Yes We Can!!!!

On saturday morning Barack Obama spoke in Manchester at a public rally. I decided that this was something I needed to attend. He was not expected to speak until 10:30but they were opening up the gates at 8:30... I walked down to the park at 7:45 and when I arrived at the park the line was already blocks long. I found the end of the line and began chatting it up with the people around me. It was like going to a concert. People selling buttons, shirts, etc.. While we stood on line we watched literally thousands of people trying to find the end of the line. At 8:30 the line finally started to move... It took about 40 minutes to get into the park. This involved going through security that rivaled any airport in the days after 9/11...Metal Detectors, No bottles, no food... cell phones and cameras open and turned on etc...
Getting there that early ensured me a spot pretty close to the stage...
Here is the stage pre-speech...

Here is a picture of the crowd 7,000+ strong

At around 10:15 there were a number of introductory speeches including Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter and Governor John Lynch. Finally at around 10:40 Obama's bus (and entourage of security vehicles arrived) The crowd (which was estimated between 7-8 thousand people) went absolutely nuts...

The man of the hour had arrived....
Obama gave a great speech that lasted about 35-40 minutes... The crowd had some much energy and reacted to everything he said...
here he is...

Needless to say...Hearing Obama speak in person was amazing... It's one thing to see him on TV but to see it in person was special.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed....

P.S... If you are so inclined..and have 35 minutes to spare..here is a youtube video of the speech I saw..Such powerful words.....