The Cheney rally in Cleveland on Saturday was fantastic. C-Span ran the one in West Virginia and it was essentially the same, although I humbly submit that our crowd was even better [no offense, mountaineer :)]! At one point, Cheney even commented on what a great crowd it was.
George Voinovich introduced Lynne Cheney and both she and the VP and one of their granddaughters came on to the stage. The crowd was cheering and yelling, "four more years," for a long time. Everyone on stage was laughing because Mrs. Cheney kept trying to start her introduction but the crowd kept yelling.
He spoke for at least half an hour to 40 minutes and it was hot and stuffy in the building we were in. He was constantly interupted with cheers and applause. When he got the part where he criticizes Kerry he noted, "this is the good part of the speech." Everybody laughed and cheered.
Despite the heat and the really long wait, everybody in the room was thrilled to see them and it showed with all of the yelling, cheering and clapping. There was an older couple standing near me and I had the impression that the woman had never participated in a rally like this before. She would start chanting, "four more years," a little self consciously, but she was dancing in place to the music and the clapping and waving her little flag. She was so sweet.
After it was done, we went up to the rope line and both the VP and Mrs. Cheney were shaking hands, so I dug in and went two for two! All I could think to say was, "thank you, sir."
About 100-150 protestors showed up (although the Cleveland Plain Dealer described it as "hundreds") and were standing behind barricades across the street. There were some pro-Bush supporters with signs standing near them, so they weren't there unanswered. When we left after the event, they were yelling things like, "Cheney go home!" One of the guys I was with reminded them that when Cheney goes home, it'll be to the White House. (Technically not correct, but clearly they hadn't really thought too much about their chant)!
When the Bush-Cheney 04 bus pulled out and drove past the protestors, he came on over the loudspeaker and wished them a Happy 4th of July.
A VP debate (the only one, or are there several?) will be in Cleveland in October. I will be your faithful correspondent!
Hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend. Mine certainly rocked!
Great report! I'm so glad you had the opportunity to get up close. As I noted somewhere, we had family obligations Saturday and couldn't attend the rally that was fewer than 20 miles from our home, but it was good to see such support in our heavily Dem community, as in Cleveland. I expect Pa., Ohio and W.Va. will be seeing much more of the president and vice president in the next few months.