https://www.facebook.com/billhobbs/posts/10152588069289661
Some notes from the Lamar Alexander campaign rally on Music Row - and the counter-protest by supporters of Joe Carr in the Republican primary race.
1. The Alexander campaign got an event permit for BOTH sides of the street, although they were only using one side of the street. This was clearly an attempt by Lamar’s campaign to prevent a counter-protest. Clearly, it failed. However, there was this one little dude from the campaign who walked up and down the sidewalk telling the anti-Lamar people that they couldn’t stand there, and they had to keep moving. When he said it to the group I was standing with, I muttered, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” and he didn’t try telling me again. Frankly, I doubt he had any legal authority whatsoever to tell people they couldn’t stand on the sidewalk.
2. Attendance at the campaign event was pretty lame. When you subtract Alexander campaign staffers - it was, after all, help on the tiny sloping front lawn of the campaign headquarters building - there were probably 100 people there. I counted at least 50 anti-Lamar protestors, and that was well into the event after several had already left. Given the Alexander campaign has millions of dollars and a sophisticated campaign apparatus to get a big crowd - and was offering free food - and the anti-Lamar group had none of that - the numbers on both sides of the street had to be a big disappointment for the Alexander campaign. (You also have to subtract a few because there were some anti-Alexander people who, not carrying any signs or wearing “Beat Lamar” shirts, went and joined the Lamar crowd to hear the Senator speak.)
4. The Alexander campaign parked the campaign bus directly in front of campaign headquarters, in order to shield the event from protestors. The result, however, it created a backdrop for the campaign in which Lamar was standing on a stage on the sidewalk at the bottom of the lawn that sloped down to the street, overshadowed by a huge, hulking bus. It made him look very very small. It also served to reinforce how small his crowd was - if you were across the street from the event you could see about three people of his overall crowd.
5. The number one political issue in America today is illegal immigration. Joe Carr has made illegal immigration - and Lamar Alexander’s vote for amnesty - the centerpiece of his campaign. Many of the anti-Lamar protestors carried “Say No to Amnesty” signs. So, did the Senator address illegal immigration during his brief remarks? No. He did not. He made no reference to it at all.
6. Alexander spent a good part of his remarks talking about his opposition to Obama’s proposed “National School Board.” Only problem is, Obama has not proposed a “National School Board.” When you have an old man prattling on about things that aren’t real, it may be time to hand him his gold watch and hire someone new.
7. Alexander also cited a recent endorser’s quote calling him a “conservative problem-solver.” So, what problem has Alexander solved since he became a Senator 12 years ago? Oh, that’s right. You can legally fish below Army Corps of Engineers dams. Until the end of 2014. Alexander didn’t mention that, probably because it’s got to be more than a little embarrassing to admit you’ve basically accomplished nothing in 12 years as a U.S. Senator.
8. All of anti-Lamar/anti-Amnesty people were old white men. (If you ignore the African Americans, women and Hispanics, which I’m betting the media will). By the way, there were more minorities in the anti-Lamar crowd than in