Report from the first presidential debate
I just got back from Oxford, Mississippi a few hours ago. I had a great couple of days there, and even got to spend some time in Memphis. I set up a FreedomWorks booth on campus at The Grove, and handed out hundreds of bumper stickers, door hangers and flyers.
Our “Barack Obama is a pain in my gas” bumper stickers were wildly popular and I burned through them within a couple of hours. FreedomWorks was the only national conservative group at the festival, but there were a couple of student groups that had booths. One group is brand new and is aligning itself with Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty. These self-described “Constitutionalists” seemed to have a robust membership and even got a speaker on state at the Rock the Vote event at The Grove. I plan to work with these guys throughout the school year, and send them a few copies of my book.
There was definitely a lot of energy on campus, with supporters of both candidates loud and excited. It was clear that this was a huge deal for Oxford and for Ole Miss. The students were extremely excited to have the opportunity to host the debate, and they were very nice and accommodating.
Ole Miss has a beautiful campus and the weather was fantastic. I spent the entire day and evening there, and really enjoyed the atmosphere. After the debate, I spent a few minutes watching Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell talk about it. When he came over to sign autographs for people, I asked him why MSNBC was in the tank for Obama. He said that it was just him that wanted Obama to win. I told him Keith Olbermann was even worse than him and I asked him if MSNBC was purposefully trying to be an Obama network, or if that was an accident.
I told him that the network could learn about journalism by watching CNN. This seemed to really get under his skin and he made what the left would call a “homophobic” remark about Anderson Cooper, who hosts a program on CNN. If only I had gotten this remark on video it would have been a great YouTube moment. I couldn’t believe how much of a jerk this guy was, and how thin his skin was.
Of course none of the Obama supporters were upset by his “discriminatory” and “bigoted” remarks. They just laughed and cheered him on. The hypocrisy of some on the left is breathtaking. Maybe Anderson will find out about the comment eventually and demand an apology from Chris. Maybe not. Either way, he really showed his true colors last night.
I’ll post my thoughts on the debate itself tomorrow.
Tags: Ole Miss, presidential debate