By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Howard Hall of Dowagiac went to Washington with his parents as a child, but all he remembers is the White House, which he barely glimpsed last week.
"It was statues when I was a kid. It meant a whole lot more this time. It was so different, being there as an adult. Seeing our president gave me a totally different view of just how good we have it here in the U.S.," he said Friday. "Even though things don't all go the way we want, it is still the best way to run a government. The last eight years have been terrible, but it seems to have a way of working itself out. Optimistic people from all over the world were there with Canadian flags and Chinese flags. Everybody was there to see America's rebirth. I met smiling people from all over the world who were in awe of everything they had seen. It was fantastic! There won't be another inaugural like that in my lifetime. In four years, it won't be the same."
Attending Tuesday's inauguration "was one of the most exciting experiences I have ever had," said Hall, who helped put President Barack Obama in the White House as a South Berrien County field organizer.
"If it wasn't for the Obama campaign, I wouldn't have been able to go. I was in charge from Niles to New Buffalo, the state line up to St. Joe. I had a base of 300+ volunteers. I shook hands with (Obama) when he was in Grand Rapids" and again last week in the Staff Ball receiving line.
"He's my age," Hall said, "and he has a connection with younger people, just like I do. He was community organizing in inner-city Chicago. I work at camps with inner-city kids.
"When we watched him walk down the hall in the Capitol on the Jumbotron, he looked presidential. His head was up high. He looked very confident. You know he wanted to smile," Hall said. "The Staff Ball was electrifying. I was proud to be hired. Now, you take it the next step and he wins. Then you take it to the next step of the Staff Ball, where he thanks you. I worked on the Clinton campaign, which didn't have a Staff Ball thanking everybody or go out of its way to be as gracious. I made phone calls from the house for three weeks until we got that building in Niles donated by one of the council persons. Then we got an office in Union Pier. From there it was easy, because people wanted to work and help, they just didn't know where to go before we had a visible office."
With the National Mall crammed from the Capitol to the back of the Washington Monument, it took hours to navigate the crowd after Tuesday's swearing-in.
"You didn't get a choice where you wanted to go, you just had to follow the crowd" walking like "penguins" in six- to eight-inch steps, Hall said. "It was about 10 blocks before I could work my way to the outside and turn down on a side street.
"Everyone was so polite and in a good mood, even though people were packed in so tight you could hardly move," said Hall, who was knocked down once. "When Barack began his speech, millions of people started yelling, 'Yes, We Can!' The crowd was even nice to Bush when he came out, which really surprised me.
"Although it was bothersome, the Secret Service, military and police from all over the country were very nice to everyone. I have never been searched so many times anywhere. Every building you entered, you were searched. It was exciting to look on top of almost every building on the 20th and see Secret Service peeking over the tops of the buildings."
Hall stayed a block from Embassy Row, which "allowed me to meet many people from different nations. The Obama campaign was really good about trying to find the staff housing. Believe it or not, the house was on Upton Drive. The older guy I stayed with worked with Homeland Security, so he wouldn't say what he did. Five staffers stayed there. They gave us tours of some of the embassies and took us out to eat one night. It was such an amazing experience it's hard to put into words."
The campaign also put a car pool together. Hall rode to Washington with a fellow from Kalamazoo. "He had a ride, but no housing, and I had housing, but no ride. We did the tourist stuff the first day and all of these buildings had square-block lines around them. A guy who was half way to the door said he'd been waiting three hours for swearing-in tickets. I had tickets from the campaign, but I also got two from (U.S. Rep.) Fred Upton. Upton rented a Republican club right down the road from the Capitol. We walked in, ate, got our tickets and walked out."
Each member of Congress was allotted 200 tickets to distribute.
Tuesday Hall's group of five caught the first train and arrived at the Capitol about 4:30 a.m. "They weren't supposed to let anyone in until 8, but they let us in early," he said. "I was in the purple section, down looking up" and to the left facing the Capitol.
Hall kept an eye out for First Ward City Councilman Darron Murray, whom he challenged in the 2007 election, but their paths didn't cross, although he saw MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow and Stephen Colbert's portrait in the American History Museum.
Hall ran for mayor in 2005 and for school board in 2007.
"MSNBC had people walking around with sandwich boards for advertising, except these were vests with computers in front," he said. "We walked on the ice on the Reflecting Pool. The day of, it was windy and cold, but the day before it was great, probably close to 40. No snow at all."
There was a notable lack of protesters except "for one crazy Jesus group across from the NBC booth," Hall said. "If you're a sports fan, you're going to hell. If you're a wife who doesn't do what your husband tells you, you're going to hell. I was really tired when I got there and I listened to the guy for about 30 minutes. The networks were quite a ways away, broadcasting by the Smithsonian. The only ones up close, dead center in the middle of the Mall where all the people were, was MSNBC."
Hall said his cell phone worked erratically, "so I learned how to text real quick, because you could text when you couldn't make calls. There was no traffic allowed within two miles except diplomat cars. It was all walking. I was beat when I got home. We saw everything we wanted to see. The swearing-in you can't even imagine. I wish I could have gotten up higher. When everybody left the Mall, the trash was ankle- to knee-deep" – mostly hand-warmer packaging.
"You were on your own when it was over and nobody knew where to go," he said.
"The parade started late" because of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy's seizure.
"We were told right off the bat there was no way to get from the swearing-in to the parade – and they were right," Hall said.
"When I went in, I had four bottles of water, one stuffed in my sock. When the Secret Service searched me the agent said, 'I know that's water, sir, but could you please take it out?' They were fantastic. They were all very polite. None of them were cocky. There were some boos when Bush came out. When Obama came out and everyone chanted, 'Yes we can!' it was surreal. There were barriers between the purple area, the silver area and the blue area. Eventually, that little plastic fence got pushed down. The Secret Service just calmed them down and let them move ahead into the next area because there was no way they could stop them. I couldn't see more than the top of Obama's head over the bullet-proof glass" because of the angle.
It was still "well worth it and I would definitely do it again," Hall said.
Though technically too old, Hall attended the Youth Ball. The summer camp director "likes working with youth, so I decided to go to that and we went to the Western Ball, which the guy I went down with had tickets to. The phenomenal Staff Ball on Wednesday had Jay-Z and Beyonce, an indoor pyrotechnic show and a lady swinging from the ceiling on a trapeze. (Vice President Joe) Biden and Obama were there. It was a great way to end the campaign, being with everybody you worked with. Their goal is to get all of us jobs. I have an interview (this) week with the Peace Corps.
"There is also a grassroots organization that specializes in mobilizing junior high and high school students to teach them about government and to involve them in the political process.
"They actually run a political summer camp where the kids learn about government while still doing boating and canoeing with an actual presidential election. It's in Tennessee. I'm too old to do a lot of the ones in D.C. (one was a research assistant), but I'm good at working with youth and I've been a camp director and organizer."
Hall said, "I really, truly believe you're going to see (Obama's campaign model) change the way elections are run. I've worked on campaigns since Clinton. Presidential and governor races are probably going to be run by the Obama field staff, with county parties running local politics. He's built this big machine and they'll open offices all around to be liaisons between the community and the White House."
Hall attended a private New York party. Had his name not been on the list, it would have cost $400.
"It was so cool to walk up and have them move the little rope and go inside. Four drinks cost $100. Hot dogs were anywhere between $6 and $12. Bottled water was $3.50. It was really expensive, but worth it."
"Obama is definitely sincere, I believe, based on the way he talked to us," Hall said. "He really thanked us for all the work we did and he meant it. I think he's going to do okay. We saw Oprah at one of the balls" and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Granholm was at a Michigan delegation breakfast Monday morning where he also had his picture taken with former governor James Blanchard and junior Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
"One of the campaign's concerns when it interviewed me to hire me was if I had been involved in other presidential campaigns. They wanted people who would do it the way they wanted it done. That's why so many people on their staff were so young. I know (chief political strategist) David Axelrod (a former Chicago Tribune reporter) and his wife Susan really well because when they came into Michigan to help out every weekend, it was on my turf. When I didn't know if I could get tickets for the swearing-in, I called her up at home, and she said to let her know. All of the electronic stuff for the campaign was done by guys who started Google, and everything was done electronically, from our reporting to plugging in our volunteer shifts. Everything that went on in Niles, Mich., they knew about in Chicago. Back in the old days, you kept track of who was voting by checking off names in a book. This one was done by BlackBerry. We had conference calls two or three times a day during the election. Once a week, we had a special guest that could be Obama, Biden or (campaign manager) David Plouffe. A couple of days before the election it was with Barack, and he said, 'We've gotten this far, but don't get a big head. It's not over yet. Keep working."
Coming through Pennsylvania, Hall counted 79 police cars from across the nation converging on Washington to provide security.
Hall, who brought City Clerk Jim Snow a hat, marveled at the breadth of merchandise – even thongs and condoms along with clocks, plates, shoes and glowing earrings.
Hall also said the "consensus of the people there was they don't want the Obama administration to go after Bush criminally, but they would like to see everything brought out into the open. Don't prosecute them. We had great discussions. If Hillary had won, McCain would have picked someone else (than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin). We might have had a whole different inaugural going on."