By Todd Lassa
Lines for entry into a rally for the Democratic presidential ticket wrapped a couple of blocks around the Fiserv Forum Tuesday evening, leading one man in one line to wonder whether we would make it inside before the program was to start at 7 pm. The Fiserv Forum’s capacity is 17,341 when configured for Milwaukee Bucks NBA games, so let there be no doubt that about 17,000 supporters (and this reporter) shlepped out to see the presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, a number that must have rivaled attendance at the very same venue a month earlier for the Republican National Convention.
One of the charged-up supporters to see Harris and Walz divert 90 miles or so north from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was Milwaukeean Joyce Fowler, who says she would not have made the same effort for a Joe Biden rally.
“I think he made the right decision,” she said of Biden, “and Kamala ought to make a good president.”
Fowler did not single out any issue that binds her vote to Harris, though she added that it is “crucial” that Donald J. Trump be defeated in November. Fowler, who is Black, lamented that her son plans to vote for the Republican rival.
Nathanial Brown of Brown Deer, Wisconsin, said he would have come out for a Biden/Harris rally. For him, the big issue is what he described as Trump’s threat to American democracy.
Retired teacher Edward Croke, of Milwaukee, said; “I feel we need more progressive people. Like (Sen.) Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and (Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio) Cortez (D-NY), and these older people, they shouldn’t be there.
“I like Biden. I think he was given, excuse my language, a big fucking mess from Trump, and he had to deal with it. And he did.”
Inside, the program began at 7 pm with the big, ceiling-mounted Bucks video scoreboard broadcasting the ceremonial convention roll call (Harris was officially nominated August 7) from Chicago.
You can see from our photograph that the Editorial We ended up just short of the very last row. Acoustics were such that it often was hard to make out what anyone was saying.
Walz came out solo about halfway through the roll call and declared the Democratic crowd more enthusiastic than the Republican crowd in July.
Back to the Chicago video feed, the Fiserv crowd cheered especially for the Democratic superstars as they rattled off delegate counts – Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Some of the states had small numbers of delegates – often just one – vote “present” or “absent” in protest of the Biden/Harris administration’s support of the Israeli government in its execution of the war in Gaza.
The Fiserv crowd erupted loudly when the Wisconsin delegation came on the scoreboard-screen, drowning out apparent flubs by Gov. Tony Evers. Then Wyoming, and then Minnesota and California in honor of their favorite son and daughter, and then, finally, Vice President Harris came out to speak.
She warned it’s “going to be a tight race” …
“It’s going to be a lot of hard work,” Harris said, adding her side will win “because we’re going to put a lot of hard work into the next 77 days.”
A disruption several sections over appeared to be from a pro-Palestinian protester; all that could be made out of a crumpled banner he or she had previously held was the word, “genocide.”
Meanwhile, Harris emphasized the parts of her agenda that could be most important in the remaining 76 days. These include her $6,000 child tax credit, calling out the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 (even as Trump denies any serious knowledge of plans to take over the federal bureaucracy) and, of course, women’s reproductive rights remain important.
Harris’ brief pause to get help from medics for someone who apparently had collapsed behind the nylon cordon a few feet from her stage drew admiring cheers from the audience.
The vice president concluded with one of her campaign’s recurring slogans, “We’re not going back.” (Blue rectangular cards with the word “Freedom” printed on it also were handed out to the audience.)
“Just like the Wisconsin state motto tells us,” Harris concluded; “Forward.”
It’s going to be a long 76 days forward to the presidential election.
Posted WEDNESDAY 8/21/24