Obama in Dallas Liveblogging

Thanks to the power of cell phones, my comrades Adam and Nat-Wu at the Obama rally at Reunion Arena are able to send pictures of the event. I haven't seen the inside of Reunion in awhile, but the last time I did it was at a Dallas Sidekicks game and I promise it didn't look this full:


Another angle:

Here's Ron Kirk having a good old time firing up the crowd (really, it's him):

And Emmitt Smith (he's not the best speaker, but he's a believer and the crowd loved him):

UPDATE:And now the man himself:

And another angle:

UPDATE II: By the way, some of our other Texas bloggers are live-blogging the rally. You can find out more of their coverage of the event here.


UPDATE III: (Nat-Wu)Wow, what an experience! Do yourself a favor and check out the speech here. Whether you like him or not, you have to admit Obama is an absolutely captivating speaker, and I have no doubt that a lot of people have been attracted to him simply for his charisma and personality. That's a good thing, because when he faces down John McCain, it'll give him that much more of an edge.

The rally was crazy! I read on WFAA.com that they had to close the doors because Reunion filled to capacity (some 17,000 seats) with many people still waiting to get in. You'll get a sense of just how many people were there from the pictures I link to. Check out authentic first-hand pictures from your hard-working TWM bloggers! Click the picture below:

UPDATE IV: Xanthippas here. If you want to see some more great pictures of the event today, go here (h/t Adam) or here. For the DMN story, go here.

UPDATE V: (Adam) What a great day! Lines were literally around the corner, under bridges, and on top of parking garages, but my friends and I got to Reunion Arena there early enough to get decent seats on the second level (and even saw Obama drive by when we were waiting in the line outside). It was freakin' awesome! I had seen Obama speak before at a rally in Dallas back in late 2005. It was great to see him then (I had been a fan since his legendary keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention), but it was nothing compared to seeing him now as a big-time presidential candidate with 20,000 screaming people cheering "Yes, We Can!"

Ron Kirk spoke first and was good as always. To paraphrase, he said that Obama's campaign began in Texas (the big rally at Austin in February 2007), so it should end in Texas as well. Then, he introduced Emmitt Smith and the crowd went even more nuts. As Obama said later, he can play football and dance, but he can also fire up a crowd. Then the man spoke himself, entering with thunderous applause. I've heard pretty much everything Obama said before in his speeches I've watched on TV, but it didn't matter at all. There's nothing like hearing it in person - it only lifts you up more. You feel this is truly change we can believe in. Simply amazing!