An OTBKB reader was at the Brooklyn for Barack event at the Brooklyn Marriott. Here is her detailed and personal report.

I attended with my children. I have not made any final decision about my vote. I have watched my children grow in a time when patriotism is almost a thing of the past. We have tried to keep our heads high as our administration has embarassed us over and over again. We have felt the shame of their actions. I wanted my kids to hear a speaker that is capable of stirring that patriotism. Ronald Regan did it for the Republicans and JFK for the Democrats. I wanted them to know that they can be part of the political process.

Barack Obama is the first candidate that we have seen that is post-Vietnam. For that reason I find his participation fascinating. I think that he is pretty genuine. He is a politician, so I watched with a careful eye to see ‘the real Obama’. For whatever it’s worth, he was an hour and a half late. I was surprised that there was no security, not even a bag check. I knew as I entered that there would be no questions. No seats, no questions, I concluded. While I was waiting I overheard a woman say that she was a paid blogger for the Democratic Party. The man who introduced Obama was a Jamaican man with his son. The man had contributed $25 on his very tight budget, to the campaign and was asked to participate. His son ran around him and popped his face up between the his legs as he was reading. It lightened the stress of the wait and created a warm entry for Obama.

As any speaker has to access their crowd, Barack did just that, opening with a few shots at the Wall Street troubles and at the high salaries. I wondered to myself if he says that to his big contributors. As a Wall Street wife I was disappointed. He later talked about how Americans don’t want to be red and blue, black and white, fancy and plain… they just want to be people. I couldn’t agree more.

He revealed that he hadlived in Park Slope when he was at Columbia. Seems like a very long time ago. He was careful to mention that it was a sublease (so maybe it was in the summer) and that he couldn’t afford it then and certainly can’t afford it now. I rolled my eyes. He reminisced about running on the Promenade and about getting bagels at some place that I’d never heard of. I thought, why would he run on the Promenade when he could run in the park?

He is a great speaker. He touched on all the things that any good Democrat would want to hear. He did not go into depth. The crowd went wild with everything he said. The cheers were sprinkled with church-like shouts of “speak brother” and “we’ve got your back”. I was close to the front so the feeling was intimate. When he finished the people pushed forward to shake his hand and to have books signed, all of which he did at a calm pace with a sincere attitude.

From a speech writing perspective I was surprised that he mentioned along with his intention to find Bin Laden that 3000 people were killed here. I think that this may be fine somewhere else but in New York it wasn’t just 3000 people that were killed. They were our friends and neighbors and relatives.

I honestly don’t think that there is any way that he will be our President- this time. I studied him, watched and listened and the guy seems to be for real. I keep telling myself that he is a politician but I really think that this one might be different. Does different make him right? I don’t know. All I know is that my kids got goose bumps when he spoke and walked away feeling really sparked by his “hope”fulness.