Every time there is some sort of campaign event, everybody argues over how many people there were. The latest is the McCain/Palin rally, where numbers have ranged from less than 10,000 to 28,000.
Well, at the McCain/Palin rally, the entire area was a security checkpoint. I'm guessing so are the Obama rallies.
Why not just put someone at the entrance to the security area with a little clicker, and click each person coming into the place? Then you would know. So why don't they do this?
Probably because nobody really wants to know.
Anyway, I stood in line for an hour waiting to get into the rally. I could believe there were 20,000 people. I've got pictures which I could probably count if I had to.
But frankly, I'd love for the Democrats to believe that only a thousand people showed up, that we are all really demoralized, and that, as one local opinion columnist wrote, the race is over and Obama already won.
8 comments:
You just don't get it do you.....You see this as a race, as a game that needs to be won....
I wish the Republicans would get it....maybe then they would respect the American people enough to discuss the issues and meet with the press and answer questions instead of just spreading lies in their campaign ads and bridge to nowhere speeches.
The folks supporting other candidates see our country in very serious trouble and we are doing everything we can to change the disastrous course the Republican party has steered and wants to continue.
buzz...buzz...
Apparently Mosquito doesn't get it. This is a race, between two opposing philosophies. The Republicans would love to discuss the issues. Lets get an interviewer that will bring them up. Town Hall style debates. Why did Obama limit himself to only two debates. The "folks" in other countries that support Obama tend to be in countries that need serious help but are unwilling to give up the governmental teat. The "folks" that are threatened by neighboring countries see that Obama would be a disaster.
Lets bring up the issues. Let Obama debate abortion on demand and infanticide with Palin. Let Obama talk about national defense with McCain. How many foreign leaders did he meet before his Europe trip? How many trips to Kuwait? Republicans are perfectly willing to debate the "issues." As long as the networks aren't allowed to butcher the program.....
Obama keeps saying let's talk about the issues. McCain agrees, and says "let's do Town Hall meetings together and discuss the issues." And Obama says, NO.
Obama just came out yesterday and said "we're going to GO BACK to focusing on the issues". So I guess he's saying he knows that the past two weeks he was talking about something else.
Obama says "let's discuss issues", and runs an ad where the important issue is that McCain is a disabled vet who can't type on a keyboard without pain -- and therefore unqualified to be President.
Obama says "Let's discuss issues", and then talks about Palin being the lipstick on the McCain campaign. But when we talk about what he talks about, people ask why we aren't discussing the issues.
Obama says "Let's discuss issues", and then says the issue is whether Palin stepped over the border between Iraq and Kuwait.
Obama says "Let's discuss issues", and then says that he thought about joining the military 30 years ago. And when we join him in that discussion, democrats claim WE are avoiding the issues.
I went to the McCain/Palin rally. Palin discussed issues, McCain discussed issues.
And Obama, who says "Let's talk issues", puts out a press release on the Rally -- claiming that McCain got the attendence numbers wrong.
So I'm talking about what Obama wants to talk about. If you are unhappy with the discussion, maybe you should send an e-mail to Obama and ask HIM to discuss issues of importance to americans.
Because Obama thinks the most important things to Americans right now are that McCain is a cripple, Palin never stood in Iraq, Obama really really WANTED to join the military, and McCain didn't have 23,000 people in Fairfax.
I don't think those are the important issues, but Obama doesn't want to actually discuss HOW to accomplish anything he says he wants to do, so what am I to do?
Hey , here's an idea.
Why don't we actually get the people that you never see behind whose philosophies Barack Obama has become the mouthpiece for to sit down and actaully be asked a few questions Charlie Gibson style.
I mean you folks think this all these ideas are his and his alone. The guy has an advisory staff larger than the back offcie of the Washington redskins for god sakes.
I have been to the circus and I have seen the strings, so please lets not simply be so naive that Obama does not have these folks molding his message and his platform. If these ideals were truly his own, he would not flop everything someone ask a critical question of him, which is why "town halls" were never an option.
Remember Saddleback, he had to search for every answer.
I think we need candidates who are not scared to debate.....too bad neither the republican nor the democratic party will give up the control to have debates sponsored by the League of Women Voters where the questions aren't limited to certain topics.
As far as the town hall format I distrust it due to foliks being planted in the audience. Maybe a town hall forum where neutrality could be built into which folks were chosen to ask questions of the candidate....basically I don't disagree with the town hall format.
I just think we need to have issues discussed...Sorry McCain and Palin have been avoiding getting asked serious questions...but hey thank heavens the View managed to get a few real questions in when McCain stopped by on his talk show circuit that he so enjoys doing.
buzz...buzz...
cargosquid--
I concede that I am in error with my comment .... chalk it up to being sensitive to the "sneering, snideful" Republican party leaders who I had been watching on tv for a few hours so my disgust was mis-directed onto two conservatives.
Cargosquid thanks for directing my attention to my error....I apologize to the two conservative blog...
Personally, I see this as much more than a race....(even though it is billed as the race tot the white house by many in the media and this country.) IMO, the Bush/Palin ticket will not be just more of the same of what this country has had to endure over the last eight years it will end up being much worse.
buzz...buzz...
McCain's not scared of them. He had no problem with the 9/11 forum, which was packed with Obama supporters.
Anyway, it's about answering questions, not who is asking them.
Charles,
McCain has been avoiding the press that specializes in national politics like the plague. He has limited his encounters with the press corps that is covering his campaign and traveling with McCain and/or Palin. McCain only wants to talk to reporters that he selects in one on one interviews and make public appearances on talk shows where serious questions are seldom asked. (But the women on the View surprised McCain by asking some pertinent questions.) Heck McCain canceled an appearance on the Larry King show b/c Campbell Brown acted like a reporter and actually questioned Tucker Bounds assertion that Palin had experience commanding via the National Guard. All she wanted was for Bounds to provide an example and back up his assertion. ALL reporters should be demanding at least this much from ALL the candidates and their pr people.
Heck the McCain campaign doesn't want Palin speaking to the press corp. They want to handpick an interviewer here and there and try to control the situation so she won't be faced with difficult questions because she isn't "ready on day one" to talk with reporters.
NONE of the candidates should be avoiding legitimate questions from the press concerning their qualifications and their stances on the issues.
We should all be demanding that the press do their job and ask pertinent questions of all the candidates so that we can make an informed choice.
Asking the press to go "easy" on our favorite candidates is a disservice to our democracy. Even worse are those that are actively attacking reporters for simply doing their job...a job so vital to a democratic process that the press's has constitutional protection.
So encourage the press to do their job and put pressure on candidates who refuse to be open and transparent and prefer to lie and hide.
buzz...buzz.
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