Green HS Hosts McCain / Palin 2008

• Author: Ben Keeler
• Filed under: McCain, Ohio 2008
• Date: Oct 23,2008

As mentioned, I attended the McCain / Palin rally yesterday at Green High School. The estimates I have seen say around 15,000 were there. It was more than a solid turnout for a chilly Wednesday afternoon. Just now I opened my "reporters notebook" to see what I wrote down from yesterday then I remembered I never even pretended to be working. So here is what I do remember.

Mary Taylor introduced the early speakers in her as role as unofficial MC for big state Republican events. Her being from Green probably didn't hurt either. Jim Laria, Greg Bachman, and Rob Portman were the three who talked. I was really impressed with Portman. Still glad he wasn't the VP pick, but he sounded good. I am not sure why Summit County candidates Laria and Bachman were given time to speak over Ohio House and the Congressional candidates. Maybe someone out there knows. Singer Lee Greenwood was there and sang a few songs, including his famous "God Bless the USA." We need to get an over / under on how many times he has performed that particular song since he first wrote it. Seriously it has be around 12,000. That Ohio flag they designed in the stands looked really awesome and made a great backdrop.

McCain / Palin were supposed to take the stage at around 3:30 and it ended up being around 4, which for a political rally is actually on time. It was the standard stump speech by both with the newer stuff added in. Sarah has gotten much better since I heard her in Youngstown in September. I would actually say McCain has too. I've heard this basic speech multiple times in person and about 1,297 times on TV or radio, so to me it wasn't a big deal. But the people there loved it. They went after Senator Government hard. Where this was up until about two weeks ago, I don't know. If every uncommitted voter in the country was there yesterday, McCain would win the election going away. Ohio.com filmed a video at the event; here it is.

I left a couple of minutes before I knew McCain was going to finish because I didn't want to get stuck in traffic since I had to get home for the World Series. Going to things like this really do boost your morale. It definitely gives you hope to see the base fired up and committed to the ticket. The base will be there. That I know. Hopefully it is enough. I've stated I think McCain can still win. Now we have a poll question to see if you agree.

I included some more pictures after the jump.

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