Style Weekly's Amy Biegelsen captures the vibe surrounding today's Barack Obama rally at the Richmond Coliseum so well she makes me wish I had quit work and headed downtown to break dance and hear Governor Kaine tell me how beautiful I am.
Over the next two hours, the Coliseum fills to capacity. There are
13,000 people inside, Coliseum officials estimate, and 8,000 left
outside in nearby Festival Park. Before taking the stage Obama says a
few words to the outdoor crowd, performing his first messianic act of
the day by breathing life back into what's left of 6th Street
Marketplace.
Inside there's a whirl of onlookers, press, staffers and at least three campaign volunteers from England working for Obama while in Richmond “on holiday.”
During the opening lineup, the crowd is ecstatic. The Rev. Dwight C. Jones may not appear on the state party’s ticket of official endorsees, but he did appear before the crowd, beseeching the Lord to protect us, the stock market, elected officials everywhere and especially Obama...
...Up in the stands, a clutch of Richmond elected officials looks on. In a triptych of social awkwardness, council president and mayoral hopeful Bill Pantele stands beside Linwood Norman, Mayor Wilder’s press secretary and the man who, one Friday last year, sent out a press release proclaiming the discovery of pornography on Pantele’s computer. Flanking Norman’s other side is publisher Ray Boone, whose newspaper, the Richmond Free Press, has mercilessly criticized both bodies.
Inside there's a whirl of onlookers, press, staffers and at least three campaign volunteers from England working for Obama while in Richmond “on holiday.”
During the opening lineup, the crowd is ecstatic. The Rev. Dwight C. Jones may not appear on the state party’s ticket of official endorsees, but he did appear before the crowd, beseeching the Lord to protect us, the stock market, elected officials everywhere and especially Obama...
...Up in the stands, a clutch of Richmond elected officials looks on. In a triptych of social awkwardness, council president and mayoral hopeful Bill Pantele stands beside Linwood Norman, Mayor Wilder’s press secretary and the man who, one Friday last year, sent out a press release proclaiming the discovery of pornography on Pantele’s computer. Flanking Norman’s other side is publisher Ray Boone, whose newspaper, the Richmond Free Press, has mercilessly criticized both bodies.
