hour and a half until the speech schmoozing with all our friends and guarding our territory.
Barack is such an excellent orator and good thinker – clear, direct, hopeful and sure of our ability to make change. When he talked about the responsibilities of parents, both crowds went wild – the one at the convention, and the one on the Square. They loved it.
I noticed early in the campaign on that his speeches are longer than the previous norm for candidate speeches. He seldom speaks less than 20 minutes, and is often near the 40 minute mark. He’s such a good teacher that we all listen and learn. And the other candidates, with much less to say, had to lengthen their speeches.
This was a good one – he was comfortable, serious, occasionally playful, many more smiles than in other gatherings recently. So he enjoyed the convention and Cincinnati – and we sure enjoyed him!