Partying with Barack and Bruce in C-Town

Today we spent the day with 80,000 of our closest friends to cheer-on Barack Obama on The Mall in downtown Cleveland. Cooper bagged out, so Wendy, Paige and I snagged Paige's friend Bea and we jumped into the fray.

Lines of people, 10-wide and dozens of blocks long, wove their way thoughout downtown from all directions. Eventually we made our way to the mall. Senator Sharod Brown spoke (pretty good cheerleader), along with Mayor Frank Jackson (not too much of a cheerleader).

Bruce Sprintsteen played six songs and was THE PERFECT warm-up act for someone who really doesn't need one, playing acoustic versions of "Promised Land", "Youngstown" and "Thunder Road". His spoken lead-in to "The Rising" was as eloquent a speech as ever given by any preacher or politician. He talked about taking the "measure of the distance between The American Dream and The American Reality"...great stuff.

Barack stressed that we need to look at our place in the world in a new way, without race, social or economic standing, gender or other things that we've traditionally used to separate us. He also said that we don't need a NEW government, just a better one, with honesty and transparency as it's centerpiece (paraphrased). 

It was worth the wait - an historic event for everyone - just 2 days before election day in the biggest swing state in the union. Pretty cool.

Sarah Palin is at Lakewood Park, about a mile from our house, at 6:30 AM tomorrow. I think I'll find a different route to work...