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Thursday, June 28, 2012

The June 27 Romney Rally In Northern Virginia

Mr. AOW and I attended the event yesterday afternoon at EIT in Sterling, Virginia.

If you look very closely around time marker :52, you can see me standing at the table in the left-rear background and buying some anti-Obama buttons. There is a tall young man wearing a red skullcap behind me and crossing from side to side.


Romney made several excellent statements, many of which all of us have heard before. However, there was no "magic in the air."

I can also think of three things that could have been done to make the rally more effective; after all, I've produced a lot of pageants during my 40 years of teaching.

Flaws:

(1) Should have been playing different music during the waiting time and to preface Romney's "grand entrance." The music was mostly songs from The Supremes.  Strange choice, and I'm not sure how that music was supposed to relate to Romney's campaign.

(2) Seating arrangements were pathetic! My husband, a disabled veteran, and others who were less disabled or unable to stand for two hours, had to sit in the back of the room right in front of the raised press platform. No way could anyone sitting at the back of the room see a thing on the stage!

(3) I realize that the turnout was much greater than expected. Still, those assisting with the crowd were not well prepared and didn't really know what to do.  Very poorly coached!  In fact, we got all the way through security up close to the entrance in the back of the facility when, lo and behold, a flight of steps loomed before us! How could these people working for a Presidential candidate's campaign have allowed Mr. AOW, a man confined to a wheelchair, to have waited so long in a snaking line and to have gotten so far in the admissions process and not automatically have rerouted him to the front entrance where the handicapped were supposed to enter? None of the assistants running around in that big parking lot and supposedly directing the crowd knew what to do with regard to getting my husband inside, nor could they find someone who did know.  They did manage to distribute a few bottles of water.  That's about it.

(4) We had few offers for help with the wheelchair, particularly from those working the campaign stop.  The man of the most help to us was a Vietnam veteran behind us in the line.  He was going to carry Mr. AOW up that flight of stairs.  Finally, the Secret Service intervened, and one of the agents pushed him around to the front entrance.

(5) Should have begun the program with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Clearly, Romney needs a better production manager for his campaign tours!

11 comments:

  1. Some of the best moments at this event came afterwards when, FINALLY, one of the Romney workers offered to bring Mr. AOW outside for me to the side parking lot....

    I went to get the car, parked quite far away (The Romney bus had blocked all the handicapped parking spaces!) and made a stop at the table that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

    While at the table I struck up a conversation with the young man in the skull cap ("B). Fascinating conversation with such a polite and considerate young man!

    He hasn't yet decided for whom to vote and is doing his own research.

    I know that "B" and I do not have much in common with regard to politics. He's on the Left and, as all know here, I'm on the Right.

    But, hey, that's okay.

    B is not a lemming; that is, he doesn't vote along party lines.

    I continued the conversation as long as I could before going to fetch Mr. AOW. I wish that B and I could have spoken longer.

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  2. There will never be "magic in the air" with Romney, but he's still better than Obummer.

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  3. Perhaps you can volunteer to be that production manager. At least let hm know that they are not getting the job done very well.

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  4. Bob,
    I did write an email to the Romney campaign.

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  5. Disgusted with the whole lot.

    I wish I could believe the Republicans will win and over turn all of the insanity but honestly, I think we are screwed.

    I am buying more ammo and food to store.

    This is going to get ugly.

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  6. Watching and listening to Romney is like watching paint dry, he is so boring. His audiences certainly do not have the excitement that those for Herman Cain, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and others have exhibited.

    Debbie
    Right Truth
    http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

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  7. Romney will at least stop the bleeding and lead us on the pathway to restore some liberties. Romney is looking better each day, especially with the Supreme Court Obamacare debacle today.

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  8. Off topic, but after traveling with my disabled mother this weekend, there is much to be desired when it comes to handicapped accessibility at restaurants and venues!

    We saw President Bush when he came to our town in 2008 and there was a lot of standing, but they should make seating available to those unable to stand for that long!

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  9. It's unfortunate that Mr. Romney's gestures and facial expressions seem clearly at odds with whatever it is he might be feeling at any given moment.

    He has everything going for him -- good looks, youthful vitality, a squeaky clean personal life, a beautiful wife and family who've met mighty challenges with aplomb, a proven track record in success in business and in governance –– in short he has everything BUT the ONE thing politicians need more than anything else in the Post-Kennedy-Nixon Debate Era.

    And what might that be,you ask?

    CHARISMA!

    STAR QUALITY!

    ANIMAL MAGNETISM!

    GLAMOUR!

    PIZAZZ!

    "IT"

    Women –– and gay men –– look at Romney and see a faithful husband, a dependable, highly moral, well-groomed, decently-motivated, not unkind guy, but they don't cherish private fantasies of spending a wild weekend in motel with him. Whereas with picaresque characters like John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama they do, they do, they do. [Don't bother to deny it, Laid-ease. It's true -- certainly for most, if not specifically for you, personally.]

    Many facts of life are rather sad. Can't be helped. We're not what we like to think we are. If facts be faced, we're far more complex –– and nowhere near as nice.

    ~ FreeThinke

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  10. FT,
    He has everything going for him -- good looks, youthful vitality, a squeaky clean personal life, a beautiful wife and family who've met mighty challenges with aplomb, a proven track record in success in business and in governance –– in short he has everything BUT the ONE thing politicians need more than anything else in the Post-Kennedy-Nixon Debate Era.

    True -- to the shame of the future of our nation.

    Ronald Reagan had "it" too, but not the sociopathy to go along with his charisma.

    Is it really entirely the fault of the Laid-ease? I don't think so.

    But it IS the fault of the Cult of Personality. When did that come along in the United States as pertaining to elections? Probably with FDR -- although Teddy Roosevelt had "something" too.

    The damn television screen has been our undoing in so many ways; hence, the results of the 1960 election. Clearly, Nixon defeated JFK in the actual debate (Read the transcripts), but NOT in the visual medium.

    The Television Age has now expanded dramatically -- to the Internet Age. With an even greater attention deficit resulting in the NEUROLOGICAL deficit with regard to the ability to follow a complicated thread of argument.

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  11. I hope you send them a letter informing them of your experience. They need to figure out ass from elbow at an event like this, after all they're angling to run the nation, so they need to get small things like this right.

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