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I sat in the stands (I had no press passes) for the Barack Obama acceptance speech in Denver. The response was obviously enthusiastic among the Democratic faithful who nearly filled the entire stadium; only obstructed-view and nosebleed-section seats remained empty.
It’s hard to gauge how a political speech goes down when surrounded by thousands of people who are there just to see that one speech — and gloating over the fact that they got tickets when many of their friends and family who wished to attend were not able to find the passes. So I decided to do something inspired by Overheard in New York. Instead of taking the free mall ride, I decided to walk down the 16th Street Mall in Denver to see what the buzz was about.
Unsurprisingly, most of the talk of the town was about the Democratic National Convention — especially Obama’s acceptance speech, which had ended less than an hour earlier.
Man in his 20s: Best speech I’ve ever seen. I’m actually going to vote this year.
Woman in her 20s: I’m not an Obama supporter. I’m not a McCain supporter. I’m not voting for anyone. Obama’s just another politician.
Man in his 20s: Get your Obama shirts! One for 15, two for 25. Won’t find a better deal than that! Won’t find a better deal.
Man in his 20s (down the street): Obama shirts. Ten bucks each. Ten dollars for an Obama shirt! Souvenir from Denver!
Light rail train conductor: You may have noticed we are not moving. That’s because the train in front of me is stopped as well. We’ll start moving as soon as they do. … Note: Five minutes later, we saw the reason the trains were stopped: a miles-long line of shuttle buses from Invesco Field to different parts of Denver.
Gray-haired man: It’s like seeing Kennedy all over again. … I never thought I’d see this again in my lifetime.
Woman in her 30s (and amateur pundit): It was a great idea. Not only were there 70,000 people at Mile High, but everyone who was there will tell everyone how great the speech was and how bad it is that [the others] had to miss it.
Overall, the response seemed to be positive. I didn’t see one "PUMA" supporter on my way out, and no protesters along the 16th Street Mall. In fact, no protesters were along the 16th Street Mall that I saw. But there were a lot of Obama T-shirts, American flags and signs that said, "Campaign for Change," along the street. For one night, at least, Denver was blue.
