Kissimmee, Florida — Twenty miles south of Orlando, 35,000 Floridians, forced to wear light jackets to fight the blistering cold weather, showed up to see who they hope will be the next President of the United States. Walking into the venue where Barack Obama would shortly be talking, I learned that the chills I that would feel would not come solely from the weather. The actor Jimmy Smits was on stage, doing his best to not look like a half-witted buffoon. As he made douche chillingly references to what his West Wing character Matt Santos would do as president, you could see one of Mr. Obama’s largest strategies for the state in action: appealing to Latino voters. Alternating chants from “Yes, we can!” to “¡Si, Se Puede!,” the Latino presence in the crowd could definitely be felt.
At 11 p.m. Senator Bill Nelson, who has always been out of this world, took the stage. With his permanently furrowed brow, he introduced Bill Clinton. To stop any fear people might have about the former president in its tracks, his hair still looks great. Clinton explained that there are four reasons Barack Obama should be president. To be honest, I got lost around the second reason, and I think most of them where just reasons why he was a good president. Sitting behind Slick Willie was Mr. Obama. With his laid back clap and subtle head nodding, he showed that whatever your views on him are, this man is class personified.
Taking the stage a little after 11:30 p.m., Barack Obama took hold of and guided the crowd through the various portions of his stump speech. All the issues that were seemingly important to the crowd where hit on like drunk chicks at a night club. Obama got his largest reaction of the night when taking a shot at Joe “I want be Bruce Willis” the Plumber, asserting that 99.9% of plumbers make less than $250,000 a year. The night was filled with the chants and energy that we have all become accustomed to seeing on TV. A “U-S-A,” chant was started by yours truly, almost catching on it, but was overtaken by the mediocre “O-ba-ma” chant.
As I left the event, I got a sense that if Obama could get this crowd to turn out in a historically Republican town, then his strategy to take Florida might just be working.
