The McCain-Palin Rally
I almost don’t know what to say about today’s rally. It was certainly nothing like what happened in Florida. And I think because of that, it was a let down. But, that wasn’t the biggest disappointment.
The biggest problem with the rally was that on ground game, Democrats had us beat left and right. Let me say that again. At a large McCain/Palin rally, Democrats beat us at the ground game. It was hardly a boost to my spirits.
Let’s go through all the things that went wrong with this rally, and then I’ll explain the most egregious sins, the issues that wouldn’t have been issues if other problems didn’t exist, and the stupid decisions someone with either the state GOP or campaign made that gave Democrats the upper hand at our event.
1 ) They told the media that more than 18,000 people were expected at the rally. Being exceptionally generous, there were maybe 8,000. Probably more like 6,000. Guess what the narrative will likely be now? McCain/Palin couldn’t turn out even half the crowds they hoped.
2 ) They forced us to give up our Sportsmen for McCain sign at the parking lot. They told us there was a blanket ban on all signs, citing some bizarre issues with Palin signs that I didn’t quite understand. However, when we arrived, we found Republicans inside with signs and even some Obama supporters who decided to come into the secure area from the protest with signs for their candidate.
Yes, we were forced to leave our Sportsmen for McCain sign by the wayside, but Obama supporters managed to get Obama signs into the secure area.
The GOP volunteers shouldn’t be lying about a blanket ban on signs when clearly it didn’t exist. If you see any footage from today’s event, you’ll see signs in the audience. Lying is not cool, and it left us wondering if ours was targeted because they didn’t think it looked official. (The guy commented that he had never seen a sign like it before, so he may have thought we made it ourselves even though the art work was clearly the same professional quality as campaign signs.)
3 ) They forced attendees to give up their water at security in the afternoon and told everyone that they had plenty of water inside for everyone. They had no water at all. None. Not a drop that we could find anywhere.
4 ) No one told the police or volunteers where the buses were loading at the end of the event. We went in the direction the state police sent us and waited about half an hour. After that, we gave up without seeing a single bus (and no one who was there earlier seeing a single bus) and headed several blocks back down the road. Oh, what do you know, that’s where the buses are picking up…driving by…where are they going?!? Yeah, it was beyond chaotic. No one knew who was going where.
Oh, and all that time we were standing on the major roadway in Media? We could have been smiling and waving with McCain signs. If they allowed any at the event for us lowly non-Obama voters and unspecial Republicans.
5 ) Instead, the road was lined with traditional Democratic activists who were holding their signs and waving. They waved even more enthusiastically when they saw the McCain buses. Not because they thought they would change minds, but because they wanted to show that they were out in force in a way we could not match. They didn’t need the rock star candidate in town. They just needed to be told that there would be an opportunity for some good political theater, and possibly some politiking with some independents who were curious. And they turned out. I’m not talking hippies who don’t vote. I’m talking traditional Democratic activists.
6 ) We won’t know how successful he is, but given his ground game, I find it hard to believe that the Democratic Congressman from the district didn’t meet his fundraising goal inspired by today’s expected rally numbers. He had people lining the streets on both sides for at least 5 blocks. Depressing.
7 ) For an event where they expected 18,000 people, you’d expect some video for those who couldn’t get up close. Alas, there was no video. So probably a good 60% of the audience never even got a glimpse of the candidates.
8 ) Well maybe they couldn’t find video screens, but they would at least have a sound system, right? Barely.
There were several times during local candidate speeches that you couldn’t hear a word. People behind us were chanting, “Turn it up! Turn it up!” and “We can’t hear you!”
At times, the protesters two blocks away were louder than the candidates over the sound system. They were loud enough that the press, another 1/2 block up from us could hear them and they turned to get photos. Again, the narrative was handed to the other side.
What frustrates me so much is that if this list was only 2-4 items, it would just be normal issues with an event so large. But in some cases, the state GOP just handed the press narrative to Democrats on a silver platter. In fact, it’s like they tucked in their napkins to their collars for them and said, “Eat up!”
The lack of video and sound caused more than a few people around us to pack up and leave. And sadly, we were far from the back of the crowd. I can’t see why anyone more than 20 feet behind us would have bothered to be there. They couldn’t see or hear anything. Attendees around us were frustrated with the lack of information. Volunteers were seemingly only capable of answering questions with versions of “I don’t know.”
Overall, my thoughts come down to: Would I attend this event again? The answer is a slightly hesitant no. Hesitant because I want to believe. But, unless some fundamental issues like video, sound, and not lying to attendees about the sign policies are fixed, it was really just more of a downer about what we’re not doing right as I watched the Democrats organize around us.
And I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that I didn’t get to see Piper Palin.
No obviously related posts.
Soooo, why exactly are made-by-people signs a bad thing? That’s a suspicious sort of stance for them to take.
It is, and that’s partially speculation. The guy honestly made no sense at all. He said it was a first amendment issue and if they let in ours, they had to let in others. Yet they did let in others! It really made no sense. It sounded like he was just making stuff up.
I also loved how he claimed he was “catching people early” to tell them. Yet he didn’t catch us until we were almost on the bus, and there were old people behind us who had signs who wouldn’t have had it in them to walk back to their car to drop it off.
But wasn’t this in Media, PA? Or is this another rally?
Yes, this was the Media event. What did I say to make you think it was another one? Was I not clear?
I thought the Sestak reference and the mention of waiting on the Media roads were fine, but if I said something I didn’t catch that makes it sound like somewhere else, let me know.
I have to correct you on a couple of your statements. First of all, the signs inside that you saw, were all made by volunteers over the weekend. Obviously this is to keep any profane messages from getting in. Aside from purpose made, printed campaign signs, none were allowed in, but the signs you saw, were passed out to the crowd.
Second, there were jugs of water everywhere, and volunteers walking around with cups of water on trays all afternoon handing them out.
Sestak pays “volunteers” A LOT of money to do what they did yesterday, as most Democrat candidates have to do. Sestak was famous for it in his election in 2006. Bus loads of teenagers were driven into neighborhoods to bang on doors. I asked a girl where she was from and how she got here and she told me she was being paid $150 to knock on everyone’s door and hand Sestak literature out. A school bus picked her up in Philadelphia and drove her to the suburbs.
I agree with you about the number of people at the event, although I would say 10000 isn’t an unreasonable estimate. That is what I was hearing thoughout the afternoon. Many people were scared away by the estimate of people supposed to show up, and stayed away. I know I almost did.
Had the County GOP staged its own sign wavers along Baltimore Pike nothing good could have come of it. There were a couple of arrests made of Obama supporters who became violent, and spat upon a veteran walking by. It would have been a timebomb for sure had McCain and Williams supporters been lined up together on the street. No one needed a scene like that at our rally.
I was behind the stage, but I did hear the people yelling that they couldn’t hear in the back. Lesson learned. At some outside venues the acoustics are very good, at others they are not. Presumably Veteran’s Square in Media is not one of the good ones.
Just my two cents on the matter.
I don’t care if they were paid. It’s about the ground game, and they still won it by getting people out there knocking on doors and waving signs!
As for the signs, did they hand out Obama signs inside the secure area? Because they were inside. And your defense that they were made by volunteers doesn’t change the fact that we were lied to about the blanket ban. A ban is a ban. It’s not a ban for some people and a free pass for others. If the old man behind us was turned away for his official campaign “Integrity” sign by a volunteer who lied about the ban, then the campaign can hardly take the high road.
As for numbers, again, dropping the ball. You allow for 20-30% drop off at these kinds of events. If they gave out 18,000 tickets, they never should have promised 18,000 people. It’s bad form, and you don’t make stuff up like that because even in the crowd it was easy to see there wasn’t anywhere near that number. And I will still challenge you on 10,000. That’s waayyyy too many.
As for water, good luck proving it. There was none anywhere that we could see, the only volunteers we ever saw inside the secure area were fighting their way through the crowd bragging about how they knew where McCain & Palin were leaving from, and they wanted to get up closer to see them. And they had no water.
As for outside venues, from everything I have read, there are events at that location all the time. So why didn’t they make an effort to learn from the past? And why, if they truly believed they would have 18,000 people did they refuse to have a screen like they did in Florida?
Again, there’s no excuse for many of these mistakes. Some, like the lack of coordination with the police on buses, is to be expected. But when this is a game of political theater in a state as tight as Pennsylvania, it was a failure. Maybe up there on stage you didn’t get to see the people walking in after having waited in line forever to get through security and turning around to leave when they couldn’t hear or see a thing, maybe you didn’t have to see the old man with his McCain gear and know he’d be turned away while Obama supporters got in, but I did.
It’s not just a lesson learned when more than half of your audience heard protesters instead of the speakers. That’s piss poor planning and unacceptable for a state whose GOP operatives have been through this before.
Points well taken and duly noted. The estimates that I heard leading to the event was 15000. Initially it was lower, but you’re correct, you don’t want to be overly optimistic and then look silly. The Dems will always have their protesters. Nothing that can be done about that. I know I am biased, but to me, that type of rancor is not going to sway my vote. The fact that they were on the block that Sestak has his HQ is no coincidence. It couldn’t have worked out better for them to that end. I will certainly mention the sound issue to the powers that be. I would have been pissed if I had to hear the Obama morons and not the GOP candidates that I was there to see and hear. This event came up on FRIDAY, so you do have to take that into consideration. Workers were there all weekend long setting up so I don’t know if they were able to make all accomodations in such short order. We found out about at around 10AM on Friday morning. It was quite an event for only having less than 72 hours to prepare. Not sure that I agree that they “won”, but you do make many good points.
My experiences with the powers-that-be are not exactly a ringing endorsement. I’ve seen some serious problems with delegation in this state that have created some of the issues that were on display for voters to see (or not see in this case) at the event. I attended a coalition launch in the NE part of the state where the targeted demographic is in huge supply and because they didn’t make the calls they needed to with people on the ground, it just didn’t happen like it should have.
More power to you for trying to let them know that they dropped the ball in a big way, but I’m less than hopeful they will learn from it. Though I did make sure folks in Arlington heard about it.
[...] glad to say that the rally was nothing like the one Bitter and Sebastian attended. It was well organized, if minimal, and ran smoothly once they started letting people in. There [...]
Go Obama!!!!!