Rally with Mitt Romney

I was with 14,000 of my closest friends in Defiance, OH last night for a Romney campaign rally. It was awesome! The amount of work that goes into one of things is incredible. Lights, platforms, stages, fireworks, entertainment, sound equipment all were in perfect form last night – although the sound at the top of stadium had a bit too much reverb.

The entertainment was Big and Rich, Meatloaf and the lead from Alabama. Meatloaf is 65 years old. Who knew? He said he had never endorsed a political candidate in his life, but he was on board with Mitt Romney. He gave an emphatic southern preacher type endorsement of Romney that was really good in between his two numbers that, to my tastes, were way too loud.

All the local politicians were good and got the crowd revved up. Gov. Kasich was really good. I watched him work the crowd. He zeroed in the kids and was doing NFL fist bumps with them. They’d bump a closed fist then raise it up like a fireworks rising in the sky and exploding. He’d do it several time with the same kid until they got it synchronized. While other pols were talking he leaned against the stage with his hands in pockets so casual you’d think he was waiting for the 3:30 bus to come by. He gave a great introduction to Romney noting the kids he’d seen in the crown and that they were what the election was all about. Passing a $16,000,000,000 dollar debt on to them was immoral. He noted, winning the election wasn’t good enough. It’s what you do after you win that counts.

Romney was fantastic. He is the real deal. He noticed a man wearing a “WII Vet” hat in the crowd and strayed from his stump speech to point him out, saying, “I don’t know him, but I know him.” Then, back on the speech, he asked for Veterans to raise their hands. He noted a verse from America the Beautiful that spoke to veterans:

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!

And he thanked them.

The entertainment came back on singing America the Beautiful while fireworks were shooting off in the background. Awesome.

I stayed and watched Romney work the crowd before being whisked away. There was a man with his young baby daughter. He was in the back and holding her up so she could see. He followed Romney the length of the rope line holding her overhead. Near the end the crowd parted and let him near the front. The little girl caught Romney’s eye and he reached several rows back for the baby. Thousands must have been watching what I was watching, because when Romney took that baby from the man the crowd went nuts.

After that, I stuck around and watched the crew dismantle the site. I got a chance to walk up on the stage were Romney had stood just minutes earlier. A young campaign worker was taking heavy metal objects from the stage carefully packing them into three aluminum cases. I asked if he’d mind taking a picture. He stopped what he was doing and took several shots. It wasn’t until he handed my camera back that his suit coat parted and I noticed the badge attached to his belt.

I asked what the badge was. He said secret service. I apologized for distracting him from his work. Not to worry was his response. I have now wondered what the heavy objects were that were so important that they needed to be packed very carefully back into cases.

It was great night. It’s just about down to voting now.