The Voice

Issue date: 9/22/08 Section: Voices

Half of a major American city screaming at me would have scared me into a coma. The cameraman at Detroit's Labor Day Obama rally didn't seem to mind, though. As the speaker introducing Barack Obama went on his spiel, the camera that fed the large TV outside the rally, which attracted more than 30,000 people, was focused on the lady dressed in a nursing outfit to the left and behind him.

I confess to joining in the crowd's loud chant: "Move the camera! Move the camera."

The camera finally moved when Obama took the stage and spoke briefly on labor unions and the imminent Hurricane Gustav, which pretty much fizzed out on its way to New Orleans.

It was somewhat anticlimactic.

When I first heard that Democratic presidential nominee Obama was coming to Detroit, I was thrilled. I shifted my plans, called my friends and filled my car with gas for the drive from Ann Arbor. The Internet site for the rally said the gates were opening at 8:30 a.m. To make sure I got there on time, I optimistically told my friends we were leaving at 7 a.m.

When we left at 8 a.m. I still couldn't keep from smiling. When we arrived, however, my smile was smacked off my face by bitter reality. It appeared as if half of Michigan showed up and the line to get into Hart Plaza, where the rally was being held, stretched around several city blocks.

My forlorn trio of friends and I walked into Starbucks for a coffee and a sulk. But we quickly decided not to give up. And as we walked out the door, we landed straight into the line of people, which had grown several more blocks to the Starbucks and beyond. We casually cut into line. The people we almost ran into didn't seem to mind us jumping in as we did and I'm sure by doing so we cut in front of about 10,000 unfortunate people behind us.

Time dragged by and we squiggled with the line through an intricate pattern that wound through the streets of Detroit. But sometime around 10:30 a.m. the line dissolved and we found ourselves crammed in a crowd of hot, aggravated, pushy-shovey people trying to get as close as they could to the large TV screen showing the stage that Obama was soon to speak on.

We watched as Obama said his few words and walked off stage to shake hands with the crowd. We decided to try, just once more, to get into the plaza to see him in person. When we finally navigated our way through the throngs of people to the entrance, we saw why the line to get in had been so long.

It looked as if they were doing everything short of strip-searching people. They were even checking people going out, it appeared. Perhaps they thought one of the spectators was going to sneak out with the presidential candidate tucked into his or her pocket.

We didn't get to see Obama, or even hear one of his epic speeches. We stood in a line on a hot day in Detroit and yelled at a cameraman. Maybe it's easier to get into a McCain rally.

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