You read that right. Me, the guy who dislikes politics and tries to avoid it, went to a political rally on Friday. Actually it was kind of fun and I’m glad I went. Bush was in town and the governor of “Caleeforneeah” was to be with him. We got several personal phone calls from recordings of important people inviting us to come. My wife, again prodding me to get off the couch and do things, thought we shouldn’t turn down an opportunity to see both the terminator and the president. When will I next get such an opportunity? So we went. Here are my thoughts and observations:

• We had little difficulty getting in – except the line 4 1/2 blocks long! We got in line at 5:15 and got inside right at 6:00, when the doors were supposed to close. For a while I thought we had spent $15 to park for nothing.
• We had pretty pathetic seats. We were in the very top row at the very back of the auditorium. I took that picture with my Palm Camera (A wopping 0.3 Megapixels). The podium is in the middle of the white area. It was so far away, you didn’t even look down there and just watched on the jumbo-tron. So in the end it wasn’t much different that watching TV.
• Buttons, shirts & hats – oh my! There was an endless string of folks hawking Bush paraphernalia. These didn’t strike me as supporter, just opportunists. I bet the showed up at Kerry rallies too.
• It was a pretty packed house, only the luxury boxes and some scattered seats, mostly with blocked views, empty. Nationwide arena seats just shy of 20,000.
• There was only about half of the floor with people standing in it, the rest was empty. This is the cheering squad that you see on TV.
• I expected more protestors, in fact I was a little worries that we might run into some confrontations. But there were few of them. One RV circling the line to get in with a loudspeaker proclaiming “Bush L – I – E – D!” and a group of 4 on the opposite side of the street with a loudspeaker.
• An R & B group performed a version of the Musiq Soulchild song “Love” using the “George” instead of “Love” in the lyrics. Real hokey. They also sang a bunch of acapella patriotic songs. They weren’t that good and frankly were probably there because they were 4 young black guys supporting Dubya.
• I thought that my kids would appreciate having a flag or something that I assumed would be handed out for folks to wave. It makes for good images, that sea of waving banners. But it turns out only the folks in the lower seats got them.
• Here in Ohio, especially near Ohio State, you can split the crowd in half, point at one side and shout ” O H!” and the other will immediately respond ‘I O!” You’ll then get an alternating “O H!” “I O!” for just about as long as you want it. Well, after a couple rounds of that they changed it to “B U!” “S H!”
• There was a series of speakers prior to the main event, most of which we didn’t see. Then there was some video of Bush and Cheney from various events and then just some music while we waited. Just after 7:00, the music changed, exactly like the music before a professional sports team comes out into the arena. After about 5 minutes of that, they introduced Arnold and the place went nuts. Only about 30 seconds or so later they announced Bush and he came out with Laura. The three of them stood on the stage waving for a 7 minute ovation (I timed it.) It was incredible and I hadn’t anticipated how emotional that would be. There’s something about seeing the president coupled with the screaming adoration of 20,000 people that can’t help but move you. It moved my kids too as Jessica hid under her coat from the noise.
• Arnold spoke first, and for only about 10 minutes. I thought he’d speak longer, but he was only there to, in his words, “pump you up” to get support Bush. This was the only campaign stop for the Governator. He has a special relationship with Columbus, having won the Mr. World competition here in 1970. He has since made it sort of his second home. He owns part interest in a local mall and holds a fitness expo here every year.

Then Dubya spoke for about 30-40 minutes. I expected to hear the series of sound bites that have been played on the news fro the past weeks. To some extent I did, but there was more to it. I heard about what he believes in and what makes him different that John Kerry. Not just why John Kerry was bad (there was a fair bit of that) but what the difference is, in Bush’s eyes, between them. He was not the bungling idiot that you see on Letterman, nor was he very eloquent. (BTW – best quip of the night by Bush: “[Arnold] and I have three things in common; we married well, we have trouble speaking the English language and we have big biceps”) He somehow became a little more real. For that reason, in hindsight, I wish I would have gone to see Senator Kerry on Thursday to get a better picture of him as well. I doubt it would have swayed my vote, but I would at least felt that I knew him better.