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News & ArtsThursday, October 30, 2008
2008 McCain Campaign Ejects Young Republicans from Rally
Posted by Anthony Hecht on Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 5:03 PM
Audience members escorted out of Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., campaign event in Cedar Falls questioned why they were asked to leave Sunday’s rally even though they were not protesting....Lara Elborno, a student at the University of Iowa, said she was approached by a police officer and a McCain staffer and was told she had to leave or she would be arrested for trespassing.
“It was a very confusing, very frustrating situation,” Elborno said. “I said that I had a right to be there, I wasn’t doing anything disruptive — I was sitting, waiting for the rally to start.”
...“I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said. “They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked.”
Way to protect our freedom, there, Johnny Mac.
via Atrios
3
while i find the actions of of the Mccain campaign another appalling bush'esque assault on civil discourse It's funny to see it happen to somebody who would have voted for a candidate knowing that they supported such crap.
4
I hate to admit it, but the McCain camp was right. They were acting very suspiciously. Who would willingly go to a McCain campaign rally?
5
I think the Stones said it best when they said, "You can't always get what you want; but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need."
8
Would they throw these guys out?
http://movered.org/
"MoveRed.org is the youth coalition (ages 16-28) of the King County Republican Party. We are a group of students and young professionals with a common belief in limited government, family values and personal responsibility. We exist to promote increased Republican activism among a younger segment of the population that is often left out of the political process. Republicans in King County have been silent too long. It's time for a (R)esurgence led by young people with strong convictions and values; youth who bring commonsense solutions to problems created by the King County establishment."
9
"Elborno said while she has protested at events before, no plans were discussed beforehand for a protest and she shouldn’t have been taken out because she was not causing a disturbance."
I call BS. She was a protester who got caught. Maybe she'll hide her tie-die and International ANSWER poster under business attire next time.
Hippie.
12
Is it just me, or does she look slightly Persian? Maybe... That had something to do with it? McCain was worried about who she pals around with...
15
"movered.org"
Only irony-challenged and historically blinkered republicans, after thawing out the bogeyman of revolutionary leftism in this campaign, could fail to grasp the significance of their own color of choice--RED: The modern hue of Communism and Socialism since 1907.
17
Mr. Cogswell, I cannot address the quantitative issue of recreational pasts, but you are correct:
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/1976.png
19
As for the girl who voted McCain before getting thrown out of the rally-- she can take solace that Iowa will go for Obama anyway; and in all future elections, the Democrats will have converted another young voter and some of her friends too. All that will be left for the GOP will be suckers like Bailo.
20
When they came for the young republicans, I said nothing....
because they deserved it. Let them eat their young.
22
No one was dressed in Satanic gowns, so the twisted murderers grew impatient and decided to throw the children out in the cold.
23
The staffers obviously called BS on a genuine supporter of McCain wearing the hipster headband she's sporting.
25
i don't like her tactics. maybe mccain shouldn't have thrown her out. but she wasn't a mccain supporter removed solely for her appearance. she was a known disruptive protester and she had a poster at the time... to believe (or only retell) her version of the events is too one-sided to be fair journalism.
26
why this rubs me the wrong way is this:
to believe mccain is anti-free speech or removes people solely based on their appearance is the equivalent of saying obama refuses to say the pledge, or won't wear a flag pin because he's unpatriotic.
27
@18 for the win. @26 for the Epic Fail.
Remember, if you hate America, Paraguay doesn't extradite war criminals, so pack well, Socialist Republicans!
28
epic fail?!?! at least i'm failing with style!
but i'm not sure it really qualifies.
to further back this up, drudge's take on the dallas morning news getting kicked off obama's plane is a similar example. to hear drudge (or elborno) tell the tale is clearly a one-sided view meant to manipulate the sensibilities of that side.
no obama supporters really think obama doesn't say the pledge just because he was photographed once without his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance. and we deride the repubs as ignorant for believing it.
in the same way, no mccain supporters really think the repub camp is booting young people for no cause other than how they look, or that this is even a first amendment issue. to make it an issue avoids better real issues, and even avoids better fake issues.
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