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Obama For America - Austin, Texans for Obama, the TCDP, numerous local elected officials, and many other organizations and over 562 people officially enjoyed the "largest OFA Health Care Rally in the country today". Local news reported "about 1,000 people".
But Per Mike Litt, OFA-Austin, the official count for sign-ins was 562. (We had clip boards up front for them to sign as they stormed into the hall).
562 is a very conservative estimate. Since a fair amout of folks did not sign-in. (I personally witnessed a number of folks walk in without signing up). We probably had nearly 900 people total if you count everyone, including those in the parking lot that didn't come inside.
Thank you to everyone for being part of history today. And thank you for everyone working to get the word out in such a short notice. Y'all know who you are. This all happened in about a week. Super job.
Overall, everyone appeared civil. I was impressed that citizens on our side (Obama side) kept our cool and took the higher road, even when challenged by the other side.
The "other side" included about 40 people that mostly lined the other side of Lavaca with signs and cheering against "Obama Care".
As for the other side, I feel they're doing themselves a disservice by crashing our party. This is why:
- Their arguments are weak and often don't make much sense.
- They don't have an alternative for reform. (I purposely stuck around for another 1/2 hour after the event, and talked with over 15 of them. I put myself in their shoes and tried to see it from their side. None of them could offer an alternative. They only wanted to stop Obama. I just walked away wondering what the heck they were trying to accomplish.
TXCN News (KVUE's top story this evening) quoted an individual opposed to Obama's plan at the rally saying
..."Mark Keedy is against the current plan. He believes if it passes everyone will get substandard care.
"There are always going to be people who need help," he said. "We'll always be here to help those people, but for everyone who says they need help there maybe a way for them to get help without this type of radical change."
Well, so what's the alternative???
- We outnumbered them by such a huge number that it was almost embarrassing for the other side.
- They crashed our party. Wedding crashers don't get a lot of respect by anyone.
- More and more Republicans and Independents in TX are joining us in this effort each day with about 70% in agreement that we need to invest in Health Care Reform.
I'd like to know how y'all feel about the "political wedding crashing" effort in general. (no need to call them the name that starts with a "T", as they clearly don't like it).
Please share. Do you feel this is helping their effort or not? Not just for Health Care, but for any topic or event, has our side or their side had any postive consequences resulting from the practice of crashing the other side's event(s)? Why don't they host their own event? Why crash ours? Do we ever crash their events?
Best,
David Kobierowski
Co-Founder
Texans For Obama
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