Right Wing Nation

Make mental note: It is not a good idea to drive through Pittsburgh on a football game day.

I figured out how to get the pics on the computer, so here we go. Click the pic to get the big one.

First, it was hot, and the sun was brutal until about 5 o’clock. Hotter than we’ve grown accustomed to here, certainly, where it’s always at least breezy. But we got there well ahead of time.

It was poorly organized, in several different ways.

The first glitch we ran into was the tickets. There were a number of places around the state to pick up tickets, but none near us, so as instructed, I emailed the Pennsylvania campaign. I did get an almost immediate response, saying that there would be tickets for us there, and asking me how many I needed.

However, there were no tickets waiting for us. So we were shuttled to the “no ticket” line. As it happened, it didn’t make any difference whether you had a ticket or not, so while it was initially annoying, it wasn’t much of an issue.

The Russell Brigade were out in full force. Russell is trying to unseat Murtha, and we heard that he was raising more money than Murtha. They wore T-shirts with two boot soles that said, “Boots on the ground.”

There was a small group of Obama supporters there, or were before the line started moving. I don’t know what happened to them. By the time they started letting us in, there was no sign of them. They did not have giant puppet heads.

The only celebrity I met was Steve Ettien, a retired Marine who unsuccessfully ran against Jim Rigby in the next district.

The rally was at Consol Energy Park in Washington, the home stadium for the Washington Wild Things, a minor league baseball team. I’m not sure what they were thinking, but the layout was bizarre, and more than a little stupid. The stage was just in front of home base, facing the outfield, so all of us who were sitting in the bleachers were looking at everybody’s backs. They should have moved the stage out between the pitcher’s mound and second base, so people could have stood in front of the stage, and the speakers could have been facing everyone.

This was part of the problem with pictures. I had to sit there, waiting for somebody to turn around. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I got up to get something to drink at the concession stand. While I was outside, I decided to see what was available at the stands, so I missed the intro for the first performer. She’s a local, and she did a pretty good job, even if she did sing that Helen Reddy song I never wanted to hear again (though I suppose it was appropriate).

Next up was John Rich (you have to tell people that Walk the Line is a Johnny Cash song?) He also did Raisin McCain. The youtube video has been viral over the last week.

Then, there were a couple of local elected officials. I didn’t know who they were, because Washington County is 160 miles from here.

Next up, Diana Irey. I was still trying to figure out how to get the damned camera to focus, so all I got were a few out of focus shots of her butt (see above).

They were passing out signs, of course. They also passed out Terrible Towels, with McCain-Palin printed on them. Like I said, it was hot. People were wearing them on their heads.

Hey, look! It’s a tall black guy! Is that Obama?

Fooled ya! It’s Lynn Swann. Good speaker, he passed the Towel on to Tom Ridge (not a very good picture, but hey).

Oh, and for my commenter who whined about “diversity” yesterday, I snapped this.

Everybody came out of their seats for both Swann and Ridge.

Then, while he was speaking, here it comes into the field.

Sarah Palin working the crowd — and boy did they go nuts, too.

She had to stop speaking several times because the crowd was drowning her out with SA-RAH! SA-RAH! She’s a Steelers fan, so I suspect she explained the Terrible Towels to McCain and family.

I did manage to get her turned around.

After the rally, there was no traffic movement for a little over an hour. Some guy walked past my window and told me somebody had had a flat tire and that’s what was holding traffic up. However, as soon as it started, we got out pretty quickly.

Didn’t make great time there, or on the way back. You can’t, really. We took 22, because it’s about 45 miles closer than taking I-99 all the way down to Bedford and taking the Turnpike over. But 22 isn’t finished, so about half of it is two-lane, plus it was night.

Anyway, click on the pic below to see all of the rally pictures.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS