The Race At Case

So the debate was held in Cleveland last night, at Case Western University (the one law school I have absolutely no respect for whatsoever, but that’s another story). "The Race at Case" they were calling it, isn’t that clever??

Anyway, after much cajoling, I finally convinced my best friend that she wanted to drive like 3 hours to come to the Debate Watch Party (outside) and the Rally with John Edwards afterwards. (Just so you all understand what type of friend we have here, she couldn’t leave work until like 5:45 pm., and she had to leave Cleveland to drive back to her work at 5 am this morning.) The DWP is basically a bunch of people who stand outside in the cold (the low for the evening was in the 30s) and watch the debate on two big movie screens. The rules appeared to be, whenever Edwards says anything, you clap and cheer loudly so you missed what Cheney said in return. (I did my part.) Thousands of people attended. I am *not* a happy winter-y person, so I was wearing two lawyers of pants, two layers of socks, four lawyers of shirts, a coat (my friend told me it looked bullet proof. Oh, but I love my coat...), gloves, a hat, and a scarf. I was, for the most part, warm enough.

After the debate was the John Edwards rally, so everyone moves closer to the stage (I was ultimately 25 yards away), which was opened with Fingerhut, who is running for Senate. I, of course, don’t like Voinivich (who I *did* vote for the first time) because of what he’s done - or rather, not done - while my Senator. But really, Fingerhut is the best that the Democrats could do?? No wonder the state is in shambles...

Anyway, after his opening "vote for me, I have no money so I’ve been walking" spheel, and few other people (including, yet again, Mayor Jane Campbell speaking), John Edwards came. With his whole family, who were all introduced to us. His parents, kids, wife, and him. He gave a stirring rendition of preaching to the choir. And he's as attractive in person as he is on tv. The best part was, he is asking rhetorical questions, and we are all answering like good rally peoples. We were on a "no!" roll ("Is this the best we can do?" "Do we want another 4 years of Bush and Cheney catering to big businesses?""Do we want another 4 years of the same?") And at one point, he asked if it sent mixed messages to the troops in Iraq to go to Congress and petition to have their pay cut while they were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The crowd - or at least the people by me, led by a 14 year old kid - all shout "NO!" I turn to my best friend and say, "That answer was yes." Ten seconds later, Edwards says, "You got that answer wrong, by the way." (We were forgiven, it was midnight, some people had been drinking probably, they were college students, and as I said, the 14 year old leading us was passionate, but perhaps...not necessarily the best person to follow in such things.) ;-)