10 Things to Know About Hillary's Visit to the Brat Stop

My wife and I headed out to see Sen. Hillary Clinton's speech at the Brat Stop in Kenosha Saturday afternoon. Here's what we saw:

1. What a terrible place for a campaign stop. No offense to the Brat Stop, but it was a lousy venue to hear a politician. '80s hair cover bands? Yes. Hillary Clinton? No. We blame the organizers. We got there 90 minutes early and were ushered to the balcony with no instructions (likely because no one knew what was going on). We made an attempt to get back down to the floor, but were blocked upstairs. The longer we waited, the clearer it became we weren't going to be able to see her - at least not an unobstructed view, anyway. We stuck it out and got to see a bartender realign a closed circuit video camera using her shoelaces and a chair stacked on top of a table. It worked, and Hillary was visible on the bar's TVs. Nice work, bartender! Not a good start, though, and perfectly representative of the planning that went into this stop.

2. All that said, Hillary charmed us. After seeing her talk, I believe her campaign's complaints about unfair negative coverage. She's intelligent, warm, highly qualified, funny (wickedly so, at times), populist and profoundly anti-Bush. In short, she's a remarkably strong candidate. If she would have run four years ago, she would have stomped John Kerry and Bush II. This time she's got a tough primary against Obama, but either candidate will attract massive support.

3. All said, Hillary's speech was stronger than Obama's in Racine this week. She talked specifics, covered a broader range of topics and made stronger points than Obama. My wife put it well: Obama is inspiring, while Hillary comes across as very, very intelligent.

4. Hillary swayed us. We both were big Obama supporters after Wednesday, but now I'm undecided and my wife is leaning toward Hillary. We'd be happy with either of them, but Hillary seems to back up her claim that she'll be ready to run the country on Day 1. I hate to say this about Obama, but really, the last thing we need is another guy in the White House everyone wants to hang out with, but can't actually do the job.

5. I loved how Hillary slammed Bush throughout her speech. For example, she vowed to appoint people to government jobs who are actually competent to do the job. The obvious example was Bush's head of FEMA who had never actually managed an emergency. She also whacked him for No Child Left Behind, saying: "We shouldn't view our children as little test-takers."

6. She was creative. One example she gave was encouraging the development of solar power in the U.S. Germany took a similar approach and created thousands of jobs while cutting the country's dependence on foreign oil. Hillary said she'd like to start a similar program. She also touted tax credits for college tuition (like Obama), but added that she wanted grandparents to pass along college tax credits to their grandchildren.

7. Like Obama, she touted the middle class and vowed to tax the wealthiest 1 percent of the country. "We've had a president for the wealthy, I think it's time to have a president for everyone else." Obama offered a similar line, and both got big cheers from the crowd. The Bush tax cuts went too far, and both Democrats vowed to bring them back into line. "We're going to rebuild a strong and prosperous middle class," she said.

8. The national trends seem correct. While Obama drew a younger, more diverse crowd, Hillary drew an older, whiter crowd dominated by women. The question for Tuesday's primary will be whether Obama can turn out the youth and minority vote to overcome Hillary's obvious edge among women voters.

9. Hillary's voice was hoarse, but she rallied the crowd. She was sharper than Obama, making jokes about Dick Cheney shooting his hunting partner and talking about Bush running "scams" on the American people. "You've got to laugh to keep from crying," she said. She also had better swag for the crowd. Everyone got stickers, plus they were handing out bumper stickers and Hillary stuck around to sign autographs and shake hands with dozens of people.

10. Hillary handled the questions from the audience better than Obama. Not only did her answers come naturally, they were heart-felt. When a mother and her daughter explained how they were losing their home, Hillary comforted them and was ready with an answer: She proposed a moratorium on housing foreclosures in response to housing woes across the country. One news source is reporting that Hillary cried at the question. It was definitely an emotional moment. If she shed a tear, she wasn't alone and she came back with a strong answer.

A few more comments:

* The JT is estimating the crowd at 1,400 to 1,500 people. I'm not sure where they pulled that number from (it's unsourced), but I'd put the crowd more in the 1,000 range. It was comparable to Obama's crowd in Racine, without the lines. For Obama, we waited outside for 90 minutes. For Hillary's speech, we waited inside for 90 minutes (after walking right in the door).

* There were no metal detectors at Hillary's visit. Obama made everyone wait outside an extra hour because the Secret Service's detectors broke down. Aside from a few cops walking around, it felt like Hillary had no crowd security. There were definitely Secret Service agents there, but no one checked our coats or bags.

* Aside from the smoke, blocked views and general confusion, the one nice thing about the Brat Stop was having a bar and food available. We ate lunch while we waited and a bunch of people were drinking while waiting for Hillary to show up. That didn't hurt the crowd's spirts.