Yes We Can!

Today, my West Virginia friends and I took Small Child and Small Child's Best Friend to hear Barack Obama speak about Iraq and the economy at the University of Charleston.

He was wonderful. I've been trying to find some code to embed so you can watch the speech, but the Net Nanny on the Embassy Suites business center machines blocked me from the clip on CNN since it included the text and he used "objectionable content" - the word "hatemongers." Until I can pry the Man Dell away from The Man and upload my photos and find a good bit of code, the best I can do is post this link from the local paper. It's edited but contains 21:00 of the speech, which will give you an idea.

Our friends here are leasing office space to the campaign, but declined VIP tickets so we were up in the balcony. I actually liked it. The venue was small (maybe 500 seats) and crammed to the gills with, the paper said, 800 people with over 200 in the overflow seating. Hillary Clinton was here yesterday and apparently did not fill her space.

He is more handsome in person, for those of you who care about that kind of thing.

We tried to meet him afterwards, but had no luck. Our friends thought he might visit headquarters, but he didn't - he ate wings instead.

An ironic note: Small Child's Best Friend's Mother kept SCBF out of school today to hear the speech. All the second and third graders from SCBF's Montessori school (which would have included said child) were on their way to the UC gym for PE when they neared the departing candidate and started waving. The Secret Service tried to divert them, but Senator Obama insisted on meeting the kids, talking to them and shaking their hands.

More when I have better equipment!