Thousands Show Up in Detroit For History Lesson From Prof. Obama

And Wonkette was there!

We'd all been waiting several days for the campaign to send out the notice. When they finally dropped last week, the freelance photographers who’ve shot the majority of the 2024 election's photos frantically began planning. Former president Barack Obama was hitting the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris. Obama would hit Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia, and we should expect special guests.

Our pre-set was at noon. That's when media professionals with lots of gear arrive to quickly set up and/or drop gear before leaving so the US Secret Service can conduct a security sweep. Pre-set is helpful to get a layout of the event space, tinker with camera and audio settings, or just mark your territory in the press areas.

It was another event at Huntington Place. Back in June, former president Donald Trump gave the keynote during the final night of Turning Point USA's flashy, three-day shitshow. Both Harris and Trump have held rallies at Huntington Place in recent days. They've been holding rallies at the same sites over the last two months, and some of us photographers have privately compared unpublished, personal photos showing crowd sizes and logistics.

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THE SHITSHOW!

Front Row At The Trump Show With Your Wonkette

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Trump didn’t have a big crowd in Detroit, a colleague who attended the event tells me.

Tuesday, for Obama, there were maybe 30-40 people lined up outside the convention center at 1 pm. After grabbing some lunch and a nap in my truck, I walked out from the garage and found the line had stretched for about eight blocks. It circled around Washington Boulevard, Larned Street, and Jefferson Avenue, and again around Shelby Street and W. Congress before dumping back onto Jefferson and into the entrance to Huntington.

I walked around for about 20 minutes with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth, attempting to find the end of the line. Eventually, I gave up and made my way towards the press entrance to pick up my press credential.

The crowd was electric. Aarolyn McCullough, 65, of Oak Park, MI, wore white socks that read, “I miss Obama.” She was giddy to show them off, saying, “I do, I love him!”

One man flagged me down and, with a devilish grin, asked if I wanted to take a picture of his button. Bob Wurosch, 79, of St. Clair Shores, MI, leaned in and flashed a small, unassuming button. "I keep it in my bar," he said.

The pin was red, with a black and white image of Donald Trump that read, “In your guts. You know he's nuts.”

“It really pisses off some of my friends,” Wurosch said with a laugh. "Whenever they go to grab a drink? I keep stuff like that there. Just to, you know!”

Another woman, Jima Thomas-Gilbert, 53, of Detroit, wore a camo Harris-Walz hat and a denim vest with a big blue patch that read, “Detroit Raised Me.” Thomas-Gilbert says her neighbors all call her the “Yard Sign Lady.”

“I have 75 Harris signs on my lawn,” Thomas-Gilbert said. “Whenever someone wants one, they know to just come and take one.”

Thomas-Gilbert has been working with residents across Detroit to raise support for Harris, she says. She hosts meetings to talk to voters about Harris’s policies.

Later, Thomas-Gilbert texted me about her hat, saying “Democrats [are] reclaiming CAMO because it belongs to EVERYONE.”

4) Aarolyn McCullough, 65, Oak Park, MI. 5) Bob Wurosch, 79, St. Clair Shores, MI. 6) Jima Thomas-Gilbert, 53, Detroit. 7) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer 8) Actor Matthew Lillard 9) Calvin "Megatron" Johnson

One of the highlights of Democratic campaign events is “spot the celebrity.” One photographer became momentarily starstruck upon seeing actor Matthew Lillard, and was sheepishly attempting to get his attention for a photo. Personally, I think Lillard, a Michigan native, was just trying to mind his own business, but I managed to get the person next to him to tell him to turn for us. Lillard smiled, flashed a peace sign, and was promptly mobbed by campaign staffers asking for selfies.

Usually, the big names in attendance have some kind of speaking role. The big stars on stage that evening were Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (AKA Big Gretch), Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield, former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin “Megatron” Johnson, Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, and Detroit's own Eminem.

Eminem only spoke for two minutes. His speech was so short I was barely able to run 70 feet from the “cut riser” on the left of the stage, through the crowd of elderly ADA patrons sneaking into the press pen, and up the large head-on riser while carefully climbing its stairs without shaking the plethora of video feeds. Then line up my shot, adjust my white balance and steady my aim — and then the reclusive rapper was introducing Obama.

3) Sen. Gary Peters. 4) Sen. Debbie Stabenow. 5) Gov. Gretch Whitmer 6) Rep. Elissa Slotkin 7) Eminem 8) Obama, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Eminem

Obama's speech was a reminder of what a good orator sounds like. He speaks thoughtfully, like a cool uncle, or a professor who knows you can do better, and encourages you without making you feel guilty. He knows how to improv a decent joke, and keep the crowd engaged. Those soaring hope-y, change-y bits are still there, but he spoke fiercely about preserving democratic principles.

If you’ve never seen an Obama speech, I recommend it as something one should see at least once in their life. If nothing else, to contrast it between the spiteful sputtering of sentence fragments and disjointed thoughts that we now consider “normal.”

Obama noted that it was under Republican presidents and policies that the economy crashed in 2008, and again in 2020. And that it was Donald Trump who threw out the government's strategy for dealing with a pandemic, told people to drink bleach and not to blame him.

“I spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans left me,” Obama said. “Y’all remember the auto industry in America was flat on its back. They didn’t want to lift a finger to help, and we made the investments to reopen those factories and put people back to work. And by the time I left office, I handed over to Donald Trump 75 straight months of jobs growth. Yeah, the economy was good, because we did the work. And all he did was give a tax cut to people who didn't need one.”

“Do not boo,” Obama told the crowd as they voiced their dissatisfaction. “Vote.”

OPEN THREAD.