Clinton in Oakland

Clinton (to the left of the white screen) and Dianne Feinstein (hairdo unmissable even at this distance) to the right of it in Downtown Oakland this afternoon. You can see the Glide Memorial Church choir in the background. I would have tried to get closer but I was wearing Quinn in a baby backpack and didn't want to get him crushed or bump him into other people.

OK, I went to the Hillary Clinton rally in downtown Oakland this afternoon and here are my impressions:

1. The crowd was not particularly enthusiastic. I haven't been to many political rallies, but the crowd seemed rather subdued to me. We got impatient waiting for Hillary to speak. There were some hard-core Hillary supporters, but most people seemed more curious than energized. Musicians and politicians who came before Clinton had difficulty getting the crowd to yell and wave signs with the desired amount of fervor.
   
2. The crowd was large. They made everyone attending fill out little address forms so they could verify the count. They announced that 14,000 people showed up. I think I heard someone say Obama drew 20,000 at a similar rally in Oakland back in March. Still, 14,000 is impressive. [SJMN contradicts this; see below.]
   
3. The warm-up acts went on for too long. The Glide choir & ensemble was fantastic, but we weren't there for the gospel music.
   
4. Hillary Clinton is working hard for the black vote. She had several black ministers endorse her, including the minister of the Glide Memorial Church. (For those of you who saw Pursuit of Happyness, that was the church where Will Smith's character and his son ate and stayed in the homeless shelter.) I don't know the ins and outs of Democratic politics in the black community, but it seemed like something of a coup for Clinton to get this endorsement.
5. Her speech was good, but of course anyone reading this blog probably wouldn't learn anything new from it. She was running against Bush rather than against the other Democrats, no big surprise there. The only thing that tipped you off that this was a primary election was the emphasis on her "experience" and "leadership". This strikes me as a bit odd, as she's only been in the Senate since what, 2001? (yes). Several other Democratic candidates have similar amounts of Senate Experience, do they not? (Except Obama, elected in 2004.) How much does being First Lady count?
   
6. Hillary Clinton covered bases guaranteed to please Democratic voters (including me), promising to: appoint mainstream justices to the Supreme Court, appoint competent people to positions in government, appoint an Attorney General who believes in the rule of law (sad that one can even campaign on that), get us out of Iraq, reduce our dependence on foreign oil (everyone claims to want to do this, but I'm not sure I want to be dependent on domestic oil either), tackle global warming, create jobs, ensure that every American has health care. She slammed oil companies, health care companies (though she's gotten a lot of money from them, hasn't she?), military contractors like Blackwater, and the Bush administration (repeatedly).
   
7. I think the event was crafted to perpetuate the "Hillary is inevitable" meme. All campaign rallies engage in a sort of obligatory optimism ("I'm proud to introduce the next president of the United States..."), but I think this one went further. She was already running against Bush, and talking about what she'll do in the White House as if it were a forgone conclusion that she'll be its next occupant. While it's understandable that her campaign would want to spread this idea, I think it's way premature for the punditocracy to be spouting it. People are excited about Obama, and I didn't sense that at the Clinton rally. People were interested, receptive, curious; but it wasn't a rock concert.
8. Except for the fact that it took too long for Clinton to appear, the event seemed to be well run.
   

Here's some of San Jose Mercury News' account of the event:

The parade of prominent California Democratic leaders who joined Clinton on stage seemed designed to lend an aura of political inevitability to Clinton's bid to win the state's February primary. Politicians appearing with Clinton included U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and State Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland.
[...]

Organizers put the size of the crowd cramming a city block at 13,000, including 3,000 who paid $20 each for VIP tickets granting closer access to the stage. Obama attracted between 10,000 and 12,000 to a downtown rally in March.

Clinton drew cheers when she misspoke during her stump speech and referred to Newsom as "Gov. Newsom."

"That's what he told me to say," Clinton joked. "I guess I can see why."

Political bloggers often mention Newsom, along with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as one of the likeliest candidates in the 2010 election to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[emphasis added] I had forgotten about her calling San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom "Governer Newsom". People did laugh and cheer. I wonder if it was intentional or not. It did seem like an actual gaffe.

Quinn was pretty well behaved throughout the event. He did get fussy towards the end, but so did many adults in the crowd. The Glide minister would ask, "Would you like to hear another number?" and many people started shouting "No!" and "We want Hillary!". Here's a picture of Quinn and me:
Other Hillary Clinton Oakland rally pictures can be found at our Picasa web album, along with some recent family shots.