men, women, and families. I am looking for Mr. Enthusiasm Gap, but he has not appeared. More later...
I wrote the info above this afternoon. I got home from the Democratic rally on the Oval at the Ohio State University late than I thought I would. There were 35,000 people in attendance. One of the early speakers was a woman who has a child who suffered a serious illness. Because her daughter became ill, she faced having her health insurance canceled, and had difficulty getting private health insurance for her daughter because other insurers claimed "pre-existing conditions." She spoke of the benefits of the new health care law. Other speakers included: Former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn, and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Lee Fisher. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15th) spoke and received cheers from the crowd. Yvette McGee-Brown gave a phenomenal speech. Gov. Ted Strickland was greeted very enthusiastically by the crowd. Musician John Legend performed three songs.
The crowd was anxious to see Michelle Obama and President Obama. When Michelle Obama spoke, the crowd showed their love and respect. Then, the President was introduced by Mrs. Obama. The crowd seemed to move forward. Everyone was so happy and excited to see the President. He got some laughs out of the crowd when he told his now famous story about how the Republicans drove our economy into the ditch....
'While the Democrats worked, pushed, and shoveled to get the car out of the ditch, the Republicans just stood and watched the Democrats. The Republicans refused to help but they continued to watch and drink slurpees and lattes. Finally, after doing all the heavy lifitng, the Democrats got the car out of the ditch, and the Republicans asked for the keys.'
Over the last 20 months, the Republicans have refused to do anything except sit and watch. They are the ones that created this mess, and yet they've refused to help fix things. The Republicans are interested in turning back the clock to the agenda of the Bush administration.
President Obama told the crowd tonight that our work is not done and we must keep moving forward. We cannot afford to have the Republicans take over and do things that are harmful (the GOP wants to cut aid to education by 20%).The President reminded everyone that change has never been easy, and we aren't finished yet. He asked for our help, our votes, and our time to get out the vote.
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Here are a few links with comments and some pictures from President Obama's visit to Ohio State tonight:
jmknapp at Daily Kos
jovie131 at Daily Kos
marabout at Daily Kos
One little addition - Someone from the crowd yelled out to President Obama, "We love you!" Obama said in their direction, "I love you too."