Obama in Saint Paul - June 3, 2008

So, this guy named Barack Obama came to town today… and while I’m not much of one for politics, I figured I’d go downtown and check out his hordes of adoring supporters.

Turns out, hordes is a pretty good term. Pictures follow:

Supposedly, doors were supposed to open at 7pm, and police were predicting the atmosphere downtown would be “like a big Wild [hockey] game”. Well, things didn’t go quite as predicted, shall we say. People, I understand, started showing up to get in line around noon; by the time I got downtown at 6pm, the line was over a mile long - actually, the lines, plural. Two lines of people wanting to see Obama wrapped around and through downtown Saint Paul - three to six people deep - for a combined total of at least thirty city blocks. For the most part, people were keeping to sidewalks, but the closer you got to the Xcel Energy Center, the less organized things were:

As time went on, people kept arriving at the “X” in droves, and police had their hands full minimizing traffic problems. Here’s a small group of fifty or so folks, waiting to cross 7th Street, across from the convention center:

The tens of thousands of people waiting in line to get into the event were augmented by thousands more who, arriving a mere hour or two before the doors were supposed to open, had no illusions of being admitted entrance - they just wanted, I guess, to be able to say that they were there. They milled around, adding to the general, ah, crowdedness of downtown:

Security was predictably tight - though the rules were posted on the side of the Xcel Energy Center, I wonder how many people waited with “contaband” in line for hours before finding out their belongings were verboten:

Local anarchists had called for demonstrators to protest Senator Obama’s appearance, but their presence was, as always, underwhelming. A dozen anti-war activists held banners:

In addition, a dozen or so women were present holding signs saying “I Regret My Abortion (ask me for details)”, and there was one - one - anti-Obama, pro-Clinton guy:

The security presence was impressive - scores of law enforcement officers from a half-dozen or more agencies, many with gas masks. The few I spoke to seemed pretty overwhelmed, and it was clear that the city was caught by surprise regarding the turnout; it wasn’t until 7pm - when the doors were supposed to open (they’d been open by that point for at least half an hour) - that portable toilets were set up, giving the crowds - some of whom, remember, had been in line for several hours - the opportunity to relieve themselves. Still, things seemed to be going fairly smoothly, and I suppose it was good practice for the RNC this September…

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