Big Red

I attended the McCain-Palin rally in Fairfax, Virginia on Wednesday. Had to get up much earlier than normal since it was on the total opposite side of the beltway. When I got there I saw plenty of people lining the sidewalks, walking up to Van Dike Park. The parking was kinda crazy but lo and behold I found a free parking deck. How great is that! I thought it was very interesting that the park was next to a gated community with gigantic homes--the perfect setting for a Republican event. Anywho, walking down Old Lee Highway I'm the only green jacket in an enormous sea of red. The Virginia Republican Party asked attendees to wear red as a reminder to "keep Virginia red" this November. Red was everywhere; red hats, red sun visors, children wearing red, even babies wearing red onesies. There were a few Obama supporters outside the park, police kept them at bay on the opposite side of the street. I heard one exchange between the McCain and Obama supporters. One McCain supporter yelled to the Obama supporters "You're losers!" to which an Obama supporter replied "If we lose, you lose"! (Well, I thought that was funny).

The security process was simple enough, no big deal there for a change. Once inside I headed straight for the media risers and plugged in, no big deal there for a change. And so we wait.... While I wait I'm observing the signs in the audience. One says "Our prayers have been answered, vote for McCain and Palin". Another sign reads "Drill baby drill". Another says "Lipstick on a pitbull". One woman is in the audience holding up a purse with big, red lips on the outside. Very interesting....

The local politicians open the event, a Congressman or something. The first two not elected speakers were former Democratic candidate supporters. A woman who owned a business with her husband was first to speak and she explained how three months ago she was an Obama supporter but is now supporting McCain because of his plans for business owners (ie, tax cuts for business owners). The next speaker was a Clinton supporter who is now supporting McCain because she feels her party, the Democratic Party, didn't recognize the need to put a woman on the ticket. She also addressed Obama's comment about "lipstick on a pig" and inferred that he was addressing Sarah Palin. Then she said "that was a comment a fifth grader would make and I don't want a fifth grader as President of the United States". Very interesting... She also said that she is going to call a different person everyday to get them to vote for John McCain, her new slogan is " a call a day keeps Obama away". Very interesting....

So the opening act for this extravaganza was Senator Fred Thompson and the audience ate him up from the second he appeared on the grassy knoll. The crowd was very revved up and Fred Thompson was in great form when he hit the stage. I've never seen him speak live before a crowd, he was very charming and very down home. He remarked to the audience that he "lives right down the road, I can talk to ya'll, ya'll are my kinda people". After Fred Thompson finished his audition for CSI: Capitol Hill the main act was ready to show up.

The McCains walked on-stage looking wealthy like Mr. and Mrs. Howell from Gilligan's Island. Sarah and Todd Palin walked on-stage looking like The Clampetts 2008, new found fame and fortune.

And the crowd went wild and all I could think about was "how much was Cindy McCain's money green outfit"?

Mrs. McCain spoke very briefly and introduced Sarah Palin. Sarah introduced her husband and then went into to her stump speech. At one point a French journalist remarked that Palin was giving the same stump speech she had given the prior day in Lebanon, Ohio. The audience ate it up; "I opposed the bridge to nowhere", "we'll reform Washington", "change is coming", "we're the maverick team", "I stood up to the old boys network", etc, etc, etc.

Then old man McCain came on stage. He shared all his policy information, war experience, Senate experience, energy independence crap and that's usually when people in the audience start to catch their afternoon nap. Just to keep everyone awake he kept referring to Sarah Palin saying "my running mate did this".

That was about it, NOTHING NEW, pretty much the exact same script and language from the Republican National Convention. The other problem with this event is that the Republicans kept trying to inflate the numbers. At the beginning they kept saying "we have about 12-15,000 people out here" and one of the cameramen remarked "somebody can't count". The crowd assembled looked more like 5,000. At the close of the event a women from the Republican Party came over and said the official event count was 23,000 and the reporter from the local NBC Affiliate immediately replied "who's official count". THERE WAS NOTHING CLOSE TO 23,000 PEOPLE IN ATTENDANCE AT THIS EVENT. The Democratic National Convention at the Pepsi Center had around 30,000 in attendance and this crowd was no where near that size. The crowd there probably had 5,000-8,000. The nerve of them to say it was 23,000, as I just heard on Robot Chicken, that is lame.

I just wanted to see, in person, how the Republicans are responding to Sarah Palin. Is it legitimate or is the media just building hype around an interesting story? People are genuinely excited about Sarah Palin, she's clearly the draw on the ticket. Republicans were going to vote for McCain anyway but the addition of Sarah Palin has truly energized the party. Now for Sarah Palin, she's not very solid with facts or experience, but she's selling this bad girl, shooting guns, hunting moose and taking on the big guys persona. She puts a lot of sass in her speeches and with any public speaking event. ]Her style may work in a state of less than 700,000 people who may be intimidated by her personality or think its charming but that act will wear very thin very soon on this world stage. Alaska was the Bush Leagues Governor, you're in the Majors now.

I must say overall, I felt a little uncomfortable out there in McPalin land. Bob Herbert wrote a column in the New York Times this week emphasizing how the Democrats have been the party of change and progress over the years. Democrats pushed through civil rights for African Americans, voting rights for African Americans and women, gay rights, social security, medicare, etc. Republicans and conservatives have always been the party of keeping things the same. They were wholeheartedly opposed to equal rights for women and African-Americans, gay rights and any social program that helps people. To see all these people in red, with their children in red, wearing McPalin stickers rooting for a party who, as an African-American and woman, never wanted me to have anything was very unsettling to me. Not everyone felt that way or still feels that way but the fact remains that they're rooting for the party that doesn't want America to change. Lame!!