This morning, I woke up bright and early to journey to Boulder. The Mission: See Howard Dean speak in person, and be there to cheer him on.

I arrived early at the UMC, just shy of 0900, hand crafted poster-board sign in hand. (Last night, before going to bed, I had colored it all up in red, white, and blue, with an American flag depicted next to the words, "Americans for Dean." On the back: "We want our country back!" It worked, I thought.)

When I got to the entrance, the person at the gate said that I would need to surrender my sign before proceeding any further. The reason given was so that signs could be positioned in such a way so as not to block people's view, etc etc. She said that they would try to get it back to me if possible. Though I was somewhat disappointed, I relented. Mine was added to a stack of other similarly crafted homemade Dean memorabilia.

Since I was early, and there weren't yet many people around, I wandered in the direction of a crowd of people with Dean for America shirts. One girl stepped forward, presumably the leader of the group, and asked if I was here to volunteer or just attend. I said I wouldn't mind volunteering if they needed any help. She asked if I had receieved volunteer instructions. I replied that I hadn't. She said thanks for the offer, but they already had plenty of people to help out.

(Such is the way of things when one misses a meetup. But since I was out of state when the last meetup took place, oh well. It now occurrs to me that since the next meetup will likely be on the same night as the Matrix Revolutions premiere, there just might be a slight scheduling conflict there as well. We'll see.)

I wandered around the UMC courtyard observing things, and eventually settled in a spot near the stage, where a small gathering of people was beginning to coalesce. Music started playing out of the speakers, songs with distinctly optimistic and inspiring themes. (Jesus Jones, Sheryl Crow, etc.)

It didn't take long before that small gathering of people grew to fill the entire courtyard. It became crowd of hundreds, maybe over a thousand, extending beyond the down the steps, where I could no longer see. I would estimate that roughly 75% of the attendees appeared to be students. That made sense, given that this was being held on the CU campus.

Various warm up performers and speakers took the stage. A local guy with a guitar. The chairman of the CU college democrats. A Boulder City Council representive. Etc.

Then the signs were passed out. To the people in the middle of the crowd and near the stage, big stacks of officially printed Dean for America signs were dispersed, while those standing around the edges and up against the buildings got the larger posterboard style signs. I looked around to see if I could see anyone holding the sign I had made, but didn't see it anywhere. The crowd was rather large and thick, making it difficult to see all around. Being near the front middle, I did manage to get my hands on one of the official Dean signs, and held it high and proud.

The local democrat leader led the crowd in "We Want Dean" chants. Since Dean wasn't quite there yet, they had to stall a couple more times with other speakers, before things reached a crescendo of Dean screamers.

Finally, the governer appeared, shook some hands, and took the stage.

The speech itself, if you follow the online webcasts, was pretty much standard Dean fare, uttered with passion and persuasive energy. Going over the current administration's dismal record with regard to the economy, the environment, gay rights, women's reproductive choice, foreign policy, the war, national security, the liberty of the American people, and then following with ideas about what he would do better. Health Care. Renewable Energy. Balanced Budgets. Making America a country to be admired by the world again. He hit all the points.

It was also fun when the crowd would pretty much spontaniously erupt into massive applause whenever Dean would even give the hint of starting to say something along the lines of how Bush needed to be given "a one way ticket back to Crawford, Texas." Before he could even finish the statement, the people had drowned him out with cheers.

No love lost between mad old King George and this crowd.

Dean finished off with the note about how the real power to change this country lies in the hands of the people. No politician can fix every problem. "You have the power. You have the power. You have the power!"

After Dean left the podium, the crowd gradually began to disperse. On the way out, I made a few more cursory glances around to see if I could see the sign I had made, but there was no sign of it. (Doh. Bad, bad pun.) However, I now had an official Dean for America sign, which wasn't too shabby.

[Insert Limbaugh-esque quote about the liberal agenda plot regarding the redistribution of signs in America.]

I got back to my parking spot just before my 2 hours had expired, and drove home, new Howard Dean sign in hand. The End.