Obama Rally

We tried to get into the Obama Rally at Key Arena this afternoon, but we couldn't. The crowd had already filled up Key Arena by 11:15 (doors were at 11), so we were relegated to standing outside with a few thousand other people in the cold, wind and rain. Seattlest Katie was inside and had this to say:

Key Arena was packed. I sat on the floor in the aisle on the third level. It was a variation on the theme of most of his campaign stop speeches, but compared to the exhausted Obama I saw in December, he was totally on form today. The man can speak and he can talk to people; teenagers were shouting at him and he didn't miss a beat. No Clinton bashing. I just don't know how many more times I can say that he embodies everything I want in a leader, and beyond that, all of the things I admire in a person. I just can't believe I'm lucky enough to cast a vote for this guy. He's incredible. Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Also, 21,000 people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greg Nickels was booed.

Gov. Gregoire officially joined our team.

Obama also took a few minutes to do a very abbreviated version of his stump speech from the steps next to the ticket windows on the East side of the building. It was actually pretty exciting.

Since we can't really report on the speech itself (listening to a stump speech through tinny speakers is not as invigorating as one might hope) we decided instead to interview people there to give you a sense of what the moment was like. It was pretty fun. The video also includes his outside speech.

Update: There's a video of his full indoor speech on King 5's site.

Caucus Saturday at 1 PM. Find your location here.