Posted by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson

From Radio Iowa: The Blog by O. Kay Henderson

Thursday, September 18, 2008

McCain/Palin Rally in Cedar Rapids

I arrived on scene about an hour and a half before the event is to start.  The traffic along I-380 was starting to get dicey, folks waiting in line to enter the parking area and wait for a shuttle to the airplane hanger where the rally will take place.

The McCain campaign set up tables and erected a white tent outside the hanger and relegated local print and radio reporters like yours truly outside. This is my view of the stage.    

I stood along the barriers erected to separate the media area from the crowd and chatted with a few folks and it seems as if McCain is sort of superfluous today.  Bill & Bonnie Hammel of Dubuque are here.  “There’s a certain excitement here.  I think she’s revved up the Republicans and people are looking for change, but they want real change.  She’s the only outsider running and I might be so bold to say, the most experienced.  Most of our presidents were governors,” Bill Hammel said.  His wife, Bonnie, wouldn’t have been as excited about voting for McCain if Palin hadn’t been on the ticket.  “To me, she’s down home. I can related to her.  I’ve got five kids.  She has five kids….I think she can change, you know like everyone else has been in 20 years or more and she hasn’t.”

Bill Meek of Montezuma drove over to see Palin.  “That’s probably true of a lot of folks,” Meek said.  “McCain made an excellent choice.”

There was a bit of consternation among some Cedar Rapidians that McCain and Palin are just making a fly in, fly out visit and won’t be going to see the flood damage here.  Donna Martinson works in a building in downtown Cedar Rapids.  “They can only be in so many places.  It doesn’t matter to me that they didn’t tour,” Martinson said. She also was among the folks who Caucuses for McCain.  “I think it’s his time and he’s earned it,” she said.

Mickey Burgess of Springville told me Palin made the difference for her. “I’m hoping that they will do something different. They’re saying they’re going to, that they’re going to stir things up,” Burgess said of McCain/Palin.  “(My husband and I) think that these senators and congressmen should not have lifelong terms.  We think they should only be allowed to serve two terms like the president.”

I pointed out to her McCain has served more than eight years in the U.S. Senate. “But I just think that we need new blood.  Yes, he’s been in there a long time,” Burgess replied.  “But actually what me really look towards him was Sarah and I hope she can shake things up.”

Buel Smith of Farmington is far southern Iowa got up at 4:30 this morning to get to the rally. “We’re just hoping,” Smith said of the McCain/Palin ticket.

An invocation was given at 10:04 a.m.  Other items of regular business at these kinds of rallies were conducted.  A few local candidates were given time to speak to the crowd, as McCain and Palin aren’t here.  At 10:25 a.m., McCain’s Iowa campaign chairman, Dave Roederer, told the crowd the pair are 15 minutes away.

Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the Repubican running in the second congressional district, is talking now. At 10:45 a.m. the crowd was urged by Roederer to practice chanting, “We want John.  We want Sarah.”  The wind blew something over.  I don’t know what it was as I’m still outside.

The Top Gun soundtrack began playing just about the time McCain’s plane arrived.  Shortly after 11 o’clock (an hur late), McCain and Palin took the stage as the Garth Brooks song “Standing Outside the Fire” played and the crowd cheered.

“We want Sarah,” the crowd began chanting as Palin said, “Thank you,” to begin the rally.

“Thank you so much Iowa, it is so good to be in Grand Rapids,” Palin said.  OOOPS.  She’s in Cedar Rapids.  Palin mentioned Iowa’s new hockey team (it’s to play its games in Des Moines).  “I love that name.  The Chops.  That’s cool….You guys have your first game so perhaps I’ll get to come back and visit with some more hockey moms for McCain.”

A handful of young women have emerged, escorted by official looking folks; they’re apparently protestors.  “My body, my choice,” they’re chanting as surrounded by police and a couple of TV cameras.  “Go back to school,” a man in the back of the crowd yelled at the women.

Palin mentioned the flood about 12 minutes into her speech, saying she and McCain would visit some of the damaged neighborhoods.  “Congress has not done enough to help this region recover.  In a McCain/Palin administration, we will not forget,” Palin promised.

McCain starts speaking 18 minutes into the rally.  He begins by reminiscing about the State Fair. “I’m very grateful to be here.  We intend to campaign hard across the state of Iowa again…I think we’re going to be up late on Election Night, my friends, and we’re going to need your help.”

I look up, about five minutes into McCain’s address and see a steady stream of people walking out of the rally.  They just came to see Palin apparently.

At 11:38 a.m. a group of peace protetors starts, well, protesting.  They are esscorted out and the crowd boos them.  “All we are saying is give peace a chance,” one of them sings as he’s escorted out by the local press tent.

“The one thing that Americans want us to do is to stop yelling at each other,” McCain quipped, then resumed his speech and quickly wrapped it up.  Speeches by McCain/Palin lasted a little less than 35 minutes.

Posted on September 18th, 2008 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Uncategorized