While it's a tad early to put Oregon safely in the "Kerry" column, the size of these crowds is remarkable.
But more than what this says about political trends in Oregon, what these photos got me thinking about is that someday someone is going to decide to do something truly interesting with one of the political conventions - and that something will be to give the presidential acceptance speech outside, perhaps on a Saturday afternoon. Yes, that will cause all sorts of logistical nightmares, and step on the toes of various political and media bigwigs. But the sight of a rally in front of many thousands of happy, screaming fans outside on sunny day would reflect a call for optimism and change extremely well, and it would help make the candidate appear like a regular American (if that's a concern). Now I wouldn't expect a campaign like the Bush '04 campaign to benefit from this kind of staging. Out in the world on a sunny day is not the best place to give a "vote for me or you'll all be killed by terrorists" kind of a speech. But for some future man-(or woman)-of-the-people candidate, it'll be a great venue.
Posted by armand at August 15, 2004 12:44 PM | Posted to Politics