I attended the Obama rally tonight at Houston’s 20,000 seat Toyota Center. On the news they said 16,600 attended, but several thousand with Standby tickets couldn’t get in — I know because my girlfriend was among them.
The scene from the Toyota Center’s southwest corner 2 hours before the doors opened:
Obama, moments into his speech:
The two and a half hours before Obama came out were filled by staffers exhorting the crowd to vote both in the primary and caucus, as well as an offer to have the campaign text reminders to anyone in the audience who signed up. There were three volunteers for the Houston campaign (all female) who led the crowd in chants of “Obama ’08,” “Yes We Can,” and “Fired Up, Ready To Go” in a back and forth style reminiscent of my “Texas Fight” days in college. A six year old girl lead the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance (which Obama TOTALLY DIDN’T COME OUT FOR by the way) — It was a little weird because the flag was right over my head, and I didn’t like 40,000 eyes boring into my pasty face. Then I thought of the kindergartner on stage and my plight receded. I liked the “Yes We Can” Video leading up to Obama’s appearance, and was surprised myself at his early showing after confidently predicting we would see him around 9:30.
I was a little disappointed in the speech, to be honest, although the crowd was incredibly energized. I thought he seemed tired, and he stumbled a few times. He came across much better on the clips I’ve seen on TV. As to the crowd demographics, I’d estimate they were 75% African American, and about 20% white, though not just college kids by any stretch. The groups of black families I saw were absolutely inspiring. They stretched all possible boundaries — I saw four generations come in together dressed in their Sunday finest, infant in the great grandmother’s lap. I was surprised at how few Latinos I saw. I know Hillary is supposed to have a large lead in the demographic, but I saw only a few outside the stadium, and none from my seat in the arena. There were two separate Si Se Puede chants, however.
I think come March 4th Obama will take Houston based on a huge turnout in the African American community, and will probably take Austin comfortably. Dallas’ demographics favor Hillary a bit more. The suburbs will be a very interesting tell this year — they are largely conservative, and if they go for either Dem in anything approaching significant numbers it could make Texas an extremely interesting state to watch in the general.
Apologies for the poor quality on the second picture. I attempted to cut down the glare, but we were in the worst possible spot for pictures.