They stomped and cheered and used their cellphones to take pictures of themselves to post on their MySpace pages.
Maybe it was the representation of youth in the crowd that lends the oft-cited air of a rock concert that has been attributed to Obama rallies.
But that wasn't quite it, not entirely. It was more like church —not the stuffy kind, but roof-shaking soul church where people testify and dance in the aisles when the spirit's upon them.
"It's electric! Can't you feel it?" said one man, who told me he was headed for work at the IRS after the rally. I could feel it, because it's a fundamental element of crowd psychology that the expectation of "electricity" creates it.
In addition, in the column "Join the Debate: The Obama Rally," the following was written by Tod Robberson:
The rally struck me as having the quality of a religious revival, and I found that a little troubling. The opening prayer, with all heads bowed, turned into a campaign speech that ended with the weird phrase: "Barack Obama, in Jesus' name, yes we can." Obama got on stage and apologized for having a cold, then said, "If my voice starts faltering, just know that my spirit is still strong." I don't know, I just started feeling that there was too much of a religious overtone to the opening of the rally, as if we were brought there to witness the arrival of the chosen one.
I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if Mike Huckabee's rallies were like this? Or where is Barry Lynn and the separation of church and state crowd? I have to admit this kind of crowd psychology bothers me no matter who the candidate or preacher might be--I have too many visions of Nazi or Soviet crowd manipulation. We need to be a thinking people, not just an emotionally reactive people as we face the challenges of 2008.
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