I took chance and drove down to the Westin Hotel in Seattle last night to see if I could get into the ballroom where Sen. McCain was delivering his Washington state address the night before today’s Washington caucuses. After hearing the horror stories of 17,000 ecstatic and tearful attendees earlier yesterday at the Obama rally in Seattle’s Key Arena, turning Obama supporters away at the door, I was surprised to find McCain’s rally only had about 500 attendees – and I easily found a place to stand about 20 feet from McCain’s podium. This was a small crowd of good, sensible, courteous people. They represented all age groups and vocations almost evenly, with a peppering of Navy vets, active military, Seattle businessmen, college students, and whole families. Although I never had the chance to speak with McCain – they rush him in and out pretty quickly – standing twenty feet from him showed me that he’s vibrant, healthy, full of energy and extremely sharp of mind. Age is not a factor here, no matter what anyone says. He was flanked by his Washington state supporters: Attorney General Rob McKenna, former Washington Governer Dan Evans, former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton, who was very old and rough – he made McCain look like an infant, and U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (former King Co. Sheriff). The one dignitary notably missing was Washington Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Dino Rossi; it would have been fitting and appropriate to see him there after Gov. Christine Gregoire endorsed Barack Obama earlier in the day.
After seeing McCain and his supporters in person, it’s now clear to me that there’s a divide so vast between the McCain and the Obama campaigns that it could never be reconciled: McCain’s following is of working people, feet firmly grounded, thinking, rational, aware, well-tuned to the reality of evil in the universe. Obama’s is truly a cult following, and an expansive one that wins Obama the popular election with little effort if the counter-effort fails to come out in force for McCain in November. Obama supporters look like some of the people we see everyday, but at Obama’s speeches around the nation, Seattle’s rally being no exception, the followers descend into an primal emotional trance of ecstasy and fainting. These rallies sound like charismatic revival meetings, with salvation and healings and Obama standing before them as the Christ-figure. Since we’re talking about a U.S. presidential candidate, and in fact, not the Messiah, this portrait should be repugnant to all Republicans and Democrats with a care for the future of our country. A word to voting Democrats: I would strongly urge that you consider the much more sensible Hillary Clinton if McCain doesn’t hold up your political values. It looks pretty plain to me: McCain = policy, thought and action; Obama = self-indulgence, emotion, and unspecified “change” – more bluntly, a gaggle of idiots.
Here’s the Seattle Times writeup on last night’s McCain event:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004173350_mccain09m.html
The psychiatrist (Dimitry Davydow) mentioned toward the end of the article was standing two feet from me as the Seattle Times spoke with him, and I heard his interview firsthand.
