Report from the Ground in North Texas--(looks like she needs a massive

[rodeodance]

influx of ground support. So do what you can please.




Forum Name General Discussion: Primaries
Topic subject Report from the Ground in North Texas
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4722125#4722125
4722125, Report from the Ground in North Texas
Posted by crispini on Fri Feb-22-08 10:47 PM

In the last two weeks I have attended:
- a Bill Clinton rally in Tyler, Texas, about 2 hours east of Dallas.
- the Obama rally in Dallas
- and the Hillary rally today in Dallas.

I'd like to talk a little bit about what I saw at those rallies and the political landscape I am seeing in North Texas.

Bill in Tyler:
We only got the email about this event the night before. Maybe they wanted to keep it small. About 1,000 people turned out for this standing-room only rally. It was packed tight and it seemed very well organized. Campaign staff collected contact information from the crowd beforehand. Bill was only about half an hour late, and when he spoke, the first thing he told us was to go to the caucus. He got a lot of support from the crowd. Bringing the troops home got a big cheer. He spoke a lot about policies and programs and the state our country is in today. I wish he had spoken a bit more about Hillary as a person -- shared some personal anecdotes or something. Also, as he continued to speak, people did drift away. By the end of his speech, I would estimate about a fifth or a sixth of the crowd had left. Admittedly many had probably been standing for several hours, or had somewhere to go, but the crowd was noticeably thinner.

Overall, a solid campaign event, but not extraordinary.

Obama in Dallas:
This event was impressive for its sheer size: about 16,000. But also for its logistics. They had 300 volunteers and these volunteers were collecting contact information and giving everyone in the crowd a "ticket" which we actually were allowed to keep. This "ticket" had early voting locations and dates and times, not just for Dallas, but for four surrounding counties. There was a panoply of local Democratic officials attending: The DA, the sheriff, almost every Texas house representative, the DA, a state senator, and congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. The speakers before Obama reminded us about the caucus, twice. Former mayor Ron Kirk and football champ Emmitt Smith really brought the 'star power' and of course, Obama himself had the crowd pretty much in the palm of his hand. He really is a wonderful speaker. There were plenty of specifics in his speech too.

Overall, an extremely impressive campaign event. We haven't seen anything like THAT down here in a looooooooooong time.

Hillary in Dallas:
First I'd like to point out that I'm quite sure she did not know about the fatality of the motorcycle officer before the rally. It is very sad and my heart goes out to his family.

We didn't hear about the event until last night. There were probably about 1000 people, all told. The parking lot was packed. However, nobody was collecting names and address and contact information. Also, there was no 'takeaway' for the crowd to tell people where to vote early, or to remind them of the caucus. Hillary herself did remind us of the caucus, but the speakers before her did not. Her speech was quite good -- she has some wonderful, very specific things to say, and the crowd loved her.

Again, overall, a solid campaign event, but the fact that the campaign didn't have a list of early voting locations to give out was not good. Also, the fact that they didn't collect contact information was not good either.

Outside of the rallies, in general, the people I know who are supporting Hillary are, by and large, some of the "old guard" party members who have been around for quite some time. The party regulars who are supporting Obama seem to be mostly the Deaniacs from 2004, some of whom have also been around a while, some of whom were new. And, the campaign is bringing out new people in droves. I mean, boatloads, busfuls, incredible amounts of new people. I have been used to going to Dem events and knowing half the people there. Nowadays, the Obama events are filled with fresh faces. Also it really does seem to me that the Obama grassroots is tearing it up. A search on Obama events 100 miles from my zip code gets 214 events. The same search on Hillary events gets 25.

I'm thinking Obama is going to do quite well at the caucuses.