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John of Des Moines
09-06-2007, 03:36 PM
Fred was in town today to kick-off his presidential run. I got down to the Convention Center at about 1:30 for his 2 pm show. I wore a "NRA member and I vote" hat and an Alex Jones "Mass murders agree gun control works" t-shirt - got a lot of positive comments on the shirt. (I printed up 125 two sided fliers I pull off of the RP forums about Fred's anti-gun record.) The room was maybe 75 by 50 feet deep (to the podium). The podium area had fake Roman-like columns and two big ass tv's to the side of the podium. There were I guess about 150 people including press - a whole mess of them - 60 to 70 my guess. I saw Craig Robinson and crew-cut Chuck of the I-GOP and chatted with Craig. He agreed Freddy's crowd had nowhere the energy the RP supporters had. Saw state representative Horbach from Tama there as well. Nice guy who said he was just there checking out the candidates.

A lot of press working the crowd for interviews. Then on schedule they had some former Ms. Iowa sing the anthem and then had some guy talk about 3 to 4 minutes about how great Fred is. Then there was a 5 minute video of Fred's life. (I was brought to tears over it.) Then Fred came out - with trophy wife aholding a kid maybe 2 1/2 or 3 y.o. Do they have a kid. There were applause for 30 seconds or so (with some chanting "Run Fred Run") then Fred tried to work the front row people shaking their hands. I was recording it but then 7 or 8 minutes in to stump-them speech my camera died. I listened a bit more until he started talking about how he protected private property rights while in the Senate (ever hurl on an empty stomach?). There were polite applauses at the applause lines but nothing like what a RP rally is like.

So I wondered outside in the skywalk area dropping RP $20 bills about. Talked to some button and t-shirt sellers - they had to have taken a bath - two big poster boards full of Fred button and they maybe sold 3. Then I popped my head in just as Fred was ending his stump-them speech. About maybe 1 minute of applause and some run-f-run chanting.

People started heading out as Fred went to work the crowd, so I set myself at the bottom of the moving-stairs and started handing out the Fred T's anti-gun voting record flier. ("Find out about Fred's gun-rights record.") Most people took a flyer. Had two give them back to me - one lady who agreed Fred should be taking our guns, and some old guy who said "Nobody from the south votes to control guns" - but his friend kept the flier I gave to the friend. (Ignorance isn't bliss when somebody has a record of grabbing guns" I said as the pissed off old man walked away with his friend.) A lot of press people - including the Des Moines AP and the Register's D. Yepson, each got a copy. A couple of Fred's hired slugs asked who I was with "Nobody, I'm an American exercising my free speech rights." One reporter with a British accent (works for the Daily Standard? - it's something Standard) asked whose campaign I was with - "Nobody, I'm an American exercising my free speech rights" which made him smile. He went about it a different way - "Which of the candidates has the best record on gun-rights?" I couldn't help myself and said RP has never voted for gun control, never voted to raise taxes, yada, yada, yada. A second reporter was there an asked a couple of questions - they got my name and wrote down what my t-shirt said. At that point I ran out of fliers so I headed home. Walked by Fred's two motor coach buses (sorry no red truck). He had the two buses, semi-truck (I think to move the fake roman columns and tv screens) and a couple of SUVs.

One last thing while I was at the bottom of the moving stairs an older couple came down (took a flier) and she said, "That wouldn't have happened if they had some chairs and the air-conditioning on." I was clueless until a fire truck then a meat wagon showed up - some lady passed out from Fred's spell-binding speech. So Fred has the cash to rent two big buses (but not red ones) but couldn't afford to rent some chairs, have to a/c turned on and pass-out some burger, chips and a soda to his supporters. How quaint.

Elwar
09-06-2007, 03:43 PM
Great job. Sounds like a snoozer.

How can someone get excited about a whole lot of "more of the same"?

qednick
09-06-2007, 03:55 PM
Fred and guns??? Look here at the first reply...

http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum4/4614.html

Need some new faces on there to set the record straight.

billm317
09-06-2007, 04:03 PM
That was an awesome story, John!

Nash
09-06-2007, 04:07 PM
Thanks for the play by play John.

Bryan
09-06-2007, 04:13 PM
Thanks John. :)

Badger Paul
09-06-2007, 05:18 PM
Fred's opening night is a bomb. Yepsen already panned it and the bloggers are ripping him to shreds.

yoshimaroka
09-06-2007, 05:23 PM
Keep up the good fight, John!