OMG OMG OMG

[Unclad Lad]

I'll be seeing the man himself in less than six hours!!

The last Presidential candidate I went to see in person was Ronald Reagan.

[gringott]

Take a picture and post it here! Have fun.

[EO 11110]

we've seen him a half dozen times. it's energizing to be around good people. get your voice warmed up before you go. chanting WILL break out

bring your camera and a rp book. if the crowd is small enough he'll hang around and sign and take pics.

one time, at a tea party rally, my wife, daughter, and i had him, his wife, and his handler all to ourselves for about 5-10 minutes. stupid neocons stayed in their seats after he finished speaking....so they could listen to some other jackoff

enjoy!

[bulloncoins]

If you get close enough, tell him his friends at GIM2 say howdy! He has a couple of our rounds you know...I gave him a bull round at his birthday party 4 years ago....

Other's here have given him GIM rounds. You can bet, he knows us.

[mitocondriac]

We saw him like a month ago was friggin awesome!!! I lost my voice by the time it was over and didnt get it fully back for 2 days. The energy in that hall was amazing!!! Get there early for good seats in the front.

[Goldhedge]

Well, was it all you expected it to be?

[mitocondriac]

Well, was it all you expected it to be?

Haha most definately and then some!!! Was funny i was the first one there made my way in to the front row for about and hour then the security came and said we all had to go outside. So I walked out the doors and stopped right infront of everyone. Made it back to the front row!!!

[Unclad Lad]

Well, was it all you expected it to be?

No, it wasn't. In truth, I don't know what I expected. Something more like, I don't know.

I got there about 4 hours early to coordinate with some of the organizers from other counties and the campus (UC Davis). The atmosphere was excited but relaxed. It was an outside event, on the West Quad. By 5pm people were starting to roll in. Every Paul group in 50 miles had set up voter registration tables for various counties, except for the local Objectivists who, naturally, were only there to promote themselves . By 6pm the event started to take on a celebratory nature; the local news channels started setting up. Everyone compared signs and T-shirts; one of my faves was from the '08 campaign that stated, "Legalize The Constitution!". Davis, CA is a pretty liberal place, but there are a lot of progressives who are thoroughly disgusted with Obama, and there were a fair number of Lefties in support of Paul.

By 6:30 the organizers were on the mic reminding everyone that, in order to be able to vote for Paul they had to be registered Republican. I wish I could be at the local GOP headquarters when thousands of new Republican registrations roll in by May 31, only to roll right back out after the primary!

Paul was on time at 7:00. One of the first things he said was that he wished he had more time so he could ride a bike around campus; there may be as many bicycles on campus as people. And then he began to talk, and that's when I began to realize that what I was witness to was a candidate like none other in memory. He discussed the Fed, and overseas nation-building, and economics, Austrian economics, and hard work vs entitlements--you all know what he usually discusses. What made it different was what he didn't talk about. He didn't boast about his accomplishments or his record. He didn't whip up patriotic fervor with jingoistic slogans. And not once did he mention Romney or Obama--it was if they didn't exist, or simply weren't relevant to what he was doing. It was about us, right there at that time, and what we needed to do to bring our country back from the brink.

Tears came to my eyes--I'm not ashamed to admit it. They're back as I write this. It was--I'm having trouble finding the right words, maybe for the first time in my life--it was being right there, right then, on the cusp of an historic moment, the last chance to save everything that so many had fought for. It wasn't about his charisma--he came off as Actual Size. I simply can't explain it, other than to say it was one of the defining moments of my life, for reasons I won't understand for years.

If you ever have the chance to hear him speak in person, GO. Watching a video won't do it--you have to be surrounded by thousands of people with every possible political and social and economic beliefs, a wave of "diversity" a Democratic organizer would slice off a testicle to be able to claim.

Go see him in person.

I'll try to post pictures.

[Unclad Lad]

The uploading pictures thingy seems to be broken...

[AG Stacker]

Awesome thread!

Any luck with those pics?

[Unclad Lad]

Thanks for the reminder, Stacker!

[odie]

President Paul! President Paul! President Paul! President Paul!

[EO 11110]

thanks for the great info

just a trivia item, rp has the hands of a farmer. powerful thick-skin paws that give more of a handshake than you expect

[gringott]

Thank you for the pictures and your story.

[Unclad Lad]

Those are the only pics I have--I didn't want to miss one word fiddling with my phonecam.

[letsbuildasnowman]

Saw him this year at Michigan State University, it was great.