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one angle showing the left side of the podium

I was there too, just off the left side of this photo and about 2/3 way up - we were behind that sign so could not see Bush except on TV screen, which was further off to left, sort of behind him.

It was not that much more crowd to right, as the media stands were there and that was the path he walked in on. About 20-30 ft. to right was the road with the helicopters on the other side. Bush came in on a bus, then left on a chopper about 20 minutes after his speech, which was maybe 45-50 minutes long. He circled the field and everyone just roared! Another Presidential chopper left after Bush had circled, then the two Marine bigger choppers (sort of like the new version of the old "banana boats".

To the left was maybe 1/3 circle more of people with the VIP stands then lots of people on the ground. The area alloted, in front of the half circle of tractor trailers and contained by temporary fences, was however packed with people.

My guess would be this photo shows 40-50% of the crowd. They said on the PA when we came in that there were going to be 50,000, and that that was the largest political rally ever in Ohio.

As most of his speeches (this is the third I've been to live), he pretty much covers the territory. From health care, to jobs, to regulations, to trial lawyers, to education, to tax cuts, to small businesses, to Iraq. I would have liked to hear more "Kerry jokes", but the one (mentioned above) about Kerry being able to debate himself for 90 minutes was the best.

He also really scolded Kerry for criticizing Allawi, that this was no way to build a coalition. He said it would make it hard for Kerry to work with Allawi, but not to worry since he, Bush, was going to win. He was very relaxed, comfortable, seemingly not preoccupied at all by the upcoming debates.

There were not a lot of protesters, not overly vocal, and they were only on the roads coming in. I saw maybe 4-5 groups, rather puny signs (not Freeper quality, size or imagination), maybe 25-30 people total.

Lots of families out, very young to very old. However, I saw only at most 10 or so Blacks total. The crowd was mostly Westchester, Butler county (John Boehner territory, who introduced Bush), with some of us from Hamilton County (as in Cincinnati). The site was maybe 25 miles north of greater downtown Cincy.

I was there, too. It was way cool.

The radio was saying 48,000 tickets sold and 7,000 kids who didn't need tickets, for a total of 55,000.

I concur that there were a ton of kids. Lots of them ended up on their father's shoulders that blocked the view of the podium from the "green ticket" out-lands from time to time. I believe the methodology of the estimates of 55K, but have no way of knowing the real numbers.

I'm 6'4", and I had a pretty good view of the podium from 50 yards away until everybody felt it was their civic duty to wave all their campaign signs, with their arms extended high in the air. But those episodes didn't last too long, and I could see plenty well enough, on average.

The sound guys did a good job with the music played over the PA system. As "W" left on his ride out on Marine One (with 4 escort helos), they play various selections from the Top Gun sound track that meshed really well with the goings on. It was a great total experience.

The security was awesome to behold. There were three special operators on the top of the VOA building tower that appeared to have .50 caliber Barrets and some big (gyro stabilized?) binoculars taking in the view.

I was along the fence line when the President made his way to Marine One. Just before he walked across the grass to the chopper, a black Chevy Astro van pulled up about 15 feet away from us with some blacked-out passengers and driver. When they disembarked, they turned out to be Secret Service guys in black BDUs with some amazing equipment. The driver was a very fit African-American who looked like an NFL linebacker with interesting left elbow and right knee padding and a select fire weapon with a paralax-free sight. Their web gear had yellow "Police" insignia with "Secret Service" in smaller letters underneath on the back. Their toys were VERY impressive.

All in all a great experience and super way to spend half a day in September.

Here in the Bluff we only had about 6-7 Kerry supporters. It's my understanding that they wanted to go into the rally and were spouting "it's our right." A local police officer told them "yeah, it's your right, but there are over 30,000 loyal Bush supporters in there and if you make them mad I ain't goin' in to rescue you." Needless to say they picked up their signs and left. Don't know how true this story is but I do know that the few who were here were completely ignored. I guess it was really a bad day them.