US Elections

What it looks like when the President comes to town.

By Jonathan Bradley in Seattle, WA

18 August 2010

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The big fundraising event in Barack Obama's visit to Seattle today was held at the downtown Westin hotel, two soaring skyscrapers just north of the Westlake Center. I wasn't able to get inside, of course, but I went for a walk downtown to see how crazy the scene was.

The answer? Not as crazy as I expected. In D.C., I grew used to seeing scores of police officers toting impossibly hefty weaponry, supported by lurking helicopters casting bright spotlights over the street below every time the President ventured outside the White House. The scene in Seattle, featuring city police closing off the single city block on which the hotel stood seemed low key by comparison.

More pictures below the jump, and a word about the protesters.

Although police blocked off the square enclosed by 5th and 6th Ave and Virginia and Stewart Streets, protesters were permitted along the side of the road opposite the hotel. The activists were low-key and disparate.

The expected band of conservatives showed up, carrying "Don't Tread On Me" flags and signs opposing the Federal Reserve. Compared even to the moderate crowd that had filled Westlake Park on April 15 this year, however, they were few in number.

Almost as many protesters came from the left as the right. Some of these were anti-war activists, but the most organised group on either side were immigration rights protesters, who came equipped with large banners and speeches.

A good many people showed up just to have a look at what was going on and take some photos.

The only really controversial bunch was a handful of people waving signs for the loony activist Lyndon LaRouche. I'm loathe to even show them, because they represent no actual constituency or ideology; their biggest interest is in drawing Hitler mustaches on people and handing out leaflets filled with conspiracy theories. They can be reliably expected to show up to any rally held for whatever reason in Seattle. But for the sake of completeness...

Whether any of this protesting did any good is doubtful; the President likely saw none of it. His motorcade, a succession of white vans, black SUVs, police cars, and motorbikes rocketed down Virginia Street, and apparently delivered the man himself into the bowels of the hotel. It was over in a flash and seemed even less eventful than the protests that had preceded it. And even these protests were characterised more by friendly banter and chit-chat between the crowd and the police rather than angry yelling. Maybe Seattle was just feeling particularly tame today, but apart from a brief parade of motorbikes, whose riders had to dismount and hang around in a comically large crowd a block down the street once the whole thing was over, this Presidential visit was just another day in America.

Tags: Barack Obama, Presidential Visit, Seattle

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