Have you ever gone to a candidate rally?

[NNadir]

My wife and I, when we were younger, used to go to protests together, Rodney King when we were in California, and both of the huge anti-Iraq war demonstrations in New York that regrettably didn't save any lives.

We went to a climate change rally in Trenton, which unfortunately featured a number of chants with which I don't agree; but it was the thought that counts. (I'm not a fan of so called "renewable energy." )

I have only been to one candidate rally though, for Howard Dean in Philadelphia way back when...

It was a nice crowd. We all despised Bush, but were in a place where we couldn't imagine someone far worse than even Bush would end up soiling the White House.

It doesn't help that I live in New Jersey, generally a reliably blue State, although we did have two very awful Republican Governors, Chris Christie and Christie Todd Whitman. Presidential candidates don't come here and our late primaries mean we don't count in choosing the nominee.

My wife works in Philadelphia where Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama will be appearing for Kamala on Monday. She expects big crowds, but probably won't be able to attend herself since it's crunch time at her job.

We'll be traveling to Bethlehem PA today; apparently the orange idiot will be in Allentown. Ugh...

I hope the town isn't crawling with Trumpers.

So have you been to a rally? How was it?

[Mme. Defarge]

1. John Kerry

in PDX back in the day. Shook his hand.

[NNadir]

3. Cool.

[bullimiami]

6. Me too. Kerry outdoors at Bayside. Miami. With Springsteen.

I was at Iraq war protests as well.

[Ocelot II]

2. Years ago I went to a couple of Kerry rallies, met Al Gore at another event,

but the candidates don't come here any more because Minnesota isn't a battleground state. They were kind of fun, but not-quite-post-covid I probably wouldn't go to a crowded rally even if I had one to go to.

[mobeau69]

4. Yes, RFK, McGovern, and Obama.

[gopiscrap]

5. I've been to several the first one was Dukakis in 1988

the last one was for Obama in 2008. The been several smaller ones for primary cadidates since then including a 23,000 person rally for Sanders in Tacoma in 2020 right before the place shiut down becaus of Covid.

Also have been to republicqn rallie as a protester. Including one against George Bust the first on October 27, 1988. I helped plan that protest. We got the crapped kicked out of us by Pat Roberston folks but we made Bush leave 17 minutes early and we were the lead story of the evening news on all three national channels that night.

Since then the republican nominee has not campaigned in the city limits of Tacoma.

[displacedvermoter]

7. Clinton on several occasions while in Syracuse,

Bill and Hillary both spoke at event at the University.

Blair Brown and Billy Baldwin and local politicians in a downtown event.

Number of Bernie events over the years.

[debm55]

9. Bill Clinton . It was pouring. Bill held my 1 year old son.

[BoomaofBandM]

8. John Kerry. It was late and cold but we still remember it fondly.

[SallyHemmings]

10. Obama!

And the PA slates!

[rsdsharp]

11. I've been to two. One in early 1972 with McGovern.

If I recall correctly, it was in the basement of the student union at UNI, so it was fairly small, and he wasn’t yet the nominee. I went to another later that year in the same place. McGovern wasn’t there; John Voight was the surrogate (really!).

The second was at the Iowa State Fairgrounds with John Kerry and John Edwards less than a week before the election. Iowa was still a swing state then. There were several thousand people and only two magnetometers, so it took awhile to get in. It was a cold night and there were ZERO restrooms available. I was well acquainted with the fairgrounds, so I knew where they were, but the buildings were locked.

[greatauntoftriplets]

12. I attended the Clinton-Gore rally in Chicago's Daley Plaza on 10/29/96.

It was amazing. The estimated crowd was 300,000 people. An entire downtown city block was crammed with people, biggest crowd I've ever been in.

Sadly, I wasn't able to get very close.

[Hekate]

13. It's a great feeling to be surrounded by people who support the same things you do, listening to someone...

…you hope will change things for the better.

Avoid red-hats and Enjoy yourself!

[ArnoldLayne]

14. Yea John Kerry in 2004 Steubenville Ohio.

[electric_blue68]

15. McGovern, Bill Clinton...

McG's rally was one of the last big Garment District rallies. I have 2 grainy close up photos. I think I might have climbed up on a lamppost base w my camera.
One with McG speaking, one with Edward Kennedy speaking. Mayor Lindsey was there, too.

One of Bill Clinton's last '92 rallies in ?Jersey City. I don't remember how I heard about it, and how I found out how to get there: bc if it was '92 it was pre easy internet before what they called GUI: Graphical User Interface happened. A version of what we're all used to seeing from around ?late '94, definetly '95. Back then before that it was all typing in commands to get to sites etc. I didn't have a computer, and not sure there were Net Cafes yet, or the Library had them before GUI.

I can remember hoping I was going in the right direction after I got off ?the Path train, and/or NJ Transit. Then I heard the crowd in the distance!!! So excited!

There was a great cheering crowd. Especially after McGovern's crushing defeat it was soooo exciting to think he Bill Clinton had a good chance of being President; and that I was there to see him.

I went to both of Ombama's Inaugurations w my sis. We had a great time. The first one was soooo cold.
And previously Bill's first one w Maya Angelou!

Plenty of NYC Anti-Vietnam War Rallies/Marches. The 2nd Anti Iraq War march. The Gigantic NYC Anti-Nuclear Weapons March & Rally in ?82; where Midnight Oil played, Bruce played. The first 3 Women's Marches.

Post-Covid -ugh- too scared to go to any at 71 yrs even with a mask. Very frustrating bc I'm still quite healthy, and active traveling around my city etc a bit. Again bc Covid I don't want to be around crowded areas much, but those are where the stores are out of my nabe that I want to go to are. But dashing in and out of stores is probably being that being longer in a crowd marching, or standing at a rally.
Maybe I'll show up for a bit of a rally at the very back edge in the future.

[Sequoia]

16. Nixon came to Asheville NC

We kids were loaded up in a bus to Pack Square. He was right in front of me wearing a blue tie with white dots. Shortly thereafter it was McGovern who came to town.

[NNadir]

18. You know what? You just reminded me that I came within steps of Nixon in 1968.

I didn't know that it was a "rally," but I was in a parking lot at the Walt Whitman shopping mall in Huntington Station, on Long Island, one of the first malls in the area as I recall.

I had just gotten my provisional driver's license, so "mall ratting" was a thing to do.

A crowd was gathering, so I went over to check it out. It turned out it was Nixon. He mounted a stage, offered a few minutes of what may have been a speech about something or another and then leaped into the crowd to shake hands, passing very close to where I stood.

All I remember was all the make up he was wearing. I did not, ugh, come close enough to shake his hand, not that I would have rejected it, since I was politically naive in those days, probably leaning slightly Republican, since my father was right wing, and my mother a right leaning moderate.

I can't call it "attendance at a rally," since I didn't know there'd be a "rally," and was only in high school and was at the mall and a dumb teenage male probably there to ogle teenage girls, but it happened.

It slipped my mind until you mentioned this.

[Elessar Zappa]

17. Unfortunately, yes.

My mom supported GW Bush so I went with her to one of his rallies, I was 17 and a “republican” although I didn’t know why other than that my parents were. Next year, I became a liberal and joined DU and a few years later my parents became liberals after I badgered them relentlessly about the immorality of their positions. They’re solid progressives to this day.

[GP6971]

19. John Kerry at the Tacoma Dome.