Sherry Chandler

The polls are open, go vote Kentucky!

Last night I went to a GOTV rally for Hillary Clinton at Transylvania University in Lexington.

Doors were to open at 4:30, but opening was delayed a bit because we got the unexpected added treat of having Bill attend and extra security had to be laid on.

The line started forming at 3:00. By the time the doors opened, it stretched from the Clive Beck Athletic and Recreation Center (aka the school gym) at the corner of 4th and Limestone, all away around the campus’s main circular drive and out onto Limestone as far as I could see toward 3rd Street.

Everybody was friendly and upbeat, chatting, laughing, even when a light drizzle began to fall.

Greg Fischer had people there working the line. Union members were handing out signs and t-shirts. Mail Carriers for Hillary. AFSCME for Hillary.

Three lines of security. We had to leave our umbrellas outside in a big pile on a table. And under the table. Hundreds of umbrellas (and mirabile dictu, I found mine after it was all over). We joked that it was a political rally and umbrella exchange.

All I took with me was a wallet on a string with two compartments and a cell phone pocket. The guard searched that thing so thoroughly even I was beginning to think I might have snuck something in. A metal detector and a wand. But the searches moved quickly and the crowd flowed into the gym in a steady stream for over an hour. I’m not good at estimating crowds but I was told the gym seats about a thousand and then the floor was filled up, too. So maybe 1,500 people, aged 18 to 80. [Update: Washington Post says 2,000.]

Finals begin today at Transylvania, so the students seated to my left were studying while we waited for things to start happening. Local media were set up on risers at the back of the gym. We were in line behind Herald-Leader reporter Ryan Alessi. His report is here. (Rather tellingly, he devotes his first 5 paragraphs to Barack Obama, then gives another 4 to Michelle in Lexington, and spends more time on Bill than on Hillary, but he has some nice details of Bill’s talk.)

This event had been organized on about three days notice by a young man, a student who is heading Transylvania for Hillary. As my companion noted, this was “real grass roots stuff. Just people” come out to see and support an historic candidate. No post mortem here. We were having a big time, practicing politics the old-fashioned way.

The student organizer, in suit and American flag tie, spoke to the crowd. Charles L. Shearer, President of Transylvania, addressed the crowd briefly. A male chorus, about 8 young men, sang an a cappela version of The Star Spangled Banner that nearly moved cynical old me to tears.

After a lull, a sudden flurry of activity. The national media had arrived, slightly rain flecked, carrying huge video cams and laptop cases down the steep gymnasium stairs. Suddenly I noticed the three rows of library tables that got filled with laptops, each with a reporter busily typing away. Except for one blond in a white jacket, these guys were dressed in the sort of national uniform, jeans and t-shirts. But they were different. They were important. Glamor had come to our sleepy little town.

I surprise myself in saying this, but it was true.

Then there were Secret Service men in the crowd. These guys had on suits. They looked dour. They stood still in the milling crowd and watched. Anything that moved. I sat still. [Added: We speculated whether the red buttons we could see on their lapels were flag pins or the latest in mini-tasers.]

I couldn’t have got out anyway. My friend and I, being older women, discussed emergency bathroom procedures to which we might be reduced. These involved the plastic yard-signs we’d been given. We were only half joking.

Former Governor Martha Layne Collins did the warm up speech. She was governor of Kentucky when Bill was governor of Arkansas. Martha Layne is still a beloved figure in Kentucky, one of our most popular former governors. She’s 72 now, but she looks great, and she talked about the barriers she had had to break to become Kentucky’s first and only woman governor.

Five Kentucky governors have endorsed Hillary Clinton, as has Terry McBrayer, a superdelegate.

Then Jerry Lundergan, head of the Kentucky Democratic Party, who told how — when a Republican had won the governorship for the first time in decades and the Kentucky party was broke — both Hillary and Bill donated time to come to the state for fund-raisers that helped put the party back in the money.

Then Bill! Oh the crowd was on its feet yelling and stomping and waving banners. This was Bill Clinton.

We were never quiet after that. We were intensely involved in this event. (Added: My friend tells me Obama said it’s no wonder Kentucky is for Clinton, we’re so close to Arkansas. Maybe he was talking about a spiritual closeness. We sure loved us some Arkansans last night.)

What can I say about Bill Clinton? He looked distinguished, he was charming.
He told us that Hillary has done things to change people’s lives, to make life better for people. He was in his element. He spoke briefly. He can do that in support of his wife.

And finally, Hillary.

She looked radiant and relaxed. She was all smiles. She’s smaller than I’d thought, a neat figure of a woman in a gold pantsuit. When she came bounding up onto the stage and Bill hugged her, she was engulfed by his large masculine physicality but not overshadowed. Supported.

She said they’d traveled to the towns and cities in the four corners of the state and had a lot of fun meeting Kentuckians and I believed her.

She was slightly hoarse. She gave her stump speech, an excellent speech, well-delivered. She has learned to use her voice well. She said the things you’ve heard her say before if you’ve been paying attention. And we gave her our full approval.

Cheers especially for ending George Bush’s war on science, for ending No Child Left Behind, for helping students finance their college education. She asked if any students there were paying over 20% on their college loans, and I was shocked to hear them say they were paying 22% and 25% interest. I paid my $1,500 college loan back at 3%.

Cheers for bringing the troops home and supporting them after they get home.

I’m here to tell you that this is not a defeated woman. Whether she wins this primary or loses it, she’s a woman who has found her power.

And she was an inspiration to at least two old women seated in the bleachers.

[Update: I forgot to add that, as I started home, I switched on the radio to WEKU to the strains of Beethoven's Ninth, which took me rather triumphantly all the way home. I arrived there to the strains of the Ode to Joy. Thought it was a pretty good portent.

Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium!
We enter, fire-drunk,
Heavenly one, your shrine.
Your magics again bind
What custom has strictly parted.
All people become brothers
Where your gentle wing lingers.]

The polls are open in Kentucky. Our votes matter in this election and that’s important. Bill Clinton said this is a vitally important election.

But they all are vitally important elections.

We have to elect U.S. Senate candidates, state senate candidates, city councilmen, county magistrates…

Agree with me or disagree about the better candidate, but go and exercise your right to vote. It’s what keeps you free.

And let us have joy in our political process, that lets us choose our leader.

Update: Video from the Herald-Leader.

Possibly related posts:

The White Male Face of Frankfort, Kentucky

Vote!

The sanctity of the vote

Why I stay angry…

I have eaten squirrel brains and I am not demented

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