‘Could he actually win?’ Dave Eggers at a Donald Trump rally (2016 flashback)

The Manchester Guardian ^ | June 17, 2016 | Dave Eggers

[2ndDivisionVet]

Is this the most dangerous campaign in history, or a surreal comedy act, playing to a crowd laughing too hard to listen? The US writer spends a day at a presidential rally

I spent five hours at the Donald Trump rally in Sacramento, California, on 1 June. I spoke to and overheard dozens of the rally’s attendees, not as a journalist but as one ticketholder to another – I was dressed in jeans, workboots and wore a Nascar hat – and found every last one of the attendees to be genial, polite and, with a few notable exceptions, their opinions to be within the realm of reasonable. The rally was as peaceful and patriotic as a Fourth of July picnic.

And yet I came away with a host of new questions and concerns. Among them: why is it that the song Trump’s campaign uses to mark his arrival and departure is Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer?” Is it more troubling, or less troubling, knowing that no one in the audience really cares what he says? And could it be that because Trump’s supporters are not all drawn from the lunatic fringe, but in fact represent a broad cross-section of regular people, and far more women than would seem possible or rational, that he could actually win?

***

It was a sweltering 95 degrees, the sky blue and sun punishing, when I pulled off the highway and, guided by a well-planned and orderly array of cops and cones and sirens, made my way to a peripheral part of the Sacramento airport, where the Trump rally would be held, in an empty hangar....

[RightGeek]

Blast from the past?

[StAntKnee]

Well, Mr. Eggster, whatcha thinking now?

[Ken H]

Is such a thing even possible?

Yes it is!

[MUDDOG]

I was dressed in jeans, workboots and wore a Nascar hat

Reminds me of Eddie Murphy going undercover as a white person on SNL.

[Vince Ferrer]

2018: Could he actually win the Nobel Prize?

[Inyo-Mono]

Fond memories of the best election ever.

[Da Coyote]

The Guardian has the dubious distinction of being the U.K paper most often wrong about anything and everything.

But, at least their writers put words together a bit better than those working for the NYT, Wa Po, Boston Kennedy News, and Lost Angeles Crimes.

[Freee-dame]

My tagline is still a happy one.

[Dilbert San Diego]

The contrast of the Trump rally, with that train wreck Washington White House correspondents dinner, was striking.

[easternsky]

Good to have you posting again. Husband and I, and 2 of the Grandsons attended with us. He pretty much told it how it was, very calm it was Terribly Hot though. They will never understand why He means so much to us and America sad for sure.

[Albion Wilde]

And yet I came away with a host of new questions and concerns. Among them: why is it that the song Trump’s campaign uses to mark his arrival and departure is Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer?”

Here's the video of the event. I'm not hearing any Tiny Dancer. You can see the signs waving to the beat of the "non-Tiny Dancer" music:

RAW VIDEO: Donald Trump Speaks At Sacramento International Airport (6-1-16)

[The Deplorable Miss Lemon]

I was dressed in jeans, workboots and wore a Nascar hat

_________________________________

What a brilliant disguise, I’m sure his own mother wouldn’t have recognized him.

[Hugin]

Not a bad story, with a good juxtaposition of his preconceptions vs. reality. Funny how a left wing British rag has a more accurate and balanced take on US politics than 95% of the US media.

[HotHunt]

The Canadian and English press cover our politics better than our own press.

[jmacusa]

One thing that most annoys me about the Brits is their smug, back-handed way of viewing all Americans as idiots and rubes.