I reported in an
earlier diary that the Vineyard Haven Public Library (on Martha's Vineyard, MA) would be hosting a debate-watching party, with an after-debate discussion to be led by the town moderator.
(Obligatory boast: this was organized by Dear Wife Betty.)
78 people showed up, slightly more than the legal occupancy of the room. Details inside.
I arrived at the library a few moments after the debate began, having picked up my 16 year old daughter from her driver's ed class on the other side of the island. And I left right after the debate to take her home, epecting the discussion to be going still when I got back to the library 15 minutes later.
As reported in that earlier diary, Martha's Vineyard is a place where, at least among year-round residents, Republicans are a distinct minority. My wife failed in several attempt to secure a representative of the party. So I fully expected it to be a pro-Kerry crowd. I did not have a sense, however, of how many Republicans would show up.
The audience was mostly quiet during the first forty five minutes or so. But then little cracks in the dam began to appear. It began when Bush, in his umpteenth "deer in the headlights" moment, fell back on his "cannot send mixed messages" refrain. Several people groaned, and one woman said, "oh, give it a rest!"
Kerry made a strong point or two and a few people murmurred "that's right!" or "yes!", but they were still trying to keep it quiet.
When Bush went into his "Missy" speech, peoples' jaws audibly dropped. "What is he saying?" people said. "This is unbelievable."
Bush said a few things that had people laughing out loud. People were not chatting amongst themselves, but after each Bush point more and more people were sighing, or laughing or groaning.
The loudest response came during Bush's summation. When he got to the point about the mountain top and the valley, there were hoots of derision from the entire room. People were laughing out loud. "Moses!" somebody called. "Save it for the rapture!" I found myself going into my impersonation of Martin Luther King jr. in Memphis,"I have been to the mountaintop. . ."
Daughter by this time was sound asleep on the floor. I woke her up so she wouldn't get trampled. People were starting to file out of the room.
Dear wife was about to turn the meeting over to the moderator when some joker from the democratic party jumped up and made an announcement about upcoming activities.
I am unhappy to report that he was rude and unprepared and kind of rambled on while blocking the doorway as my wife and the moderator looked on, waiting for him to shut up.
Anyway, on the way to the car I asked my daughter what she had thought of the debate-- the part she had seen before falling asleep.
She knows me of course, and what my opinions are, but I tried to not ask her a leading question. I used my most neutral tone of voice.
"Are you kidding?" she said. "Does that guy even have a brain? I mean seriously, is it possible to be President of the United States when you don't have a brain?"
"You mean Bush?"
"Duh. I actually felt bad for him. He was like a kid who is stupid and hasn't done his homework and the teacher has him stand in the front of the class and keeps asking him all these questions that he can't answer. He was so totally in over his head. It almost wasn't fair."
So I then gave myself permission to come out of impartial mode. I said that I might feel bad for Bush if he had just been dropped into the presidency. But he had been a bully his entire life, and had even used bullies on the Supreme Court to get himself into the White House. The reason he was grilled so hard was because of Iraq, and Iraq was nobody's fault but his own.
And then I said, the only honorable course for him to take was to do what Lyndon Johnson had done once he realized how badly he had messed up in Viet Nam: put the nation's interest ahead of his own and refuse to run, so that somebody else could try to fix it.
I told her about Lyndon Johnson and his mixed legacy (when I was 12 I stayed up half the night to watch the vote on the Voting Rights Act of 1965). Then I dropped her off and went back to the library. My entire round trip took about 15 minutes.
When I got back the "discussion" was already over. The same bozo from the Democratic Party was at the front of the room repeating his announcement, and everybody else was filing out of the room or chatting in small groups.
Evidently there was no discussion to be had. Nobody spoke up for Bush, and everybody else had seen enough and just wanted to go home.
I helped Betty clean up the room, and we came home.
One more note: Betty usually considers a turnout of 40 people for an evening library event to be a success. This was a runnaway success. Before I left to take Daughter home I did here Betty ask for a quick show of hands, "How many would like to do this for the second debate?". There was an enthusiastic cheer for a repeat.