GOP's Scott Brown Closing Campaign with "Bold New Leadership" Bus Tour

Here are videos from Republican Scott Brown's "Bold New Leadership" Bus Tour rally today which will wrap up his campaign with a rally later tonight. Brown is leading in a number of polls just ahead of the special election vote to fill the seat occupied by Ted Kennedy for nearly 50 years. These videos are from his rally in North Andover, Massachusetts . . . (VIDEO)

My husband (FReeper zelig) and I attended three rallies on Scott Brown’s Bold New Leadership Bus Tour yesterday, Monday, January 18: North Andover, Littleton and in Scott’s home town of Wrentham, Massachusetts. We drove up from Connecticut - we live about 20 miles NW of Hartford, CT.

Unfortunately we didn’t do a great job in checking the weather in MA… as we got closer to No. Andover, we discovered we were in the middle of a pretty good snowstorm, and once off the highway, many secondary roads hadn’t been plowed yet. We pressed on, as we’re used to the slush, and it wasn’t that bad of a storm.

We arrived in North Andover while the snow was still falling, well before the 2pm start time and discovered the area near the town hall was very compact, with an extremely narrow Main Street. As we drove past town hall looking for a place to park, we were greeted by hundreds of wildly enthusiastic Brown supporters, decked out with Brown signs, American flags, Tea Party American flags (with the II – Second Revolution logo), Gadsden flags, etc. Supporters cheered wildly and we honked back.

It didn’t take us long to park, and by the time Scott arrived around 2pm, the crowd had grown considerably. I’d say there were over 500 people in this very small town, standing out in the cold, snow and slush. The police shut down Main Street for the entire time Scott was there.

Here are two videos of the rally in North Andover yesterday, courtesy of Freedom’s Lighthouse. The videos run 2:40 and 2:21 minutes each:

Scott Brown "Bold New Leadership" Bus Tour - video 1/18/10

I know this is going to sound corny, but the minute Scott got off his campaign bus in North Andover, the snow stopped and the sun came out… it really did! We saw no snow falling in MA yesterday after that.

Scott took time to shake every hand (and this took awhile). We were able to shake his hand, wish him luck and he signed my husband’s home made sign. He’s much more handsome in person, and he really seems to be “just a regular guy”. He stood up on a makeshift small stage and made a brief speech about how he’s kept his campaign positive (where Coakley’s has been nasty and negative), how we all need to get out the vote for him on election day, etc.

A few Coakley supporters showed up at Brown’s event, but they didn’t carry any Coakley signs. They were mostly grumbling amongst themselves referring to us Brown supporters as “the freak show”.

Two young guys wearing suits carried signs: Bankers for Brown and Billionaires for Brown. They smoked cigars, one carried a champagne bottle and they each sipped “champagne” (sparkling cider they said) from champagne flutes. They did their best impression of Thurston Howell III (or was it John Kerry? LOL) and said things like “We love our money, Brown will protect our billions. Huzzah!” They thought they were oh so clever, but they really came off as pathetic, IMO, bias aside. A few of us told them their buddies at Daily Kos missed them, and why weren’t they back at Kookley HQ organizing their ACORN voters? The very small group of Brown haters posed for their friends’ cameras, filmed themselves for some blog, but most Brown supporters didn’t pay much attention to them.

Scott spent so much time shaking hands in No. Andover, he had to skip the next appearance in Chelmsford in order to keep on schedule. We followed Scott’s campaign bus onto Littleton where the rally was to be in the town center, in front of his campaign office there. A large crowd (probably 500+) gathered in this compact area in front of his bus. We missed a brief speech by Scott as it took awhile to find parking. Once there, my husband and I went into the campaign office to try to get some Brown campaign signs. The guy who ran the office was extremely upbeat and apologized that the signs had disappeared like hotcakes days ago and he had none to offer. I told him that was a good problem to have and he agreed! My husband found one small sign that said “The People’s Seat” and “Bold New Leadership” on the flip side, so we took that.

There were many people stationed at phone banks in this office and they were busy! The place was buzzing with activity… everyone was excited and kind of amazed at the Brown juggernaut.

Back outside the campaign office, Brown supporters split into two groups – those near the campaign office who wanted to meet Brown and many others who stood in front of the Brown campaign bus and waved to the people in cars passing by on the busy two-way street. We joined the latter on the street, as we had met Brown before and he was taking a LONG time working his way through the crowd.

We worked the street for well over an hour… maybe two. Passersby were stunned to see such so many people shouting and waving signs and American flags at them and almost all honked, gave thumbs-up and pumped their fists in agreement. There were a few Coakley supporters and/or Brown haters (mostly young women) who gave us thumbs down, but we got no “democRATic salutes” (middle finger). A trumpet player kept us going, as we stood in the slushy snowbanks waving and shouting to the passing cars. He played tunes like “It’s a Grand Old Flag”, “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, “The Star Spangled Banner”, “America the Beautiful”, etc. It was wonderful!

A group of Tea Party Patriots from Albany, NY who called themselves “The Albany Militia” showed up at the Littleton rally. They wore tri-corner hats and Albany Tea Party shirts. They were proud to have driven from Albany to support Scott in snowy Massachusetts yesterday. The MA Brown supporters thanked them and us for coming in from out of state to show our support for Scott Brown.

The two Brown-hating “billionaires” showed up at the Littleton rally as well, still clinking their champagne glasses, smoking cigars and speaking like Thurston Howell III, but they had really lost steam. No one paid any attention to them. The last time I looked over at them while we were working the street, they looked deflated and disappeared soon after that… LOL!

Scott’s final stop that day was in his home town of Wrentham for a large rally at Luciano’s Lake Pearl, a lovely banquet facility on Lake Pearl. Police were directing traffic and apologized that there was no parking left as the crowd was too huge. We got lucky and found a place (my husband has a great skill for “finding” good parking places!), but we noticed people parking FAR away down a dark highway, and walking to Luciano’s with their children. Yikes.

Once inside, the crowd of several thousand (sorry, I couldn’t estimate the size) was electric. Luciano’s provided some nice hors d’oeuvres for us. Scott promptly took to the stage with his two very lovely daughters Ayla and Arianna. He gave a brief speech (but longer than the previous two stops) and said his wife (WCVB TV reporter Gail Huff) will “come out of hiding” and will be joining him on election day (for his victory speech). Apparently Gail has been keeping a low profile because of her status as a TV reporter(?).

Scott made some funny comments about how Obama could insult anything about his policies, etc., but “no one had better insult my truck!” He said that right after he’s elected to the US Senate, he’s going to pack up that truck and drive straight to Washington DC… the crowd roared. He picked up a little boy in the crowd at one point, calling him a little “hooligan”… the crowd roared again. (I’m not sure what the boy was doing that he got Scott’s attention – it was tough to see through the thousands in the crowd.) He wrapped up by reminding the crowd to vote tomorrow (as if they needed the reminder!) and to be sure to encourage friends and family to vote.

You can view photos of this rally here:

Photos of Scott Brown election eve rally in Wrentham

We tried to shake Scott’s hand again, but the crowd was too much. At one point in front of us, Scott autographed a man’s bald head among other things!

My husband and I ran into Fox News’ Campaign Carl Cameron at Scott’s Wrentham rally (among many other national media types). Carl was posing with Brown supporters, and in particular a very attractive woman when we ran into him. He was flirting wildly with this woman as he signed a piece of Scott Brown literature for us…LOL! Whoa, Carl!

To sum up, the atmosphere among Brown supporters at all 3 rallies yesterday was electric. Massachusetts Brown supporters seemed awed and amazed that a Republican US Senate candidate could garner this much excitement in the state and knew they were witnessing something historic. Those who stood in the streets with signs, flags, etc. gushed “I’ve never done this before! But I just HAD to get out here to support Scott Brown. Enough is enough!”

The crowds were mostly white, but among them there were African-Americans and people speaking Spanish. We met many Democrats, independents and UNION MEMBERS (not SEIU, but other unions) who confided to us that they (or they mothers, fathers, grandparents, etc.) “had never voted for a Republican before” but that they were fed up with the current Democrats in office and were voting for Brown, and telling friends and family to vote for Brown. The main reason for voting for Brown was that he would be the 41st vote to stop ObamaCare.

Tea Party Patriots showed up at all 3 rallies… most were Massachusetts-based, but there were other groups, ie the Albany, NY Tea Party Patriots. MA Brown supporters who were not part of the Tea Party movement asked us questions about it, they were very curious. Their beliefs mirrored the values of the Tea Party movement: stopping government-run ObamaCare and socialism, smaller government, stop the crazy spending, etc. All stated they wanted to see more COMMON SENSE in government. Union voters were very upset that their unions were pushing Coakley and democrats in every election and said “Screw it, I’m voting for Brown!”

We drove back to Connecticut stunned at what we had witnessed… never in my life have I seen so much excitement over a Republican candidate in Massachusetts. And a Republican who just may take “Ted Kennedy’s seat”. If Scott wins tonight, you may see excitement not seen up in Massachusetts since the big 2004 Red Sox World Series win in 2004! GO SCOTT GO!!!

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