50,000 in attendance.  21,000 new ground troops added to the campaign. THIS is field organization at work.

Oh man, how I love The Boss!

For those of you close enough, and lucky enough, there are still two more Springsteen for Obama events:

Columbus, Ohio on Sunday, October 5

Where: Ohio State University's Main Oval
When: Sunday, October 5. Doors open at 3:00, showtime is 4:30
How: For access to the best viewing area, preferred tickets will be distributed starting on Thursday, Oct. 2, from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. For ticket pick-up locations, see the Dayton Daily News.

Ypsilanti, Michigan on Monday, October 6

Where: Oestrike Stadium
When: Monday, October 6. Gates open at 3:00, showtime is 4:30
How: A limited supply of tickets will be made available Friday, Oct. 3, at Obama campaign offices as well as all EMU ticket offices. Tickets will be given out on a first- come, first-served basis. EMU students will be able to obtain one ticket by showing a valid EMU ID. Eastern Michigan University will expand its normal ticket office hours Friday to accommodate the expected demand. The expanded hours and locations are as follows: Quirk Hall, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Student Center, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and the Convocation Center, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The general public should use the Convocation Center location for ticket requests.

The piece is beautifully written so I'm not going to interrupt to point out relevant points.  What I want to reinforce is just how efficient the Obama team is when it comes to using these events as genuine campaign tools. This is great field organization - nothing left to chance, multiple layers of redundancy packed into the event.  The second point is that there is a great sense of the enthusiasm we have.  Springsteen may have been the draw, but a lot of these people were there for Obama. The quote from a volunteer who had found only 10 people still unregistered seems to be a great sign.  

From http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_pag e/20081005_As_Springsteen_sings__Obama_s _camp_signs.html

Bruce Springsteen had pounded through his second song as though his acoustic guitar were a pickax, then handed it off to an assistant. The rocker in rolled-up plaid sleeves slung another guitar over his shoulder and tossed out a raspy line that made clear to the thousands on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway how he feels about Barack Obama.

"We tried this four years ago," said Springsteen, who held concerts for then-Democratic nominee John Kerry and headlined yesterday's get-out-the-vote rally for Obama in Center City. "This time, we're winning."

Though organized by the Obama campaign in just a few days, the concert, at 20th and the Parkway, drew an estimated 50,000 people. According to Obama staff, it also added 21,000 new ground troops to the Illinois senator's campaign effort in must-win Pennsylvania.

The Democratic presidential candidate's potent ground operation was on display up and down the Parkway, with volunteers at almost every turn collecting personal information about concertgoers and doling out voter-registration forms.

As good as this is, it gets even BETTER after the jump  - pics & video included!

There's more...

35 years ago -- In 1972 -- Hunter S. Thompson wrote:

If the current polls are reliable... Nixon will be re-elected by a huge majority of Americans who feel he is not only more honest and more trustworthy than George McGovern, but also more likely to end the war in Vietnam. The polls also indicate that Nixon will get a comfortable majority of the Youth Vote. And that he might carry all fifty states... This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it -- that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.  The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his mistakes... understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon. McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose... Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?

Nixon played to America's worst instincts, to our racism and prejudice, to our hatred, and to our fears.  In 1972, America voted for a bad man, and we then pretended to be shocked when the bad man did bad things.

There's more...