Monday, February 04, 2008

Video of Obama rally in Hartford

Woohoo! I beat the 11:00 news cycle! Eat me, Channel 30! (and they got some real a-holes working their cameras, if they're reading this!)

I've been to plenty of rock concerts in my life. Some were good. Some were great. And a few were awesome!

This was like one of the awesome ones.

A packed Hartford XL Civic Center played host to the biggest show currently on tour: The Barack Obama Express!

After securing my all-access press pass, I took a spot on the media riser and set up my camera. I ran into many friends, including TParty, TrueBlueCT, CT News Junkie, CT Keith, "Jailhouse" Ken Krayeske, Gabe Rosenberg, Colin McEnroe and many others.

I shared some space on the riser with a couple of guys from a German network that was here to film the event. They were cool, but seemed to not fully comprehend what was going on. Which is totally understandable. If I was in Berlin covering the election for Prime Minister or whatever they have over there, I'd definitely be less aware of what was happens in their political system than they were with ours.

The place was frickin' PACKED! Based on the seating, which was filled up to the ceiling all the way around the place, there had to be at least 15,000 people there.

Sen. Ted Kennedy makes some introductory remarks. He was joined by niece Caroline Kennedy, Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Larson, Murphy, and other dignitaries. JFK was invoked many times during the introductory remarks, and I couldn't help but feel that some of that Camelot excitement was in the air.

Here's a shortish video; sadly, I've got too much to do just editing these few bits together to get the entire speech online. But it will give you a sense of what it was like to be there.

We need someone to inspire our nation. I think we have found the right person for that.



BTW, this is my 150th Youtube video. I fucking LOVE these kinds of milestones!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

First place online I found video of this event! Thanks for giving me a taste, I had a class tonight and couldn't make it. Let's hope he comes back again! Vote Obama tomorrow!

CT Bob said...

Glad you liked it! I worked like a maniac to get this up early; it took me over an hour to get home after the event, and then I needed to edit it.

Whose on Third said...

Awesome job on the video.

Anonymous said...

Bob, you are the best!

Personally, I was amazed to the extent Obama managed to get such a large crowd absolutely rocking!

As we waited for the main event, I kinda expected a fizzle. But that was not the case.

Obama connected completely, and being there as so many Democrats converged according to best beliefs,. --- well, it was just plain exhilarating!

Go Barack! And you better be good for the faith and hope I have invested in you!

Anonymous said...

Bob,
I want to say THANK YOU!!!!!!!
This was the first place I was able to watch and listen. He is awesome! I believe he is the one who can heal our country and turn the page to start a new chapter in OUR HISTORY! God Bless Barack. I haven't felt this much Hope since before I was born. Lets keep riding this train all the way to November.

Jonathan Kantrowitz said...

Great, great stuff Bob. Thanks for all your hard work.

CT Bob said...

My pleasure.

The past week or so has been the most fun I've had in politics since the first week of August, 2006!

Thanks everyone!

Anonymous said...

Saw you yesterday at the Civic Center doing this great work. Thanks for all you do to keep us informed.

Anonymous said...

Wow.
I have been there for many HUGE UConn games and never seen the place rocking like that.
Just wow.
UptownNYChick

Anonymous said...

I was fortunate enough to go to the Hartford rally. We got there about 2:00, got into the actual place at 4:30, and went right to the floor. I watched the entire, incredible speech from about 15 feet away and got over about three rows for a handshake and a few words with him after the speech. Incredible. This is the man to lead our country.

Anonymous said...

FYI, it's the German chancellor.

Plunderer said...

Bob,

It WAS a great rally. I was actually on the floor right behind the podium and got to shake Obama's hand afterward.

Any chance you have video of Ted Kennedy's speech? I want to send it to a friend in Texas.

Cheers!

CT Bob said...

I'm not sure if I have Ted's speech in full, I'll have to check. I'm really behind in getting all my editing done on a number of projects. If I have it, I'll post it on Youtube and link it from the blog. Check back either late tomorrow or next weekend.

Plunderer said...

Thanks, Bob.

I actually found a pretty good clip of his speech on youtube already, so don't kill yourself getting it done.

That said, I'd be happy to see it from your lens, if you do get a chance!

Cheers,

-P

CT Bob said...

p-

Here's a good Youtube video of Ted's speech. It's got much better audio than mine, so I'm not going to bother. But feel free to spread this around:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnEW5PPgR4E