Newspaper publishes a bouncy.....

[lastparker]

This gets zero bongs... I know because I was there.

Published on HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com (http://hamptonroads.com)
Outside the McCain-Palin rally, partisan sideshows dominate

VIRGINIA BEACH

All that was missing outside the John McCain-Sarah Palin rally Monday was the cotton candy and peanuts.

There were clowns, horses (carrying police) and, of course, elephants. There was music - a local barbershop quartet, N'Tune, that entertained the mile-long line of attendees as they waited to enter the Virginia Beach Convention Center. There were thousands of supporters dressed in red: T-shirts, buttons, hats or all of the above.

And there was fire, too - in the hearts of a few dozen protesters and many of their targets.

Indeed, one of the most entertaining aspects of the day was watching adults with opposing viewpoints act like children.

"Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you double! Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you double!" Randall Terry of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue yelled through a bullhorn at Obama supporters. "Obama supports the killing of babies!"

A line of about a dozen mostly black members of the United Steelworkers union stood out. They held signs and sung chants ranging from "Vote Obama!" to the more creative "I don't know what you've been told/We are going to the polls!" and "No more lies and no more greed/A president is what we need!"

The steelworkers were either vocal or antagonizing, depending, of course, on whom you asked.

As one black man walked past them to enter the rally - you could count the people of color going in on one hand - one of the protesters said to him, "It's OK!" He shrugged sheepishly.

Most people ignored the dissenters, but others yelled back.

A few made it clear that the protesters were unwelcome.

One woman spat at them, said Marilyn Brown, the voice behind the steelworkers' bullhorn, and someone else said, "No half-breeds."

Nearby, another protester with a bullhorn calmly read a treatise about the supposed evils of Sarah Palin's church. Add to all that the people passing out stickers and buttons and the harmonies of the barbershop quartet and you had a whole lot to take in.

Some Palin supporters reveled in the chance to finally see the popular vice presidential candidate in person.

Ruth Reiter of the Eastern Shore wore a blue pant suit, a red scarf with white stars and a T-shirt that echoed the Alaska governor's famous quote, "The difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick."

"She's a fresh face in Washington," said Phil Wignall, of Newport News, whose wife, daughter and nephew joined him in wearing red. "She has a lot of conservative values. She hunts. She fishes. She does it all."

Others just watched. A safe distance from the drama, Matt Yeargin of York County and Carol Summerlin of Portsmouth sat on a bench, taking in the scene. They were wearing Obama T-shirts. A woman on a bench across from them in a camouflage McCain-Palin hat, who did not want to give her name, struck up a conversation.

"You're Obama supporters? You know he's a Communist," she said.

"No, he's not," Summerlin said. "You've been given some misleading information."

"Yes, he is," the lady said.

"No, that's not true," said Summerlin.

"Yes it is."

Yeargin changed the subject. The woman had a foot-powered scooter next to her. "Did you ride that all the way over here?" he asked.

The most eye-catching partisan was "Miss America" (otherwise known as Lisa Hussein Petry of Virginia Beach).

Like everyone else, she arrived hours early to rattle off facts, figures and her view of the truth. More interesting than her politics was her get-up: a black gown, an ivory faux-fur jacket, a glittery pink sash across her chest, and a foam crown labeled "PEACE." Her pink posterboard declared, "Diplomacy is not surrender."

Why was she dressed like this?

"Because I'm Miss America," she said.

Not missing a beat, she turned back to her job.

"The president lied about Iraq! Where are our outraged Americans?"

A man walked by her and asked her why she didn't shut the you-know-what up. Miss America said exactly the same thing back to him.

As she reminded someone else, she still has the freedom of speech.

Pilot writer John Warren contributed to this report.

Malcolm Venable, (757) 446-2662, malcolm.venable@pilotonline.com

Complete load of crap.

http://hamptonroads.com/print/484033