Conservativa

There were Obama protesters at the Monday Palin rally, and here is their photo. The sign the guy is carrying says “Joe Six-Pack for Obama-Biden.” Yeah right. More like Joe [Obama] Intern or Paid Campaign Staff. The girl in the middle waved her hand and said, “Don’t take my picture! It’s illegal!” Yeah right, maybe under an Obama administration… not here and now.

Former AG Jerry Kilgore was happy to have Gov. Palin visit Virginia. Kilgore serves as the McCain campaign’s Virginia co-chair.

Former Gov., now Senate candidate, Jim Gilmore, spoke to the enthusiastic crowd.

A sign says, “You Bet’Cha.” I guess this is the obligatory shoe photo as well.

There were many red shirts, showing a wish to “keep Virginia red” in November.

J.R. and Danae from Bearing Drift are live-blogging the McCain Palin Rally now. Go on over and join in on the comments.

I will be at the Palin rally in Richmond later today. Will do a little live-blogging, but will be concentrating on getting photos.

At the McCain rally in Richmond on Sun. Oct. 5, 2008, a young man holds up a sign with my kind of electoral math:

“Palin > Biden”.

A recent Ellen Goodman article on the VP debate had this:

“In the end, Biden was able to run against McCain, while Palin had to run against her own image.”

This should be nominated for one of the most dishonest things said this campaign season, and that’s going some. Why? The words, “had to.” The truth here looks more like this: The MSM, seeing someone who was conservative, accomplished (a governor, with an 80% approval rating in her state) and very appealing to the people in flyover country, dusted off some of their favorite Reagan-era scare words and drafted the memo (”Do a cut-and-paste - remove ‘actor’ and put ‘hockey mom’ or ‘former beauty queen’ or ’small-town mayor’). With a fortifying vitamin shot of disdain and vitriol from the 60’s-era feminists who infest the editorial boards of “women’s magazines,” including those magazines’ cousins on TV, the “image” was quickly thrown up, and the narrative was launched: “Caribou Barbie will have to struggle to convince us (and by ‘us,’ we mean the opinion-makers who matter, not you rubes who don’t work in the entertainment and news businesses)  that she is a serious person.”

This, of course, was a set-up. “Here’s what she must do (according to us)…” and, a few hours later, “She failed!”

And said opinion-makers still don’t get that the game is up. We’re tired of their condescension. We will show that at the ballot box. That will give them another recycling opportunity (”how could this happen? It must have been voter fraud! I don’t know _anyone_ who voted for Bush^^^^McCain!”)

A rally for McCain/Palin was called on short notice for Sunday, Oct. 5. Over 100 people came, some still dressed nicely from church.

Top photo: Paul Galanti, not happy with Senator Obama’s radical past.

Middle photo: Plenty of young people came out to the rally.

Bottom photo: The campaign is tossing out a few McCain shirts to the crowd.

Everyone’s linking to this, and I am too. Please watch this video, “Dear Mr. Obama” and stay for the whole thing. Two minutes, well worth it.

(OODA loop info here). Well, maybe not yet - McCain hasn’t forced Obama into a mistake… but he has derailed the non-stop post-coronation chatter.

Right Wing Liberal and Right Side Of My Brain note that the AP is saying that the McCain campaign is asking for more info on Cantor - they are vetting him. Please, oh please, let’s have a McCain-Cantor / Obama-Kaine fight in November.

Sunday Times-Dispatch story here. Shaun Kenney weighs in.

There’s an article by Bob Rayner in today’s Times-Dispatch suggesting that Congressman Eric Cantor would be a great VP pick for McCain. Don’t I wish! Cantor would be an excellent choice - young, conservative, anti-earmarks, strong on defense, etc. etc. etc. A number of us in his district have said to one another, “Wouldn’t he be a great choice?!” But, as the column says, many also think he eventually would like to be Speaker of the House, so would not especially encourage VP talk.

But, we can dream…

(Yes, I know the Cantor typeface doesn’t match. This was the best I could come up with in 1/2 hour).

At the YRFV convention this weekend, Delegate Chris Saxman spoke first on the Delegate/Senator roundtable. Afterwards the Times-Dispatch reporter who was there asked him to do an interview, and these pictures are from that. Note from the Times-Dispatch interview: the reporter asked Saxman about the Iraq war (as if it were up to a state delegate to decide)… Saxman answered well though, along the lines of “We didn’t ask for this war,” but we know that it must be fought.

Then over lunch, Saxman, who serves as John McCain’s Virginia campaign co-chairman, spoke for the McCain campaign. He is genuinely inspired by McCain. Saxman said one of his sons asked him, “Why do you support McCain?” and he answered, “Because he inspires me to serve others.” I think as early as a year ago Saxman must have been leaning McCain, since in a campaign email he sent a reference to an excellent Financial Times article by McCain, from April 2007.

Saxman appreciates that McCain will take an unpopular stand if need be. For instance, “He had the guts to go to Iowa and say that ethanol subsidies are wrong.” Besides, if McCain says something unpopular, “For five and a half years he was beaten every day,” as a prisoner of war, so he’s hardly likely to be bothered by a hostile op-ed. Saxman also took a moment to contrast that with Obama’s oh-so-courageous “present” votes as a state senator in Illinois.

Saxman said, “I will be proud not only to be a Republican when John McCain is president, but I’ll be proud to be an American.” I suspect that would be true in any case.

Photo notes:

Photo 1: Nikon D40, 85mm, ISO 800, 1/100 at f/4.5

Photo 2: Nikon D40, 55mm, ISO 800, 1/100 at f/5.6