Some of you are probably sitting home this morning watching John McCain on "This Week". Stephanopolous and McCain are sitting at the Newseum doing a pretty straighforward interview. So what's wrong with this picture? I know! They're supposed to be sitting on the stage of the Great Southern Theater in Columbus, Ohio doing this show in front of a Town Hall. Except it got cancelled yesterday and nobody bothered to tell the audience.
The staff from "This Week" spent several days getting a group of independents together, even soliciting questions in advance from members of the audience. They were then invited to come to downtown Columbus so they could watch the show. So, all the people invited were told to get there early to get through security. They got to the Great Southern Theater at 7:30 on a Sunday morning to get through security, only to discover that the event had been cancelled on Saturday afternoon. The manager at the theater told my pal (who wrote a Social Security question) that the Secret Service pulled out yesterday. Except nobody told the guests about that. As histo's pal said "People were LIVID!"
Right now, McCain's on TV denying any responsibility for the way that House Republicans backed out of the bailout negotiations earlier this week He's humbly refusing to take any credit for a role in the whole debacle. As this airs, carloads of "LIVID" swing voters are making their way home from the theater. They were told that there would be another Town Hall at Capital University, maybe tomorrow, and that maybe Caribou Barbie would be there. Wooo!!!
I'm knocking on doors today for Obama. Believe you me, I'm going to be mentioning this one every chance I get. Ohio just got a preview of what a McCain administration would look like, which is a lot like a Bush administration treated the Buckeye State. We were stood up for the dance, and a whole lotta independent voters are going home wearing their wilted corsages, ready to tell their friends all about it. Way to go, Johnny!
Edited to add:
Holy crap! Recommended and I'm out the door and can't enjoy it property. I will update with more details as I get them, but I gotta get out and canvass for the dems. If you're in Ohio or any other state that's hanging in the balance, thanks for reading. Now- get your butt dressed and out the door to canvass!!! Fired up and ready to go!
PPS- Folks commenting found this link about email going out to attendees. However, my pal didn't get one and lots of other folks didn't either, since they showed up this morning. Now, I'm really checking out for the afternoon to canvass. Bye!
UPDATE:
OK, kids, I'm back. Apparently you enjoyed playing in the comments while I was gone, because my computer is gagging trying to reload them all. I finally caught up with my jilted pal this afternoon. When she got down to the theater this morning, the doors were just plain locked, with people rambling around looking well dressed and confused. She couldn't give me an estimate of how many (since it sounds like they were all walking around a big city block like extras from a zombie movie looking for brains).
To find out what had happened, she went into the adjacent hotel and quizzed the staff. The manager on duty told her that the event had been cancelled on Saturday when the Secret Service left. Apparently, they were holding the event site secure in case Grampy decided to come here after all. She didn't think to get a picture and wishes she had. Our theory is that the McCain local supporters might have gotten an email, but that the ones that were identified by This Week didn't. Neither did the walk-ins who had hoped to get seated.
On the canvassing front: I knocked on 65 doors, talked to 17 people, and registered a 48 year old man to vote for the first time ever. The kicker? He works for Chase Bank! I guess he finally got scared.