Florida

November 02, 2008

Alex Webb attends two different rallies.

“Hey, you! Are you with a paper?” a middle-aged Latina asked me early Wednesday morning. “Why does the news media always support what’s-his-name?” she asked, hesitating for a moment, then turning to her husband for help with the candidate’s name. Suddenly – and clearly relieved – she blurted out: “You know, Obama.” She looked at me again. “Except, of course, you, because you’re here. This country with Obama is going to go down,” she added, turning her thumb towards the ground.

I was standing in a lot at Everglades Lumber in Miami, just west of Little Havana, at a small, though boisterous, early morning McCain rally. In this crowd of probably less than a thousand people, the air was filled with anti-Obama invectives: “He’s a socialist! How can a Cuban vote for him?” “I never liked Kennedy, and he’s sure no Kennedy….” The crowd was sprinkled with “Pepe el Plomero” signs (“Joe the Plumber” in Spanish) and one “Cachita la Plomera” sign (perhaps roughly translated as “Josephine the Plumber”).

Later that day I drove to Sunrise, Florida, on the outskirts of Fort Lauderdale, to attend an Obama rally at the Bank Atlantic Center, home of the Florida Panthers, a professional hockey team. I arrived an hour early and was struck by how long the lines were already. At 4:30 the doors opened, and by 6:30, the crowd, comprised of people of all ages and colors, had swelled to nearly 15,000 people. It felt at times more like a rock concert or a sports event than a political rally, except that the crowd, although excited and animated, exuded an unmistakable sense of calm.

Obama arrived to wild cheering. During his speech, his occasional pauses were interrupted by “Will you marry me?” and other affectionate outbursts from the crowd. I saw tears in some people’s eyes when he spoke of bridging the great political divide or of healing the country’s wounds.

So what to make of this day? Recent polls suggest the race is getting tighter, which seems to contradict much of what I saw at the two rallies today. Is this simply because some people who will go to the polls never show up at rallies? Or is there some other more complicated reason? The more I see and hear and read in this unpredictable Sunshine State, the less I know for sure what will happen here come November 4.