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What It's Really Like At A John McCain "Town Hall Meeting"
Posted by Pile
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[Activists] |
| From DailyKOS comes, "Yesterday, I drove to New Jersey, quietly stood on line which ushered me into the Community College Auditorium in Pemberton, picked a good spot on the third level of benches, pretended to clap and applaud when John McCain said stupid things which I didn't agree with, all with the hopes of being called on by one of the McCain staffers holding a microphone. I was oh so close. I was next on the other side of the auditorium when McCain abruptly ended the supposedly open town hall where he allegedly takes tough questions after 1 questioner, who only got called on because his nine year old kid was next to him, asked McCain about Bin Laden." |
McCain's so called town halls are actually rallies hosted by the local Republican Party. The host, Chris Myers, identified himself as a local leader and claimed that New Jersey is going to go red because of the 2000 people in the gym. (About 1% of us were Obama supporters, someone held a sign up at the end, no one interrupted McCain's speech.) However if McCain can't fill a small gym in his only trip to New Jersey this month, his candidacy is in trouble.
The seating was staged. There were about 20 people with Veteran's hats and all were seated directly in line with McCain's podium in the front and back. Your cameras from home would make it appear that half the people there were veterans. In reality it was about 1%. Mixed into the Veterans was one angry woman who had a sign claiming she was a Hillary supporter voting McCain. This one sign was placed directly in the spot where the cameras were most likely to pick it up. She was planted there. It also appears that there was one singular woman who pulled the same stunt Thursday night at the so called Fox News McCain town hall meeting in New York. These people aren't real Clinton supporters, this too is staged.
The event began with the Pledge of Allegiance and an invocation. In a multicultural country, an invocation is kind of creepy. The latter is not exactly inclusive but it appeared that all cameras were directed off during the invocation so that this non inclusive invocation could not be shown.
Then, all the local politicians getting stage time, including the Congressman in the area, and the Jersey candidates for the House and Senate. Dick Zimmer, the former Congressman running against Frank Lautenberg, was received tepidly by what should have been a friendly crowd. People in Jersey know what a nasty louse Dick Zimmer truly is.
Then Joe Lieberman took the stage claiming he was a Democrat supporting John McCain while taking pot shots at Obama in vague terms. Joe is no Democrat. Then it was Tom Kean, the whitewasher of the 9/11 committee, trying to give McCain credit for the commission which McCain and Republicans have sandbagged the American people with. Then John McCain took the stage.
McCain spoke for about thirty minutes. He praised people. It was hysterical when McCain praised Lieberman as helping him win New Hampshire. Lieberman started smirking, lifting his head smugly, while bearing a Cheshire cat grin as if Lieberman was somehow important and relevant. Smugness and Vanity would be understatements. Joe Lieberman and John McCain have been big reasons why Washington has failed the American people for the past 30 years so the more irrelevant they are, the better off the American people are.
McCain fumbled through his sound bites all while claiming that people are tired of sound bites. McCain used harsh and partisan rhetoric all while claiming that this needs to change. Large sections of McCain's audience booed when McCain was misrepresenting Obama's position but McCain of course calls for civil dialogue while never denouncing the uncivil nature of his supporters. Shockingly he claimed he did not know what climate change was in 2000 but has since read up on it. He foolishly claims that Iraq is the central focus on the War on Terror merely because David Petraeus says so. McCain said that the Obama camp is going to try and claim that he is for privatizing Social Security and that this is untrue. He then claimed he was against privatizing Social Security while in the very next sentence, proposing a policy that was, in effect, privatizing Social Security. Now there's video showing McCain supporting the privatization of Social Security in 2004 despite McCain saying that he's never supported it. McCain lies at the drop of a hat. It's obvious to most people. This was one of McCain's big gaffes today.
McCain also doesn't understand habeas corpus. He claimed the recent 5-4 decision on detainees was perhaps the worst in history because they are "enemy combatants." John McCain doesn't understand that many of the people in Guantanamo are at best "accused enemy combatants." He also seem confused between habeas corpus and tort remedies. But under this McCain Doctrine, any person in the world could be thrown in prison by John McCain merely because John McCain labels him a terrorist. There are some nefarious names throughout history that held the same view.
It was laughable when McCain tried to talk about education. He was ill informed and elitist. First it was the usual gobbly-gook about private schools and school choice, which of course isn't school choice at all. Then McCain had the audacity to equate him and Cindy sending their kids to super rich, super well funded private schools as if everybody would have access to this. It was bizarre.
McCain has his usual sound bites and the event was craftily staged. Approximately 200 people were hand selected ahead of time to be in a separate VIP area behind McCain and in front of McCain. This was a campaign rally not a town hall meeting and this needs to be emphasized.
Next came the questions and answers. McCain had said how much he loves to do town hall meetings because he likes to answer tough questions. But almost every questioner was picked out ahead of time or was about to be chosen because of a video image or the person appeared to be a rock solid Republican during McCain's speech. (That was me. I had on a suit and a lapel pin. Even Holy Joe couldn't recognize me.)
The questions and answers were not chosen among random people. 5 of the 7 questioners came from the VIP section including a woman in a wheelchair who was placed there ahead of time by a senior McCain staffer and then pointed to for a question even though she never raised her hand. They were plants. A couple of them were reading from index cards. A sixth questioner was also a plant in the bleachers about 40 feet to my right. He was a local Republican mayor whom the locals were familiar with.
The 7th questioner was only the 2nd person from outside the VIP section. There were 3 spotters walking around with microphones looking for apparent Republicans in the audience. The first spotter found the Republican mayor, the 2nd spotter found the 7th questioner, the third spotter was standing next to me as I was going to be questioner number eight. (I clapped at the right times, was dressed well, had the flag lapel pin on.)
The 7th questioner was chosen because McCain thought a 9 year old child was going to ask the question. But the father took the mike, told how his wife and child flew out of Newark on 9/11 and that could have been them. He then asked a very simple question, "Why haven't we gotten Bin Laden?
A bunch of Obama people and others cheered. (I refrained, I was to be the next question.) McCain got pissed, started rambling about the Diamondbacks and Yankees and Rudy Giuliani on a screen, said as President Bin Laden would be caught (Guess this means Bin Laden is still safe for another few months) and people were laughing that McCain wasn't answering the question.
You could see the veins in McCain starting to burst, he got very uncomfortable that his scripted rally just got derailed by this gentleman and then he ended the rally by thanking everyone and saying God Bless America.
Again, this was not a town hall meeting. If McCain wants tough questions he can come to Netroots Nation and be asked tough but fair questions for an hour.
I was disappointed I couldn't ask my two questions because I know I can inform people more about John MCCain in 10 minutes than the national media has in 10 years.
As for the questions I had, there were as follows:
1. Senator McCain, you say we won't leave Iraq until we "achieve victory." Define the criteria of "achieving victory."
2. Senator McCain, you voted with George W Bush 100% of the time in 2008 and your senior advisor Lindsay Graham says that you are an extension and enhancement of George W Bush. Is there anything that you today disagree with policy wise from George W Bush? If so, name 3 specifics.
If given the chance to ask these questions, McCain would have avoided them or stumbled. At the so called "Straight Talk Town Hall Meeting" there was little straight talk and certainly no town hall meeting. And in addition to the McCain gaffes for the day, the fact that Mccain's town halls are really staged rallies with plants in the audience is the real story if anybody in the national media would like to report on it. |
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