Yes, it was a terrific event yesterday in Media, Trib, so full of enthusiasm! Good crowd size also.
It was nice to hear the candidates in person. Palin brought her husband and her children, Willow and Piper. Joe Lieberman spoke first and had the best line of the evening, "It's nice to be in a place where the MEDIA loves John McCain!"
Obama supporters were there and as Palin and McCain were speaking shouted, "O..bam..a, O..bam..a, which made it more difficult to hear Palin and McCain. Now we know how aggressive, rude, and uncouth the other side can be, but I can't imagine going to an Obama rally and shouting, "John..Mc...Cain, John..Mc..Cain." while Obama and Biden were speaking or at any point. One of the two yungen's who were with us said, that kind of behavior, only makes those leaning to our side, more resolute. Smart thinking for one so young!
Some on our side did try to get that going (John..Mc..Cain -and I must admit was thinking of doing it myself) in opposition to "drown out" the Obama supporters, but then drew quiet so we could hear Senator McCain speak.
As we were leaving, Obama supporters were standing on the side shouting at us, and as we were walking by we put our thumbs down and shouted, "losers" in their faces. As we all well know, free speech is for them, not for us.
The situation with the shuttle buses, which were supposed to be there to drive us back to the Springfield Mall was terrible, however. We had to wait a half hour for the first one to show, and there was no one directing the waiting crowd of thousands, not even the police. Eventually, a few of us took a Septa bus to the tolley which then took us to the mall. The PA McCain camp has to work on that.
Regardless, it was worth it. We took a friends two sons with us (ages 14 and 16) and they expressed a desire to get involved in the campaign. They loved the rally! : )
We ran into ex PA rep Steve Friend's son Chris, a friend since working in Steve Friend's bid for the Senate against Arlen Specter, years ago. We remain in touch, but it was a nice surprise. He works for the Philly Bulletin, and will be getting a few words in about the rally, though he said the Bulletin was covering it.
In all, a great event!
I posted this comment to Stentor on
this thread, but when I say your comment here, I remembered how you and your brother were on the receiving end of Democrat thug violence yourselves back during the Clinton's reign, and I wanted to share this with you, too:
Comment to Stentor:
Apparently, the anti-McCain-Palin protest was organized by a Democrat Committeeperson for Franklin Township, PA named Mark Ungemach.
The announcement was posted on the Barack Obama Campaign website:
While I am sure that Democrat Campaigns and their goons have organized protests at their opponents' events before, I don't recall them doing it so openly before.
Obama told his brownshirts to "get in their faces", so I shouldn't be so surprised.
Also, in the following comment, I posted a link to the BO campaign website announcement of this protest that you all witnessed. I suppose the campaign will pull the protest announcement after word of this gets out.