The LATimes on Tampa’s “Faith & Freedom Coalition” rally:
TAMPA, Fla. — About 1,000 Christian conservatives rallied against President Obama and for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in a sometimes-fiery gathering at a downtown theater Sunday afternoon.
Speakers at the Faith & Freedom Coalition gathering blamed Obama for a series of woes, including high unemployment, the rise of Islamic radicals and America’s purported moral decay…
Gingrich stirred the crowd, as did organizer Ralph Reed, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, U.S. Senate candidate Red Cruz of Texas and a trio of Christian-oriented musical acts.
Though the oncoming Tropical Storm Isaac had not yet brought heavy weather, about half of the balcony in the 1,400-seat theater remained empty through the two-hour event. A demonstration by several liberal activists briefly interrupted the program before police hustled the interlopers out of the historic Tampa Theatre.
Still, Reed — the onetime Christian Coalition leader — predicted that a newly invigorated Christian activist community would carry Romney to victory in November…
“If we have to, we will crawl across broken glass, but we are coming and when we come we are going to have the biggest victory we have had for time-honored values in the history of this country,” Reed said. “That’s what’s getting ready to happen.”…
__
Meanwile, up the Mensa scale and down the media feeding chain, Dave Weigel files his preliminary reports on “Ron Paul’s ‘We Are the Future’ Rally“:
TAMPA — He lost the Ames straw poll by a whisker, he peaked too early in Iowa’s caucuses, he missed the big headlines by not winning Maine’s preference poll. Finally, today, Ron Paul came into some luck. The threat of Hurricane Isaac was scrapping the first day of the Republican National Convention. Reporters who had planned to preview day one were screwed. Editors suddenly remembered that Ron Paul was supposed to do something or other. And off they went to the Sun Dome, the arena at Southern Florida University, where 7000-odd people would join the “We Are the Future Rally.”
It was Paul’s second attempt at an “alternative convention.” In 2008, he brought supporters to Minneapolis for the “Rally for the Republic.” Tucker Carlson, in his pre-Daily Caller says, emceed the proceedings. I should say: He emceed them until Jesse Ventura spoke and started talking about 9/11, which scared Carlson (and Willie Geist) the hell out of there. Gary Johnson spoke at that rally, when he was a retired politician. Now that he was a Libertarian presidential candidate, he was absent. This was a Ron Paul show, a kind of tribute, and the candidate would use it to say all the things people never let him say. “I don’t do it out of sacrifice,” said the candidate. “I do it out of self-interest. I do it because it’s good for me.”…
Links to other un-conventional takes on the convention would be much appreciated — leave me a comment!
amk
red cruz?
fundies ‘crawl across broken glass’ to vote for mormon mitt. I would love to see some pics.
Yutsano
@amk: I want to see the whiplash statistics from all the good Baptist preachers telling their good flocks it’s okay to vote for a cultist they’ve been preaching sheer hatred about for decades.
Some Loser
What is it about this racist dumbfuck that enamors people so? Anyone with half a brain should be able to tell he just another Republican with a hard on for Ayn Rand. He seriously pisses me off more than Romney or any other Republican because people who are on my side wants to give this piece of shit some respect.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Obvious typo. That should just say “7000 odd people.”
Redshift
Um, where, exactly? Afghanistan? No, wait, that was St. Ronnie. Al-Qaeda? Hmmm.
I’m guessing this is related to Romney talking about the “problem” of the Arab Spring on his foreign trip.
Lancelot Link
They’re blaming Obama for America’s moral decay, with Newt Gingrich on the stage.
How does that work?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I’m just going to keep watching this over and over until it comes true.
Yutsano
@Lancelot Link: Didn’t you hear. Newt sucked the dick of Jeebus and therefore all is forgiven. I just love how he is still totes down with the fundies despite also sucking the tits of the Whore of Babylon. Which makes Newton Leroy the biggest hoor of all.
Redshift
No mention of “Ralph Reed, disgraced former lobbyist.” Appalling.
JGabriel
__
__
So HuffPo has this photo of Romney/Ryan buttons featuring the slogan “America’s Comeback Team” which raises the question:
How can they come back when they’ve never been there?
I swear to god, they’re just pulling slogans from old movie motifs without any regard for lexical meaning whatsoever.
Edited To Add: It’s almost like they don’t give a shit what words mean.
.
stibbert
it’s hard to beat the tweet from @RexHuppke featured on the GOS a coupla’ days ago: “Wow. The Republican Party can’t even attract a female hurricane.”
Calouste
So there’s a 76 year old leading a “We are the future” rally…
SiubhanDuinne
That’s really sloppy. It is the University of South Florida, dammit. There is no such thing as “Southern Florida University.” (There is “Florida Southern College,” in Lakeland, but that’s a whole different thing.)
/USF alumna
Kristine
@SiubhanDuinne:
Hey, me too!
And yes, agreed. Sloppy.
Dennis SGMM
AKA enough to get Mitt to change his policy on something.
Sly
I hear crawling over broken glass is second only to “humping in corporate accounts” when you’re a Fraud for Christ.
Older_Wiser
Did they sell $25 Brawndo drinks to those 7000 odd people? A toll booth at the toilets?
Were there any darkly swarthy Jesus look-a-likes at the “christian conservatives” gig? What, you say, no Jews?
SiubhanDuinne
@Kristine:
I knew I couldn’t be the only Bull around here :-)
arguingwithsignposts
@SiubhanDuinne: All those weathervane schools look alike. /snark
1badbaba3
@Older_Wiser: Whaaaat? Sheldon and bitch-face Cantor no esta en casa? Oh, say it ain’t so Joe (Lieberman-douche, not “the not-so-plumber”)!
Cassidy
@Some Loser: Ryan? He has abs. Republican’s lurve them some boy abs.
@SiubhanDuinne: @Kristine: Been a lot of Florida people on here lately. Starting to wonder if we shouldn’t have a Florida gathering. I’m in Jax.
WereBear
@MoeLarryAndJesus: Beat me to it!
I’ve concluded that the Suck Up Gene is strong among the R’s. Romney has money, let me suck up to him.
It’s primitive magical thinking, really. Has nothing to do with the frontal lobes.
Bruce S
Wow – Chris Matthews of all people unloaded on Reince Prebus- or whatever the fuck that little reptile’s name is – calling Romney out for the birther comment, the welfare and food stamp dog whistling – and Prebus doubled down by calling Obama’s ideas “foreign” (yeah – the Heritage Foundation, Romneycare health insurance plan – “foriegn”.) At which point Matthews nailed the little prick’s ass to the wall, invoking Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and Harry Truman as advocates of universal health care. Prebus was reduced to sputtering – and the Morning Joe cast displayed their penchant for favoring phony camaraderie over honest political debate or calling lying, racist filth for what it is, acting like Matthews had stepped over some line by not treating calculated dishonesty with a polite nod.
Not a fan of Matthews, but it was a great moment of television – and the location audience was applauding Chris!
Kristine
@Cassidy: I no longer live in Florida. Illinois, for the time being.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@JGabriel:
I seem to recall Clinton dubbing himself “The Comeback Kid” when he won some significant primary (NH?) back in 1992.
As with all else Romney, an appropriated trope that probably focus-grouped well.
I’m tempted to call R-squared the first Mashup Ticket, but that would give them an air of hipness they don’t deserve.
Gravie
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for the correction about USF — I am also an alumna and was going to comment, but you beat me to it.
Gravie
@WereBear: Yes, I have a 64-year-old FB acquaintance who proudly stated yesterday that he is “working hard to become part of the 1%” so he supports Romney, a comment so pathetically naive that I didn’t have the heart to call him on it.
Arky67
Sounds like a hellish place to be.
karen
Does this make the Ron Paulites and others like him the new PUMA?