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Comedian Rock Revs Up Voters At Rally

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: November 1, 2008

TAMPA - Anthony Williams and Alfonso Jones hadn't met before they wound up in line next to each other to vote at the College Hill branch library today.

Williams, 18, was voting in his first presidential election. His teacher at D.W. Waters Career Center had stressed the importance of voting, he said.

Jones, 51, said he liked George W. Bush as president eight years ago, but with the economy, "He's got the country turned upside-down."

Before joining hundreds of other voters in line, both men attended a rally for Democratic nominee Barack Obama featuring comedian Chris Rock at the Belmont Heights Little League Park on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, roughly two blocks from the library.

The rally also featured Tampa Bay Buccaneers' running back Earnest Graham, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and state Rep. Betty Reed. Castor encouraged the roughly 300 rally attendees to take advantage of early voting should problems arise on Election Day.

Today is the last early voting day in Hillsborough County. Pinellas residents can vote Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

The library's voting line formed around the parking lot at 4:30 a.m., more than two hours before the polls opened, said Vaular Dine Rouse, 72, an Obama campaign volunteer. At the rally, Reed said 1,200 people had voted there on Friday alone.

Rock, who was scheduled to appear at another rally in Norfolk, Va., tonight, spoke for about 10 minutes on a stage on the ball field. He riffed about how Obama is more relatable to average people than McCain.

"Economically, this guy is not your peer," Rock said, joking that he tried to take his children trick-or-treating to McCain's houses, but there were too many. "You need a president who can at least see broke. … We got some broke people here."

Although Rock's comments were a bonus for some, the comedy – and the historical significance of perhaps electing the first black president – was incidental to Jones. He said he liked seeing "how people have started to come together as one country."

He jerked a thumb toward Williams, standing behind him. "See the young people coming out to vote. They're our future."

"I'm the future," Williams said, with a grin.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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