Posted on 09/26/2008 10:33:18 PM PDT by curth
Center City pub
By Jonathan Tamari
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER An enthusiastic crowd swarmed to shake hands and pose for photos with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin inside the Irish Pub in Center City this evening, a short time before the first debate of the presidential election.
"Sarah! Sarah!" the crowd cheered, although outside, a large contingent of protesters booed Palin and chanted Democrat Barack Obama's name.
Wearing a Phillies wind breaker and blue jeans, Palin spent about an hour in the bar shaking hands and posing for pictures. She was expected to return to her hotel after the event to watch the debate.
Well-wishers reached out with cellphone cameras to try to capture a glimpse of the candidate. Others got autographs. Some wore blue USA Hockey jerseys with the initials "VP" on their shoulders.
"I thank you for being on the team and hopefully we can bring more people from this area on that the team," Palin told the cheering audience. Her remarks lasted about a minute. "John McCain and I will never forget who we are working for - you, it's for you, so we love you guys, city of brotherly love!"
The McCain campaign said it had given out 450 tickets to the event, but it appeared that a far larger audience had crammed into several rooms in the multi-leveled bar.
Palin's fans were full of references to her Alaskan roots, with some touching on ice hockey and others pointing to her professed hunting skills.
"I told her to field-dress the damn donkey," said Joe McColgan, a Philadelphia resident.
Victoria White, a 15-year-old youth hockey player from Devon, told Palin she plays hockey – at center – and got the candidate's autograph.
"She told me to skate hard," said White, wearing a Notre Dame hockey sweatshirt.
Her father Jim White wore a McCain-Palin button.
"She's brought a wonderful vitality to this election," he said. "It's great to see the appeal she has to young folks."
Reba Larney, of Exton, said having a man and woman in the White House together would bring better balance to the nation's leadership.
"There are some women who are called to stand beside men in power and offer a balance," Larney said.
Not all of the crowd inside was so enthusiastic, though, and a few hundred Demcoratic supporters protested outside.
Inside the bar, James Boney, of Atlantic City, said he was a McCain supporter, but would not vote for him because of the Palin pick.
"I have a problem with anyone who thinks the earth is 6,000 years old," Boney said, referring to Palin's one-time support for the teaching of Creationism alongside evolution in public schools.
He said he came to the event "for a good photo op."
Outside, Steve Richter, of Philadelphia, stood with two signs. One read, "McSame and Palin. Out of Touch and Out of Her League."
Some drivers honked in support of the protesters and walkers took pictures, while others shouted derision from their cars. Some simply cursed as traffic on Walnut Street backed up for two blocks.
Contact Staff Writer Jonathan Tamari at 609-989-9016 or jtamari@phillynews.com.
anyone who would vote in a commie terrorist with the name Hussein Obama instead of strong, steadfast patriot and war hero John McCain over a vp pick is LYING......
WOW, I said the exact same thing, that this clown is a liar.Brilliant minds think a like.
Oh come on you twits! Matt Damon was worried about Sarah "saying" the Earth was only 4500 years old. And she never said either.
You morons need to get your stories straight!
Is there really any more to Philadelphia than spoiled blueblood socialists and handout-seeking thugs?
She’d be much more at home in Pittsburgh.
“I have a problem with anyone who thinks the earth is 6,000 years old,” Boney said...
And I have a problem with someone who thinks his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was an ape.
So do I. The number of 'greats' is in the hundreds of thousands.
And I have a problem with someone who thinks his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was an ape.
Forget that, some consider humans classified as great apes TODAY.
Interesting to note that the report's phone number is a Trenton, NJ exchange. The reporter apparently chooses to put some distance and a state line between the leftist hell hole that much of Philadelphia has become and their own home.
There’s plenty more. There’s a whole lot of ethnic voters there (South Philly, Northeast) who may tend to vote Democrat but are pretty conservative. They may prove key to this election.
Most of us, I will admit, moved out of the city into the burbs.
The ethnic neighborhoods of South Philly and the Northeast have been shrinking for years now. I’ve lived in South Philly and still have family there , and let me tell you, it’s not a pretty place to be. it’s very unsafe, even in the so called safe neighborhoods. And the voting , well it seems its legal for the black vote to be higher than the number of people registered. No sane person is going into the ghetto neighborhoods to question any votes. It’s the same in most large US cities. This is probably the biggest thing we need to worry about in this election. It’s always the Dems who cry foul and bitch about elections being stolen. They lie, smear and steal elections without batting an eye. It’s as easy as breathing for them.
That’s disturbing to hear. I spent the first few years of my life in Hunting Park. Nice Italian neighborhood in the early 1970s. Now, from what I hear, it’s a drug infested mess.
Liberalism has destroyed the great cities of America.
Did you watch the Kent Hovind “The Creation Series”??? I just finished Part 4, that’s one of his lines, or very close to it!
I think I got that line from Ray Comfort, of Living Waters fame...very interesting though, I’ll try to catch it. Thanks.
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