This political season, I have played the roll of "guerilla blogger" with my trusty photographer, Maurice as my partner.  Yesterday, we continued by going throught 3 levels of security to get up close and personal with Obama at a rally where 20,000 + people attended. 

 The idea was to gain an unfiltered view of the candidates and actually to see them up close and personal.  (In this election season, we met John McCain, where in the press corps for a Bill Clinton rally for Hillary, a Howard Dean Bus tour).  (see www.mediamensch for the pictures and stories). 

 So many people turned out for the rally yesterday that 1,000 people where turned away.  Obama spoke to an energized crowd outside the former Charlotte Courthouse. 

He hammered away at the economy (Charlotte is the #2 banking city in the country), education reform, and investment in renewable energy.  Many of these points were discussed numerous times before.

He was a "rock star" with his charisma. He also was humble and made time to visit with the crowds individually afer the speech.

 Now here are some observations about the 20,000 people who attended.  80% or higher were african american (mostly women with their children). About 5% were white males and about 10% were white women. Charlotte is a progressive southern city, however the crowd did not reflect its diversity. It now makes me really think hard about whether even progressive white voters won't pull the lever on election day for Obama.

Obama seemed to be reading from a "fill in the blank" for the name of the city speech. He kept saying we will "rebuild Charlotte"...Charlotte is actually rebuilding itself every day with a new $250 million dollar NBA arena, $200 million NASCAR museum, a $1 billion dollar biotechnology campus studying natural foods and nutrients, an $80 million dollar state of the art dragway, 8,000 new residents a month, new museums, restaurants, etc.  Major parts new uptown have been redeveloped and old neighborhoods rebuilt into areas like art and music districts.

Also as soon as he was done speaking, a southern rock/country song came on..I was thinking that most of his crowd would never listen to that music and again some handler was thinking Charlotte is this "Southern City".  The majority of the newcomers to Charlotte are from OH, PA, NY, New England, FL, California and Europe and Mexico.  

 He also has guts and organization. Charlotte has a republican mayor who is running for governor. He set up his speech right outside the government center. 

 North Carolina is so very organized at the grass roots level for Obama. He planted those seeds months ago.   You could see the passion in the crowd.  When the rally was over, the police officer who was guarding the area where Obama had just whisked away in his car said, you can take the yellow police tape as a souvenir memorabilia.  People felt this was an inspired historical event that will touch their lives forever.

 I felt the same way, that in some way, I was witnessing history.