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Report from Palin rally
Newspaper stories from Palin's rally from myself and Joe Killian.
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There are certain things that get me really concerned when I hear them from someone I'm working with. Joe Killian (who blogs for the paper here and on his own time here) added a new one to my list:
Joe was working with me on a package for tomorrow's newspaper covering Gov. Sarah Palin's visit to Elon and Greensboro.
"Dude," he says when I called to check on him. "Some guy just kicked me in the back of the leg."
Let me just digress for a second. I sometimes supervise people. Much more often, I work in teams with folks. I'm usually the old fart in the group so I feel responsible for them. The last thing I ever want to hear is that one of my people got hurt on assignment. Usually the worry has to do with covering a traffic accident along a highway or a natural disaster like a flood, where conditions are inherently dangerous.
What I don't expect is for some troglodyte at a campaign rally to decide that the proper way to express his frustration with Democrats, Barack Obama or the "left-wing liberal media" is to commit assault on a colleague.
Here's the back-story:
As you probably know, the crowds at McCain-Palin events have gotten, um, saucy as of late. My boss blogs about that here.
Covering Sen. John McCain's appearance in Wilmington Monday, you could definitely sense some of that vibe.
Cut to today, Palin in town. In general, I walked in sensing the crowd had a more positive vibe than the McCain rally.
That changed when I heard a ruckus behind me. A couple folks there for the rally called campaign staff over, complaining about people several rows back chanting "Obama" when the rest of the crowd cheered at Palin's applause lines. Obnoxious? Yes. But I dig me some First Amendment.
The campaign staff dutifully fetched a couple of police officers who dutifully threw the handful of individuals out. I watched just to make sure ruckus didn't develop into something more. That apparently gave other McCain-Palin supporters license to yell at me.
"Hey! Hey you! The story's up there," yelled one point at the stage. "You don't need to worry about that. The story is up there."
The presence of a barricade, the more pressing need of gathering a story and, well, that whole First Amendment thing just led me to ignore them. They can pop off if they like.
Joe was near a second group of protestors who got tossed. And he got some push back for investigating as well. After the rally wound down, he went to find some Obama folks and see if he could talk to who got put out.
That's when at least one guy from the crowd decided he needed to interject his opinion into the conversation. As Joe tells it:
I sidled up to one of the Obama supporters and asked why they were there, what they were trying to accomplish.
As he was telling me a large, bearded man in full McCain-Palin campaign regalia got in his face to yell at him.
"Hey, hey, " I said. "I'm trying to interview him. Just a minute, okay? "
The man began to say something about how of course I was interviewing the Obama people when suddenly, from behind us, the sound of a pro-Obama rap song came blaring out of the windows of a dorm building. We all turned our heads to see Obama signs in the windows.
This was met with curses, screams and chants of "U.S.A" by McCain-Palin folks who crowded under the windows trying to drown it out and yell at the person playing the stereo.
It was a moment of levity in an otherwise very tense situation and so I let out a gentle chuckle and shook my head.
"Oh, you think that 's funny?! " the large bearded man said. His face was turning red. "Yeah, that 's real funny…" he said.
And then he kicked the back of leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.
There was no cop or security officer around to report this lugnut to, and Joe resisted the temptation to smack the guy back, which I commend. But let me say this: the guy who attacked Joe is a criminal, no better that the lunk-head who steals your car stereo or snatches a purse.
Do I hold the McCain campaign responsible? Not entirely. No one on their staff said, "Hey, after the event, go smack around a reporter."
Although, I will say that complaints about "the media," "mainstream media," "Eastern media elite," etc... have become a pervasive in Republican talking points, increasingly so as we get closer to the election. I've heard the complaints from folks like U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and certainly both Palin and McCain have used those phrases in their speeches. Then, there are the opening lines of Hank Williams Jr.'s campaign theme song for McCain-Palin: "The leftwing liberal media have always been a real close-knit family, but most of the American people, don't believe them anyway you see."
Fair enough. We're big boys and girls who put ourselves out there and part of the job is tacking flak from both sides. Certainly I have heard complaints from Democrats about "the media" and have been accused of being too conservative. But I have never had the sense that a Democrat was going to get physical in that kind of way. Even though McCain and Palin have taken a kinder gentler tone in their speeches, there was still a real undercurrent of anger at the rallies I covered this week.
After today I'm wondering - and this is just wondering at this point - whether Republicans aren't in some respect giving their supporters license for this sort of crap. If the story you peddle is that your guys are the good guys and all those who stand against them are the bad guys, and the "liberal media" is in that second column, might there be a message there – even if it is one that is misconstrued and carried to a stupid extreme in some cases?
Full disclosure: I'm not real happy with the McCain campaign today. After the Elon event Palin did a fundraiser and I was told the local pool would be able to cover that. It's a major reason I took the pool assignment. I was told mid-way through my day that the fundraiser would be closed. And I just found out that the campaign tossed a one-on-one to an out-of-town competitor rather than to the paper that staffed their pool today.
But that's peanuts, mere whining, an issue of protocol. This other thing with Joe reflects something far more troubling. I just hope it's not a trend.
The McCain campaign is seeking to clarify a remark reported from a Sarah Palin fundraiser in North Carolina yesterday in which the Alaska Governor declared that she loved to visit the "pro-America" areas of the country -- implying, implicitly, that there were some parts of the United States she viewed as not pro-America.
The reporter who broke the story, the Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin, sends over the following, extended quote from a more detailed version of the pool report.
"We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe" -- here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers -- "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom."
Not sure how much this helps Palin out. Is the VP candidate saying that small towns are more authentically American than, say, suburbia or cities?
As Eilperin writes: "The upshot? Washington D.C. is neither 'real America' or 'pro-America.' Other parts of the nation? It's unclear, but if you live in a small town, you're probably patriotic from Palin's point of view."
Military Voter Surveys Can Be Misleading
The Military Times recently released its annual survey of subscribers, which shows McCain-Palin enjoying a commanding lead over Obama-Biden (68/23 percent). But this is not a random sample, by any stretch of the imagination. Military Times subscribers are significantly older than the active military population. Nearly half of those surveyed are retirees, and minorities are under-represented.
"Everyone I talk to wants change but on base you can't say certain things. At a bar or a party, everyone tells me they're voting for Obama," said Thomas Singleton, 27, a former military telecommunications specialist who was speaking to OffTheBus outside the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Perched on a hill in Quantico, the museum's stunning roof line can be seen for miles. Its design -- a 200-foot tilted mast atop a huge glass atrium -- was inspired by the famous Iwo Jima flag raising of World War II.
"My military friends are tired of being lied to," said Singleton. "They're told to deploy for six months, but it ends up being a year. And when they come home, they can't find a job. One of my friends is staying in the Army only because he can't find a civilian job."
The genuine patriotism these young people feel is complicated by events in Iraq, and grumblings about military miscalculations. "I was proud to go to Iraq, but when I got there all we did for weeks was play cards. We were unprepared. We had the wrong supplies," said Skye Spann, 27, a former medical specialist. "It didn't seem like we had a clear mission."
"My military friends are tired of being lied to," said Singleton. "They're told to deploy for six months, but it ends up being a year. And when they come home, they can't find a job. One of my friends is staying in the Army only because he can't find a civilian job."
The genuine patriotism these young people feel is complicated by events in Iraq, and grumblings about military miscalculations. "I was proud to go to Iraq, but when I got there all we did for weeks was play cards. We were unprepared. We had the wrong supplies," said Skye Spann, 27, a former medical specialist. "It didn't seem like we had a clear mission."
Deployed Troops Give Four Times More Money To Obama
People in all branches of the service are getting tired of repeated deployments. "I think more of them will vote for Obama than McCain," said Jennings. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, deployed troops are putting their money where their mouth is: they've given four timesas much money to Obama as McCain.
"Any assumption that the military vote is overwhelmingly in favor of the Republican Party -- based on demographics alone -- is suspect, at the very least," said Donald S. Inbody, a retired Navy Captain who is on the political science faculty at Texas State University. Inbody also is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas in Austin, where he is researching the political attitudes and behavior of the American military enlisted person.
For years, the Republicans have enjoyed a reputation for taking care of the troops. But now, at all levels of the military, there's a general dissatisfaction with the lousy leadership in Washington. Inbody told OffTheBus, "We know from several studies that the officer corps, especially senior officers, identify strongly with the Republican Party. But it is more likely that junior officers and enlisted personnel more nearly mirror the general American population when it comes to party identification and voting behavior."
This could result in a 1.2 to 1 advantage for Obama in military communities, according to Inbody, especially if the campaign "isn't tone deaf" to the inroads that are possible.
Sarah stays hidden:
A day after The Washington Post's Dana Milbank wrote about how the Secret Service is blocking press at Sarah Palin's rallies, it appears Palin's staff is blocking her from listening to the press. Palin revealed at a fundraiser last night that she is in an ever-growing media bubble.
"So North Carolina, I appreciate you all so much, who are here who already get it. You know, maybe I'm preaching to the choir a little bit here, but being here encourages me because I know that I'm not alone and I'll send this message back to John McCain also. At those times on the campaign trail when sometimes it's easy to get a little bit discouraged, when, you know, when you happen to turn on the news when your campaign staffers will let you turn on the news," she said, prompting laughter from the group. "Usually they're like 'Oh my gosh, don't watch. You're going to, you know, you're going to get depressed.'"
She added that while she doesn't always appreciate the way reporters portray the GOP ticket, she's been bolstered by the prayers of many of the campaign's backers.
"But yeah, sometimes you do get depressed watching what it is that they're reporting and the spin and some of the distortion of what our message is and what we stand for. Sometimes that, that gets draining," she continued. "But it's at events like these and our rallies that we are so energized and inspired and we know that we are not alone. We feel your strength and we feel the power of prayer, so many of you tell us that you are praying for us and praying for our country and that's why we so appreciate you being here."
Palin also attributed polling numbers to God. "We even saw today, thank the Lord," she said, looking upwards and raising her fist, "We saw some movement."
I didn't believe Georgey's bs.
does that mean, yes? you are confused and blurred?
first of all, what does the hills have to do with my comment?
second, you would bash anywhere I lived. this is old. it's not popular anymore.
third, are you trying to compare Obama to Hitler, was is your point?
FOURTH, LOOK, WHY DID HITLER GET AWAY W/WHAT HE DID? STUPID, BLIND FAITH FOLLOWERS, Not using their own noggins?
Iraq or Afghans? Are you confusing the two?
that doesn't answer my question...
WOW, so because "supposedly" Madeleine Albright said Genocide was ok (which I don't believe), we should not provide healthcare to children, is that the point you are trying to make?
the stupidity. the man studied political science, was the first black harvard law president, do you really think, he doesn't know to be president, #1 criteria: you must be a citizen? FOLKS, LET'S NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR FROM THE GUYS WHO ARE TRYING TO PLAY YOU.
your comment:
Sure I do, if yo listen you will hear them complain a lot. Tell me this, how is it a man that is an alcoholic bum who refused to work is able to get Social Security at the age of 40 and a woman that has worked as a nurse for 25 years, has a heart attack and has to quit work cannot get it for another 5 years at the age of 55 and only then after writing to the governor numerous times? You can label me as an "I got mine" all you want, I believe that if you don't put anything in you don't get shit out.
but we're the ones playing the race card...
how about the veterans?
any everybody outside their religious sect is really bad. do not have contact with the outside people, they are all communists? what town are you in?
I know they don't even have tv's.
"i was taught to never believe the news"
what religious sect is that?
are u at that compound in texas, the one they just took the kids from?
well, I'm glad you all don't have "free-Loaders," that's great. I have to go, can't take anymore today.
yes, very racistic thinking. all welfare recipients are lazy. piece a class. and I don't believe your little story about the black people voting for McCain, I'm not stupid.
your thinking is lazy...
lol, were those fellow cult members?
you are copying me again. :) why don't you save that for the booth.
so, people who don't have an inheritence and don't have a lot of money are not an integral party of society in your book, just right 'em off cause they are no good?
ohhhh, this is your cult??? hmmmm? finally
omg, you want to hand out free healthcare to all the lazy kids who need it? Wouldn't you rather pay for a bogus war, to build iraq and make Haliburton & Dick rich?
what is this sci fi hour?
so they are working hard, or getting an inheritence, which is it?
can you please just tell your cult?
sorry, I meant to send to Josey.
That's right PegVa, we know that there are taxes to be paid, we would rather see those taxes go to big business and the poor instead of George, Dick and Condi's friends. go figure? where do you want your taxes going?
what cult do you belong to?
well put, thanks.
are you phill gramm? are we just a nation of whiners?
nobody is hurting, are you kidding?
Josey: Curious, what cult do you belong in?
what George? has this worked for the past 8 years? now even the middle class and the richer are "hurting." If we don't have anything, how can we filter it down?
are you speaking tongue again? speaking of tongue, is this the only language Sarah speaks, where is she?
A VP that can't even be interviewed, wtf has the world come to?
is this a trick question?