Babies for Hillary*

This afternoon was kind of dragging when I discovered an email announcing that Hillary Clinton was going to visit Augsburg College today for a pre-Super Tuesday rally. Since we missed out on tickets for Barack Obama's visit yesterday, we decided we might as well go check out his opposition. The doors opened at 2:00 for the rally, which was scheduled for 4:00. We arrived around 3:00 to find a line snaking around the block. Steve worked some magic (i.e., played the baby card) with one of the event staff near the front of the line and we got to sneak in ahead of a bunch of people who apparently didn't look quite as cold as Bry must have.

The event was held in the gym at Augsburg, and there was a respectable crowd assembled by the time we arrived. The bleachers were full of people who had been waiting since 9 am, so we stood amongst the crowd on the gym floor. At first, Bry was pretty overwhelmed by the sheer number of people. He clung tightly to Steve, but he started to warm up after we showed him the band and danced along to some of the tunes. A reporter from the Pioneer Press took down our names and asked us why we brought Bry along. Steve and I looked at each other blankly, each trying to come up with a more quotable response than, "There was nothing better to do this afternoon." I muttered something trite about wanting Bry to be a part of history in the making and we said that we're Hillary supporters, though Steve is actually a Barack backer and I'm on the fence, but leaning towards Barack.

By 3:45 the speeches started. Bry was starting to get antsy by this point, but he clapped when other people were cheering and had a blast holding up his very own Hillary sign. At several points he clapped his hand over his ear, signing "Loud!"

I like universal health care.

Unfortunately, Hillary didn't arrive until almost 5:00, cutting into Bry's dinner time. We had held him off by feeding him cheerios, peas, and carrots one at a time for almost an hour, but he was out of milk and starting to get hot, thirsty, bored, and squirmy. We stuck around for about 10 minutes of Hillary's speech before ducking out to beat the crowd and the traffic. All in all it was a good outing, if only to indoctrinate Bry into the correct political party early on (hmm, should have told the reporter that). Don't forget Bry, there's a reason we dress you in blue, not pink (which is a shade of red)!

Is she here yet?

See, she's right there, in front of the flag.
No, really.
(Oops, we forgot the real camera.)

*Alternate title: The Post that Threatened to Give Grandpa John a Heart Attack