I took this photo on Tuesday night at the Democratic debate watch party in the large outdoor courtyard of the historic Scholz Garten restaurant in Austin, Texas. For many years, this has been a popular venue for watching debates, election returns and other political events in town...and I've attended my fair share of them.
For instance, I was there cheering on Joe Biden and laughing at Sarah Palin during their '08 debate. I was there as depressed as everyone else watching Mitt Romney spank President Obama during the first debate of '12. But I was also there, moved almost to tears, watching the president's victory speech just a month later.
And every time, there was always a decent-to-large sized crowd that seemed pretty excited to be there. Even so, this time was different.
Despite being months away from the Iowa caucuses and that this was just the first primary debate, I've never seen a more densely packed crowd at this venue or heard one that was so excited and engaged for the Democrats at a debate. Any debate. In fact, it was so packed that there was nowhere for me to sit except the ground...and even there it was hard to find a spot!