- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Messages
- 20,006
- Reaction score
- 5,352
Smartass part deux. *rolls eyes*
all right, all right I'm getting to it.
So anyway, let's start at the beginning. The whole day was a monument to my inability to plan ahead. This is how stupid I am. I had no clue that this was going to be an outdoor rally. There's a perfectly good auditorium at the college that I assumed would be used.
But no.
Last night, there were 40mph wind gusts and the temperature was about 40 degrees. It's really hard to give a rat's patootey about politics when your toes are freezing off. The only good thing about it was that I got to piss off all sorts of prissy people every time I lit up a cigarette.
Yeah, I'm such a maverick.
An estimated crowd of over 5000 people were freezing right alongside me. Interestingly enough, the McCain campaign screened all handwritten signs being brought into the rally. It was really kind of like the poster Nazis. I asked my friend why that was and his response was rather enlightening--"We can't control what people think, but we can control whether they use the McCain campaign to broadcast messages of hate."
I asked him specifically if this was a response to the 'n' word being used at the Palin rally in Florida and he said yes. Thought you guys might find that interesting.
I was rather surprised that Lindsey Graham showed up to introduce McCain. Don't know why that is, but there you have it. I wasn't that impressed with Graham's speech, but it might have had more to do with the fact that crystals were forming on my ass than anything else.
Most disturbing moment: some idiot was circulating a religious pamphlet comparing Sarah Palin to the biblical character Esther. I'm not sure which Persian king she's alleged to be married to, but there you go. 95% of those ended up onthe ground and most of the people in the crowd seemed to think it was a really funny joke.
The whole event ran late--of course. VERY late. I was fairly close to the podium. McCain looked tired, exhausted to the bone. I felt kind of sorry for him. Especially when he started his speech and mentioned that it was 41 years to the day since he'd been shot down in Vietnam. You guys can scoff if you want, but I have to tell you that as a moment it was profound. Very profound. He may not have the oratorical skills of Barack Obama, but he has every possible grasp of rhetorical significance. He didn't dwell on it, didn't make a big deal out of it at all. But just the mention of his 'intercepting a missile with his plane' made 5000 people shut up entirely and there was a moment of silence that I would never have expected.
Of course, it didn't last long at all.
The speech was pretty humdrum although (tiny terror might like this) McCain did speak of freezing government spending on everything except the VA, defense, medicare and medicaid. I made note of that because it wasn't what I expected to hear. There was little mention of the democratic ticket, although McCain did hit at the redistribution of wealth issue--which was greeted very vociferously by the crowd who did NOT like even the concept of it and mentioned that 'Obama was already measuring for new drapes for the White House.' All of the quotes are paraphrases--I don't take notes well in the dark.
It was about this time when my friend came up behind me and poked me in the back. The Q & A session wasn't going to happen, he said, but if I wanted to meet McCain he would take me to a place where I could. (I figured the subtext was "ask your question there, Celina" so I went along with it.) So it turned out that I was on the path back to the straight talk express waiting for John McCain to shake my cold, frozen, brittle hand.
His hand was not cold. It was warm. He didn't squeeze my hand hard enough to break it (like Clinton did when I met him but that's a different story)--it was a simple, impersonal handshake. And I blurted, "Senator McCain--can you explain to me how the federal bailout package will help those Americans who are facing foreclosures?"
His response? "It won't for a while. It will help the banks that hold those loans."
Then he smiled at me, patted my shoulder and moved on. In the end, under the circumstances it was about the answer I expected. The straight talk express moved on and I made to the nearest bar where I warmed up with Bailey's and coffee and kicked myself for being an idiot.
And thus went my McCain rally experience. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go put on another sweater and try to pretend like I've warmed up.
all right, all right I'm getting to it.
So anyway, let's start at the beginning. The whole day was a monument to my inability to plan ahead. This is how stupid I am. I had no clue that this was going to be an outdoor rally. There's a perfectly good auditorium at the college that I assumed would be used.
But no.
Last night, there were 40mph wind gusts and the temperature was about 40 degrees. It's really hard to give a rat's patootey about politics when your toes are freezing off. The only good thing about it was that I got to piss off all sorts of prissy people every time I lit up a cigarette.
Yeah, I'm such a maverick.
An estimated crowd of over 5000 people were freezing right alongside me. Interestingly enough, the McCain campaign screened all handwritten signs being brought into the rally. It was really kind of like the poster Nazis. I asked my friend why that was and his response was rather enlightening--"We can't control what people think, but we can control whether they use the McCain campaign to broadcast messages of hate."
I asked him specifically if this was a response to the 'n' word being used at the Palin rally in Florida and he said yes. Thought you guys might find that interesting.
I was rather surprised that Lindsey Graham showed up to introduce McCain. Don't know why that is, but there you have it. I wasn't that impressed with Graham's speech, but it might have had more to do with the fact that crystals were forming on my ass than anything else.
Most disturbing moment: some idiot was circulating a religious pamphlet comparing Sarah Palin to the biblical character Esther. I'm not sure which Persian king she's alleged to be married to, but there you go. 95% of those ended up onthe ground and most of the people in the crowd seemed to think it was a really funny joke.
The whole event ran late--of course. VERY late. I was fairly close to the podium. McCain looked tired, exhausted to the bone. I felt kind of sorry for him. Especially when he started his speech and mentioned that it was 41 years to the day since he'd been shot down in Vietnam. You guys can scoff if you want, but I have to tell you that as a moment it was profound. Very profound. He may not have the oratorical skills of Barack Obama, but he has every possible grasp of rhetorical significance. He didn't dwell on it, didn't make a big deal out of it at all. But just the mention of his 'intercepting a missile with his plane' made 5000 people shut up entirely and there was a moment of silence that I would never have expected.
Of course, it didn't last long at all.
The speech was pretty humdrum although (tiny terror might like this) McCain did speak of freezing government spending on everything except the VA, defense, medicare and medicaid. I made note of that because it wasn't what I expected to hear. There was little mention of the democratic ticket, although McCain did hit at the redistribution of wealth issue--which was greeted very vociferously by the crowd who did NOT like even the concept of it and mentioned that 'Obama was already measuring for new drapes for the White House.' All of the quotes are paraphrases--I don't take notes well in the dark.
It was about this time when my friend came up behind me and poked me in the back. The Q & A session wasn't going to happen, he said, but if I wanted to meet McCain he would take me to a place where I could. (I figured the subtext was "ask your question there, Celina" so I went along with it.) So it turned out that I was on the path back to the straight talk express waiting for John McCain to shake my cold, frozen, brittle hand.
His hand was not cold. It was warm. He didn't squeeze my hand hard enough to break it (like Clinton did when I met him but that's a different story)--it was a simple, impersonal handshake. And I blurted, "Senator McCain--can you explain to me how the federal bailout package will help those Americans who are facing foreclosures?"
His response? "It won't for a while. It will help the banks that hold those loans."
Then he smiled at me, patted my shoulder and moved on. In the end, under the circumstances it was about the answer I expected. The straight talk express moved on and I made to the nearest bar where I warmed up with Bailey's and coffee and kicked myself for being an idiot.
And thus went my McCain rally experience. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go put on another sweater and try to pretend like I've warmed up.
