At Target Center last Saturday

I had no real intention of going to the rally last Saturday, despite what I had said earlier. There had been talk and invitations, however, at my heart I am a squelcher. And, what's more, there was an airtight argument to not go: the "It's Morning" defense, an unbreakable set of inherit truths that I hold to be self evident enough that everybody should understand. Chief amongst which is I am not a morning person. My friend C knows this, which is what makes it all that much more difficult. An approximate of our exchange:

C: Obama time?

h: go away

C: You're already up

h: vommittneedsleepcoffeeecivicdutybastardgooooawaaay

After coffee, grumblings and procrastination of the finest vintage, we parked downtown around 10ish. Balddee and his troupe had arrived before us, but refused to give us tails. C who is, after all, a diabolical plotter of the most Hellish degree, lead the charge for the two of us to cut in line where we quickly made friends with those around us. The line itself had a feeling of optimism not unlike the primary voting experience last year; that same air of magic which is palpable in the air for all of those willing to taste it.

Unfortunately, there was only one real protester-- a major disappointment when half the fun is going to see the freaks. He was a pastor who did a poor job of conveying his message and stood across the street holding up a bible for all to see. His passionate discourse did lead to one inadvertent epiphany. As he was building to his rousing effect of singing the praises of his lord and savior Jesus Christ, he paused for emphasis before saying "Jesus Christ", at which point the mini-donut vendor snuck in to call out his wares, giving the entire line a good laugh. The epiphany came when C purchased a bag of mini-donuts and goaded me into having one. I haven't been able to eat a mini-donut since I worked the stand at the State Fair my sophomore year of high school. But they tasted excellent; the day was off to a good start.

Target Center was the picture of organized chaos. The line in had more people pressed together than a skin flick and body odor ran rank. We were introduced into the arena in sections; a fine thing for security and to ensure that nobody was trampled, but an entirely different matter for ease of use. Those that had either camped out the night before or who had arrived early in the morning were rewarded with seats closest to the podium. The only problem with this logic was the organizers decision to then fill the remainder of the seats in with a clock-wise fashion. And hence, Balddee, the coward, who had refused to give me tailseys, was sitting directly across the arena from me despite the fact that he had been forced to wait in line an additional two hours. For those keeping track at home that would be h. 1, Balddee 0. Still, even that briefest of victories didn't make up for the fact that neither C or I had a pen, and were therefore incapable of writing anything down in our crossword puzzle.

The speech was excellent, the rhetoric was similar, if not wholesale lifted from his message to congress. Mr. Obama spoke with the voice of a friend offering advice and, despite the size of the event, it came off as being a very intimate affair. The speech had been meant to last fifteen to twenty minutes, but he ended up extending it to well over 40. The tone was more of a rally than it was of the "hail mary" pass that many of the conservative pundits have claimed it to be, and it challenged people to have civil discussion with neighbors, family members and friends on the state of health care. At the heart of it all was Mr. Obama, and his great strength of speaking to a room of over 17,000 people and yet have each individual feel as though he is talking directly to him or her.

We retired after the speech, stopping at Surdyk's for strong beer and good wine, and headed over to Balddee's Panther Pergola in Nordeast where much was discussed. Why did Mr. Obama come to our little burgh to discuss this? Was it, as Balddee said, a pre-emptive pee on Pawlenty's presidential run? Is Minny a good den of liberal ideals where he would be able to drum up support? Was it just our turn as this is the first time that he has been here since becoming President?

All in all it was a fine day, one that inspired and let people know that it is okay to want a better future, that hope isn't necessarily a bad thing, that you can believe in yourself and make a difference. Perhaps this is best exemplified by the national anthem that was sung before Mr. Obama came on stage. The microphone kept cutting out, so that the singer could only be heard in snippets. And so the crowd put our voices into it, lifting the singer all the way to the finish line, all of us helping one another out.

I am glad that my friend woke up to do this; time to help everybody else wake up too.