If Barack were a Rock Star

I just got back from Barack Obama’s event at San Francisco Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and I just got to say, if Barack were a rock star there would be mosh pits for miles on end.

The crowd outside Bill Graham was crazy. I was waiting to get trampled by his eager fans as we moved towards the front doors. Before I had even realized this was the location where Barack was going to appear I thought the crowd stretching several blocks was for some kind of concert. Justin Timberlake, maybe? But no, all these people were showing up on a Wednesday night to see the one – the only – Barack Obama.

Once the scary security guys let us through we officially entered Obama Central. Before making his grand appearance several speakers and a choir appeared on stage. One girl, who I believe was a spokesperson for the Students for Obama, gave a speech that sounded more like she was practicing for her future America’s Next Top Model interview.

From an outside perspective, the speeches felt more like time fillers before a photographer behind us at the media platform said Obama’s vehicle entourage was spotted heading towards the building.

When Obama finally arrived, after being introduced by Alice Walker, the room went wild even before we made it on stage. “Hey!” “Hey!” “Hey!” “What’s up!” Obama said, making his way on to the stage.

Now, before I go any further, that it wasn’t until that exact moment that I realized how white the audience standing in front of the press area was. Here, we have a black male candidate running for the White House and – well – the question is kind of obvious. Granted, I’m sure not everyone wants to pay 30 bucks to get 45 minutes of him talking – which could be a reason – but I still had expected some kind of diversity in the audience. Not even just white or black, maybe a little bit of everything.

Anyway, back to the event. Barack affirmed his support of health care, education, ending the war in Iraq, climate change, poverty, HIV/AIDS and Darfur. However, several people we spoke to after the event said they were disappointed that he didn’t mention immigration and women’s right.

Even with those two topics missing the audience seemed to just be happy to have someone who they could rely on, or at least offering them something different than what they’ve seen since the 2000 election.

I don’t know if Barack is going to win the White House next year. But I do know if he plans on doing some kind of spoken, political poetry with events like this, he will not have an empty seat in the house.