A Candidate in Person is a Vote Well-Earned

Visiting my mother during her training with Wells Fargo at a Las Cruses hotel turned quickly into one of the most exhilarating days of my life. Just outside Las Cruces in a small town of about 2,000 people, Mesilla, New Mexico, Joe Biden was present and holding a rally. Southern Democrat with little excitement in our lives, my mother and I grabbed a snack from McDonald's and headed out to the Historic Mesilla Plaza for a life-changing experience and excellent photo opportunity.

The small desert town of Mesilla provides a lot of charm and refreshment from all the surrounding sand and mountains, and being on the border of Mexico and the United States, it also has a lot of cross-cultural delight with influences from two countries which are completely different, regardless of geographic location.

Getting to the Plaza, my mother exclaimed with great misfortune in her voice that we had forgotten the camera with all the excitement of getting ready to go meet one of our heros. Although disappointing, I can still describe the day with amazing detail.

When we walked inside, we were one of the many people who were packed into the breath-taking New Mexican-influenced building complete with the typical architectural finds that are commonly found around the state. We stood next to a few elderly people who looked as if they were going to explode with excitement. We waited for about an hour talking to them about things such as their grandchildren and their stance on issues such as gay marriage and education, both of which are very important to me.

After our relatively short wait, Biden entered and the crowd cheered. When he spoke, I could barely hear over everybody's cheering, and my own yelling inside my own head was enough to make me tune out all but the important things. Even without exact knowledge of what happened earlier today, I can hardly forget anything that happened today.

After he spoke, the audience gave one last standing ovation that lasted for no less than twenty minutes. He politely thanked everybody for being there and took some questions until leaving to head off and attend his next rally in Nevada. The booming yells of Obama-Biden fans still keeps my ears deafened and likely will for another day or so.

While Biden may not be the most attractive candidate for all his stances, his beliefs about the economy and the war are enough to win over my vote. We may never know what happened today, but seeing my mother on the news during a scroll-over of the audience is enough to keep this day close to me and dear to my heart forever.

In addition to witnessing such an amazing event, my mother and I also made a few new friends. After the rally, we went out to eat with them at a Golden Corral just down the street from the hotel. We had some of the most amazing food I've ever eaten in my life and we've decided to keep the others as pen pals, since they are from New York and are currently following Biden and Obama on their campaign stops as best as possible.

Unfortunately, as they told me, they were once Clinton supports who are now a little jaded with the Democratic party because of their candidate not being elected during the primaries. We've given them some encouragement to stick with it.

Still caught between Cynthia McKinney and Biden/Obama, I feel that I lean a little closer to the latter after my experience today. I believe this will last and even sway my vote, unless I can somehow meet Cynthia McKinney and she's just as amazing as I believe she would be in person. Until then, I think I will remain a Democrat.