A McCain Town Hall Meeting

A Ron Paul Supporter’s Reaction to a McCain Town Hall Meeting

I went to a John McCain “town hall” meeting a couple of days ago. I had never seen the venerable Senator in person before, and I admit my political experience is rather limited – I’ve only been to Ron Paul rallies. So I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The doors were supposed to open at 9 am, so I arrived around 8:40. I was surprised to see how many people had showed up. I was kind of expecting only a handful of people, but the line at the door ran down the sidewalk and around the building.

My second surprise was the level of security. I’d never had to go through any kind of security to see Dr. Paul. But, outside of the Boys and Girls Club where the “town hall” meeting was scheduled, there were all kind of police vehicles. They even had a bomb squad, complete with mobile sapper unit and a bomb sniffing dog (of course, when I saw the dog, all he was sniffing was the grass). There were more police inside, and some self appointed “security”. A man who I know from local politics as a retired Marine and former Duncan Hunter supporter had posted himself at the doors and was scrutinizing everyone coming in. He stopped me and my companion and insisted we open our coats – I guess to make sure were weren’t suicide bombers, with explosive belts. Next we had to go through a doorway where some other woman (again, retired military) demanded to see inside my purse. We continued on through the line, and then I realized that the real security hadn’t even started yet. I still had to go through a metal detector and have my bag dug through (very thoroughly!) by a police officer.

That left a nasty taste in my mouth. I hate going through security at airports or anywhere else. It’s always degrading, always embarrassing, and always scares me just a little. I’ve read too many stories about Nazi Germany to not be scared by “security checks”. They make me feel very insecure.

The meeting was set up in a gym. A curtain made the gym about half its size, and a couple of huge U.S. flags were on display. Kids from local schools were being bussed in and given McCain signs to wave. I saw a local news camera zoom in on a crowd of kids with signs, who screamed and waved for the cameras. Everyone else in the gym sat quietly watching.

We waited and waited, listening to the boring elevator music piped into the gym and watching McCain staffers bustling about, looking like they felt very important. One man in particular who looked very bustling and important strode about the gym with a hassled look on his face, except when he unbent to flatter a local politician or other VIP.

I won’t bore you with details about the local politicians who stood up and spoke. Suffice it to say that it was very boring, and extremely unprofound. After an Assemblyman got the crowd a bit pumped up, we all expected McCain to appear . . . but he didn’t, so they put “Grand Old Flag” on the overhead to keep us happy. But McCain still didn’t show up, so they played Sousa for about ten minutes.

Of course, McCain did arrive finally, around 11 am. He stood on the stage looking uncomfortable while Senator Lindsey Graham and the aforementioned Assemblyman said nice things about him. Lindsey Graham made the mistake of mispronouncing “Nevada”, and got corrected by a loud majority of the crowd. I blame local staffers for that one. Graham also - incredibly! – said McCain was the most prepared candidate to be commander-in-chief since Eisenhower.

Another local staffer faux-pas: McCain thought the Reno mayor was in attendance, when in fact it was the Sparks mayor. McCain didn’t know the Sparks mayor’s name, so he asked him, and then got it wrong . . . it was embarrassing for all concerned.

McCain didn’t say anything surprising. He talked about the war, and the war, and more about the war, with a few other subjects sprinkled in. The crowd was friendly for him; mostly neo-cons and military veterans. The difference between a McCain rally and a Ron Paul rally that stood out most to me was the lack of enthusiasm. Ron Paul rallies are so full of passion and excitement. The crowds are rowdy and noisy and happy, with emotion overflowing because freedom is bright and wonderful and uplifting. When Ron Paul speaks, people feel freedom; they breathe it and taste it, and its so exhilarating that people have to jump up and scream. That feeling is so strong at a Ron Paul rally; the air tingles with it, and no one in the room is immune to that electricity.

At McCain’s rally, I felt . . . nothing. Most of the crowd responses were polite; a few were slightly excited. When McCain finished with a rousing “Thank you, my friends!” everyone clapped for a moment or two; as a friend described it, like clapping after a free concert in the park. Then everyone quietly milled out. A little knot of people formed around McCain; so different from when the entire crowd lines up to shake Ron Paul’s hand. There was no emotion, not much enthusiasm, and people just . . . left.

And that was it. I think that hammering noise you hear is the sound of nails going into the GOP’s coffin . . . or maybe into the USA’s.