erowe1
04-22-2010, 08:42 PM
I just got back from a 912 meeting where I went believing that I was going to be given a chance to stand up and talk about John Hostettler. A few things happened there worth sharing:
1) Before I did my thing, they did a straw poll and John came in second with 10.5 votes after Marlin who had 14.5 (the .5 was because someone marked both with a ? on the ballot), out of something like 35 votes cast. I considered that an encouraging result for this area (South Bend, far away from Hostettler's area, close to Stutzman's), especially since it wasn't reflective of any influence I had on the group.
2) In the middle of the meeting the lady who had asked me to share about Hostettler saw me from where she was sitting and leaned back and told me that they weren't going to do that part of the meeting anymore. That didn't stop me from standing up after the meeting's agenda had been completed and saying winsomely that I had come under the mistaken impression that I would be asked to speak about John Hostettler. I was going to offer my handouts to people, but before I got the sentence out, the MC asked me to come up and speak. It went great. I handed out copies of the NumbersUSA and the GOA articles, along with my 50 reasons to donate list, and I talked about how every Republican sounds the same when the Democrats are in charge, but that the test is what they'll do when the Republicans are in charge, and John is our only option who has already passed that test, and they ate it up. I got a couple signatures and gave out a couple yard signs, and I think just missed some others who were in a hurry to leave--so hopefully they reply to my email to the group asking for the people I missed to reply back to me.
3) One guy came up to me who had been to a town hall meeting John did in South Bend recently and told me about the moment in the meeting that town hall that won him over to John. It was when John's son Matt stood up from the back and told about how, when that authorization of force against Iraq vote came up, John wasn't just in a small minority in the GOP, he was in a small minority in the whole country, and he was even in a small minority in his own house. That story convinced this fellow that, when John knew what was right, there was no breaking him.
1) Before I did my thing, they did a straw poll and John came in second with 10.5 votes after Marlin who had 14.5 (the .5 was because someone marked both with a ? on the ballot), out of something like 35 votes cast. I considered that an encouraging result for this area (South Bend, far away from Hostettler's area, close to Stutzman's), especially since it wasn't reflective of any influence I had on the group.
2) In the middle of the meeting the lady who had asked me to share about Hostettler saw me from where she was sitting and leaned back and told me that they weren't going to do that part of the meeting anymore. That didn't stop me from standing up after the meeting's agenda had been completed and saying winsomely that I had come under the mistaken impression that I would be asked to speak about John Hostettler. I was going to offer my handouts to people, but before I got the sentence out, the MC asked me to come up and speak. It went great. I handed out copies of the NumbersUSA and the GOA articles, along with my 50 reasons to donate list, and I talked about how every Republican sounds the same when the Democrats are in charge, but that the test is what they'll do when the Republicans are in charge, and John is our only option who has already passed that test, and they ate it up. I got a couple signatures and gave out a couple yard signs, and I think just missed some others who were in a hurry to leave--so hopefully they reply to my email to the group asking for the people I missed to reply back to me.
3) One guy came up to me who had been to a town hall meeting John did in South Bend recently and told me about the moment in the meeting that town hall that won him over to John. It was when John's son Matt stood up from the back and told about how, when that authorization of force against Iraq vote came up, John wasn't just in a small minority in the GOP, he was in a small minority in the whole country, and he was even in a small minority in his own house. That story convinced this fellow that, when John knew what was right, there was no breaking him.