Essential Estrogen

6:25 p.m. -- Roughly 30 minutes out from the start of the campaign event featuring Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and the first lady of daytime television, Oprah Winfrey. The U.S. Cellular Center -- which will always be the Five Seasons Center in my heart -- is quickly filling with maybe half of the seats remaining open.

An all-male choir from Iowa City is entertaining the audience now. They are an A Capella group and doing very well -- not to mention making the wait bearable for those seated in the upper areas of the arena.

I'll attempt to live blog the entire event, however, there are concerns that all the press may overload the internet connection that's available. We'll see how it goes.

6:32 p.m. -- The men's group has left the stage and, as has become typical for an Obama event, some of the staffers are holding a watch-and-learn caucus training. I'm not sure that the audience is listening. Many seem to be heading to the concession stands or visiting with friends in the audience.

6:44 p.m. -- With the caucus skit complete, the stage is being set up with the podium while Tom Petty sings how he "won't back down" over the audio.

There are at least two different ticket colors for those attending. Some (supporters?) have a color that appears to grant them access to the floor. Depending on how much a person likes to stand, having this ticket could be a good thing or a bad thing. There is limited seating around the floor and those now coming in the door are left to stand between the stage and the seating areas (which will probably end up blocking the view of most in the first 2-3 rows of seats. My guess is that many will be standing throughout the event.

The first level of balcony is appears to be full now -- only spare seats here or there, probably being held for those who visit the facilities or concession stands. The top balcony is starting to fill as well. On one side, roughly two rows remain empty. On the other side, many more are open -- perhaps six rows.

The stage has been set in the round. From the way the podium is set, it looks as if press has risers straight on and stage right. Many of the national corps are still on the road here from the earlier event in Des Moines.

Many Johnson County folks are in the audience tonight, despite the rapidly declining weather outside. The outside doors have remained open for about the past 30 minutes as people continue to file in. This has resulted in the arena itself turning into an igloo. Most of the press -- since we are in the direct line of fire from the cold air -- have given up all pretense and reached for their coats and gloves. Many in the audience in this area have also put their coats back on.

7:09 p.m. -- The "fired up" and "ready to go" chanting and, of course, the wave has made a few rounds of the arena. "The way you do the thing you do" is playing and the mood in the arena is very festive with many people standing and dancing, waving signs and clapping to the beat of the music.

I haven't seen the national or traveling press come in yet, so I'm not sure if the weather has affected their travel time from Des Moines. The roads were already slick when I headed to the venue at 5 p.m. and the sky was still spitting a mix of ice and snow. It wouldn't be surprising if we got underway a bit late because of it.

An employee at the U.S. Cellular Center told me that the arena holds over 9,000 people. That would only be the actual seating, and there are at least another 1,000 to 2,000 on the floor in front of the stage now. During my last walk around the place, I had people estimate how many they thought were here. An elderly gentleman wearing a button for Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd low-balled it at 5,000. The highest number I got was 15,000. Most guessed there were between 10,000 and 12,000 here. If I run into a staff person later, I plan to ask how many tickets were distributed.

7:15 p.m. -- We must have did the entire music rotation because we're back to Tom Petty not backing down.

7:27 p.m. -- Staff ran out of signs and had to bring in two more boxes. (I know this because a friend sitting in the handicap section had asked me to go search for her a sign. There were none to be had until the new boxes arrived.) The arena is now brimming with signs and it looks like everyone who wanted one is going to be accommodated.

I asked two volunteers and three members of staff how many tickets were distributed for the event. Only one would wager a guess -- "about 10,00?" -- the rest said they had no way of knowing since there wasn't a centralized distribution location.

The arena is not completely full, but I'd wager there is only room in the stands for another few hundred people. The upper balcony on stage right that had a couple of empty rows at the top is now full. The other side that previously had six rows empty now has only the top two rows available.

We're definitely re-visting the recorded music. The folks are happy to be "living in America" for at least the second time tonight.

7:33 p.m. -- We're underway with Michelle Obama taking the stage first. The audience is very happy to have something to cheer about and nearly all are on their feet and waving signs.

"Thank you for being here tonight," Michelle Obama said. She added that she played a trick on the audience in Des Moines by telling them that Barack and Oprah weren't there. The people here put up with too much traffic and nasty weather for that type of trick, she said, and assured everyone that they were both backstage.

Michelle provided a few accolades to her husband and to Oprah Winfrey and then announced Oprah. If I thought the crowd went nuts over Michelle... that's nothing compared to what they are doing for Oprah. You can literally feel the applause beat on your skin.

Oprah starts her speech by leading the crowd in the "fired up, ready to go" chant. "You are here," she says, joking that on the way down they speculated that no one would be here due to the weather.

"This is completely stepping out of the box for me," she said. "I'm comfortable in my little box in my little studio. I've never taken this type of risk before. I've also never felt compelled to step out and speak like this before."

7:39 p.m. -- Oprah assures the audience she has no cars or refridgerators to give away, but says she is here because she believes what this country can be. I'm going to step away from the laptop for a few moments in hopes of taking some photographs.

7:46 p.m. -- I should have broken out the SLR camera with the zoom lens for tonight. Oh well...I think I got at least one good shot.

Oprah continues to speak. She brought the crowd to its feet a few moments ago when she said that people should not get caught up in the "experience" argument. "He's been living a long time," she said.

The crowd is on its feet again as she discusses Obama's "moral authority to do what is right" and brings up that he was against the Iraq war from the beginning.

7:48 p.m. -- "You are off-kilter when you neglect to realize that all human life is the same," she said. "We need a president who cares about our nation's friends and our enemies... We need a president that can bring us all together. We need a president who can overcome the racial divides. We need a president who can overcome the religious divides."

These are dangerous times she says -- don't you feel it? "What we need is a leader to teach us how to hope again," she said. "Barack Obama has siezed this moment and it is a beautiful thing to see... I see that he sees the potential in all of us."

7:51 p.m. -- "There are those who say about Barack Obama that maybe this isn't the time -- that we need to wait four more years or eight more years," she said. "No one is God and we don't know what the future holds... I believe the moment is now. The moment is now. You may not have four more years. You may not have tomorrow. You must seize this moment now."

That last statement had the audience on its feet and screaming their approval.

"Cedar Rapids, I know he is the one," she said before handing over the stage to Obama.

7:55 p.m. -- While the crowd is intoxicated with the loud music and Obama taking the stage, let me pass on that Cedar Rapids Fire Capt. Guy Williams has estimated that there are nearly 10,000 people in attendance.

"You know I like strong women," Obama said. "I was raised by strong women and I like strong women."

Once again I'm going to walk away from the laptop in order to search out a spot for photo-taking. Be back in just a few minutes.

8:04 p.m. -- Obama is hitting the funny material from his stump speech: "George Bush will not be on the ballot." and "My cousin, Dick Cheney, will not be on the ballot." This brought the crowd it its feet. Looking around, I'm curious by the laughter and applause how many are hearing this for the first time. They were even laughing at the "whispering" Republican story.

"We are in a defining moment in our history," he said. "Oprah referred to it and you can feel it."

As Obama moves on with what is primarily his stump speech -- the "great revival speech" as my friend refers to it -- I will note that most of the press has shucked the hats, coats and gloves again. Amazing how a few thousand people hopping around can heat a place up.

Say the war should have never been authorized is another big applause line of the night for Obama. The crowd is alternating between being very quiet and being extremely loud. At the moment there is quiet as Obama talks about the current state of affairs in the nation.

"We haven't just been talking about Health care since George W. Bush took office. We've been talking about it for decades and it is time we did something about it," he said.

8:11 p.m. -- If you read Chase's post about the Des Moines event earlier today, you'll note that he saw people leaving the venue while Obama spoke, after they'd seen Winfrey. Perhaps it is the difference in the venues -- my understanding was that there was little or no seating in Des Moines -- but I'm not seeing any people leaving from the Cedar Rapids event. Matter-of-fact, I don't even see people heading to the bathrooms or concession stands.

"People should be able to send their kids to a good school and send them to college," Obama said. "People should be able to retire with some respect and some dignity."

Obama has that tone in his voice that indicates we are wrapping up here. It's also worth noting that when he hit his last forceful note, his voice cracked. No doubt all the raised talking he does on the campaign trail takes its toll. As he raised his voice about tax breaks, his voice just broke again -- not so badly that he can't be understood, but definitely he's stressing the vocal cords tonight.

"I'm in this race because I am tired -- sick and tired -- of being sick and tired of talking about the 47 million people with no insurance," he said.

Obama finished the portion of his stump speech where he discusses how his mother spent the last few months of her life reading insurance forms and is now hitting education hard and heavy. It's difficult to hear what he is saying because of the audience. The folks here are being very rowdy with their approval.

"We don't have to just end the war in Iraq, We've got to change the mindset of what got us into the war in the first place," he said. "Cedar Rapids, I want to break the politics of fear. As President of the United States I will do everything in my power to keep you safe."

Obama said he will, then, finish the job in Afghanistan.

8:22 p.m. -- Obama says there are billions of people around the world who need us to be a bright and shining light, he said. I want to go before the world and go before the United Nations and say, "America is back and we are ready to lead again."

"I want to lead by brining about an end to the genocide in Darfur," he said. "I will close guantanamo and restore habeas corpus."

"Iowa our moment is now. America our moment is now. I don't want to spend the next four years just having the same old arguments and not getting anything done."

8:25 p.m. -- "Tomorrow I'm going to disclose all my kindergarten papers," he said. "Tommorrow I'm going to disclose that I colored outside of the lines."

"I always knew this was going to be an improbable journey, because I've never been on a journey that wasn't," he said. "I got on this journey because of something that Martin Luther King called the 'fierce urgency of now.'"

"I know the only reason I'm standing here today ... is because somebody, somewhere, at some point in our history, stood up when it was risky, stood up when it wasn't popular, stood up for ... you stood up," he said. "Now is our time to stand up! We can change America! I need you to stand with me and caucus with me! We will not only change America, but we will change the world."

8:30 p.m. -- "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" says the music. Only a few are heading to the doors, most are dancing in the arena as the music plays.

I'm going to hunt down some crowd members to chat with about the event. Everyone be safe on the ride home -- it's gonna be slick out there. Good night.