Barack Obama For President Rally, Bonanza High School, Las Vegas, NV, October 25, 2008

As the minutes passed at the bar mitzvah service, I knew I was getting later and later at traveling to the Saturday afternoon Obama for President rally at Bonanza High School. So, when Obama took the stage, I was still in the security line. We frantically did whatever we could to hurry through the metal detectors.

When I finally entered, Obama sounded peeved at something John McCain has recently said, regarding his supposedly socialistic intentions.

"Senator McCain has been throwing everything he's got at us, including the kitchen sink -- all seven of those kitchen sinks," Obama said. "He's even called me a socialist for suggesting that we focus on tax cuts not for corporations and the wealthy, but for the middle class."

"That's right, John McCain has been really angry about George Bush's economic policies -- except during the primaries, when he said we've made 'great progress economically' under George Bush," Obama said. "Or just last month, when he said that the 'fundamentals of our economy are strong.'"

McCain attacking Bush on economic policy, Obama said, "is like Dick Cheney attacking George Bush for his go-it-alone foreign policy. It's like Tonto attacking the Lone Ranger."

Obama noted that on Friday, President Bush filled out a Texas absentee ballot for McCain, according to the White House.

"That's no surprise," he said. "Because when it comes to the policies that matter most to middle-class families, there's not an inch of daylight between George Bush and John McCain."

My estimate of crowd size was 5,000, but I was informed later that the Las Vegas police estimated the crowd size at 13,000. This link places the number at 18,000. It was an odd-shaped venue, like the letter "P", with Obama in the loop of the letter, and the crowd along the stroke of the letter, and so crowd estimates were hard to make on the ground.

On Sunday afternoon, with the Gershin clan, we had a wide-ranging discussion, including the importance of appropriate role models in the education of children. At that instant, I didn't want to change the subject to the election, and partisan politics, but there really has been no better role model for African-American children than Barack Obama - ever! After all, like far too many, Barack had a rootless childhood, and look where he is now!

Leaving the field, a number of us were pinned against a fence while waiting for the entire departing crowd to funnel through a narrow gate. The wait was interminable, the afternoon was hot and the crowd was tired. Nevertheless, the crowd kept its cool.

There was a noise in the distance, and a little African-American child, age about six and too short to see over the crowd, eagerly asked: "Daddy, is that Obama? Do you see Obama?" Very touching!


As the rally dispersed, there was an abrupt cone of silence in the crowd: about ten Republicans were protesting, including one woman holding a sign with bar crossing out the word "socialism".

In a helpful, rhetorical sense, a tall black woman asked the signholder to "Define socialism." I was irritated, because these folks seemed immune to the irony of the recent $700 billion bailout. "Hell, the country is already socialist!" I shouted. I meant the $700 billion bailout, but the Republicans, with different reasoning, and starting from different premises, eagerly agreed, and started replying to my shouted words.

Suddenly I felt a giant grizzly paw on my back, a hand stretching from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, and a deep voice in my ear said, "You would like to move on now, wouldn't you?" I had forgotten there were four policemen on horseback immediately behind me, plus several others on foot. I agreed this suggestion was eminently reasonable.

So, despite the heat of the afternoon, there were no hard words at the rally to speak of, except those I myself shouted.