WM and I did indeed go to see John McCain’s “Town Hall” at Burlington County College yesterday. As you can tell by our vantage point in the picture above, we are not financial supporters of the McCain Campaign, nor are we veterans.
I’m on the fence (as usual) this time around. Both candidates have positions and qualities I admire, and at times I’d like one or the other to just go away.
Here are my observations on the day…
We took Route 38 to Pemberton. Anyone who thinks South Jersey is nothing more than a Starbucks on every corner needs to leave drive 30 minutes outside of Camden County. Lots of green, lots of farm.
The email invite I received said that the doors opened at 9:00 for a 9:30 start. The Facebook event page said 10:00am to 1:00pm. The lady behind us said it started at 11:00. It actually started at 10:30 with the parade of local politicos, then there was a short break and the McCain crew hit the stage around 11. If you make people take off of work for these things, at least be forthright with the time.
The Security check involved scanning bags and walking through a metal detector. Both WM and I were wanded after the detector because we wore belts with belt buckles. (To fit in, my buckle featured an oil rig and WM’s featured a longhorn cattle head). I overheard WM say, “Don’t touch me” to the security guy.
Once we got in, we were told that Veterans got to sit in the folding chairs on the ground and everyone else had to sit in the bleachers. Note to the McCain team: You would do VERY WELL to not always surround the older of the 2 major candidates for president with a bunch of old white haired white guys. The bleachers were full of people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities, but for most of the pics of McCain you’ll see in the media, he’s surrounded by old vets. It would be nice to see him with people under the age of 60.
Songs played while we waited: Sweet Home Alabama, Hard Workin’ Man, Walk this Way, Walk the Line, Good Vibrations, Johnny B Goode (2x), Eye of the Tiger (2x), Standing Outside the Fire (2x), Who Says You Can’t Go Home (2x for the obligatory Bon Jovi song.).
One woman the press couldn’t stop swooning over was the ONE Crazed Hillary supporter. She had a Hillary for President sign with one lousy McCain bumper sticker on it. The McCain people gave her a few more to put on her sign. If you google McCain’s event yesterday and look at pics, you’ll see her and/or her sign…she’s sitting with the veterans behind him.
I assume she represents the women who are so mad at the Democratic Party for not letting Hillary win that they’re completely jumping ship and supporting McCain. And those women are bat-shit crazy. If you are TRULY voting for someone because you believe in what she believes in and NOT just because she has boobs then even if she doesn’t win you stick with the party that more accurately represents your beliefs. She makes her ilk look childish and like sore losers and I don’t even know why Team McCain would even want someone like that so prominently featured.
The event started at 10:30am, with the pledge of allegiance and the invocation (mentioning “Father” but not “Jesus”) by the 2 Republican Burlington County Freeholders. Then the president of the college spoke, followed by (R) candidate for NJ Senate Dick Zimmer, Chris Myers, Chris Smith, Jim Saxton and former Governor (and head of the 911 commission) Thomas Kean. The songs kicked in during a short break and then…
Joe Lieberman! Knock me over with a feather! Pretty neat. He and McCain seem chummy, and I’d love to him get the Veep nod, just to shake things up. McCain waited on the floor (standing, not dead) while Lieberman heartily endorsed him, then he took the stage. I stopped counting “Thank yous” at about 12.
McCain spoke for a half hour before he took audience questions. In a nutshell..
Obama won’t accept McCain’s proposal to do 1 Town Hall meeting a week for 10 weeks; the GITMO SCOTUS decision was bad; Pork Barrel spending must end; The economy sucks*; Obama wants to raise taxes, which is bad; McCain wants to double the standard deduction we all get; McCain wants to lower corporate taxes; privatize social security**, energy independence is good, but must come through innovation, not subsidies; and the Enemy are Bad People and an immediate pullout from Iraq would be wrong.
He took questions from the audience. I think two were planted (like the little girl who HAPPENED to be seated in the front row and who HAPPENED to have a prepared question about funding for education) and the other guy who HAPPENED to be running for his city council and HAPPENED to be a 9/11 WTC survivor to boot. But the rest seemed unscripted. Like the veteran who hollered out “HeY!” to McCain from the seats in back of him. None of the volunteers could get to that area to hand him a microphone, so McCain handed him his own so he could be heard. WM noted you could see McCain wince as he reached up to hand the microphone off - because of his war injuries, McCain can’t lift his arms up all the way.
The question I had ready in case I was called on?
“Senator McCain, over the last five years, we’ve seen many tech jobs lost to overseas outsourcing. Now customer service jobs and even Graphic Design jobs are going to countries like India. How will you and your Congress encourage American businesses to keep these jobs here in America?
My pictures of the event were absolutely crappy… unfortunately the one on this post is the best one. I’m glad I took the day off. It’s nice to see candidates talk live without having to put up with just the soundbites you get. And yes, I’d see Obama too if he did something like this in the area.
PS: Guess who was in Philly last night? Obama. But there were no invites to the public, as it was a fundraising event.
* McCain mentioned that because the economy is so bad, people are sitting around their kitchen table wondering how things are going to work. Uh, I don’t even have a kitchen table, John.
** This is why I voted for W in 2000.
Edited to add: I have some ads along the side that Google supplies. They serve ads based on the post. So they’re now serving McCain ads. It’s a Google thing, not a me thing. I’m also still on the voting fence.
