looking presidential

Pundits are saying that with 16 days left before the election that this thing is over. There's no way that McCain can win. Not after Palin, the financial collapse, and McCain's inability to coalesce the party. Remember when he returned to Washington to help solve the financial crisis? And it fell apart. Then Congress passed a huge bailout and that didn't work and now we've started to nationalize the banking industry. Nationalizing the banking industry could be a good thing, but this form of nationalization comes without the oversight of the investors - you the taxpayer.

Obama, who has shown all along that he knows how to organize a campaign, has been drawing enormous crowds. It's as though the closer we get to the election, more and more folks are starting to let themselves believe that this might actually happen. I say believe in miracles - but not so fast. Remember you still have to vote, and so do lots and lots of young people, because without them, this election can still turn ugly.

The Obama campaign keeps making smart decisions. Today they held 2 rallies on opposite ends of the state. The first was beneath the iconic Gateway Arch and the second in the shadow of the only World War I Memorial in the country. Both are National Monuments and the symbolism of holding them at these venues with the intent of gathering huge crowds should not be overlooked. By holding rallies in St.Louis and KC, the campaign gets face time in the two largest media markets in the state. They do this while looking very Presidential. Plus the size of the crowd in St. Louis (100,000 people) was so large that it will garner national media play.

I was at the rally in KC and don't know the size of the crowd but it was easily 20-25,000 {note: NPR later reported this number to be 75,000). From my vantage point the only thing I could see was the CHANGE banner and some dude in a white shirt addressing the crowd. A friend remarked that, unlike a McCain rally, no one boos at an Obama rally. They just cheer. Loudly and with great abandon.