The Cleveland audience is listening intently but the atmosphere in the auditorium is somber. Brian Williams and Tim Russert play a game of good cop/bad cop.
Sitting behind me: a college student who studies photography, got her ticket through the lottery and hadn’t thought about the election until she heard about the debate. She is undecided but wants to hear about health care because her father lost his job in August and will be a senior in a few years.
Sitting in front of me: an African-American woman in her 50s who is there to cheerlead Obama. She won a ticket too and is from Cleveland. There’s nothing she really feels a need to hear about.
Sitting next to her: a 54 year old man from Dayton, Ohio who won his ticket too. He feels that this is an historic event and that’s why he wanted to be here. He supports Obama because of how he’s engaged the younger generation and that we need his leadership for that generation. He hopes they talk about the fallen prestige of the U.S. and Supreme Court appointments.
Sitting a few rows below me: two brothers, one 17 and one 19, both born and raised in Cleveland, older brother went to and graduated from Shaker Heights High School and just graduated from Cleveland State. They didn’t like or really understand why in the scheme of things Iowa gets to go first. They hope to hear about taxes.
I moved back to the Media Filing Center because it was difficult to hear Obama in the audience. The sound system had him too soft and I told a bunch of people who know people when I left the arena area.