As donors, we were invited to hear Obama speak here in Portland. The man really is a mediocre public speaker, especially when he’s off-script, but he’s sincere and forthcoming about his plans and programs. It was a long afternoon, but worthwhile.
Protesters showed up, of course. From what I could gather, the majority of them consider Obama to be a failure because he hasn’t legalized marijuana. :rolleyes: One guy came up to me and wanted me to sign a petition demanding that Obama or Romney “do something about guns”. “What, exactly?”, I inquired. Well, he wasn’t sure, but something. One guy, after being harangued by somebody about whatever stupid issue he had, turned to me and griped about having to talk to people like that. I told him the answer to that is simple: “Don’t feed the trolls or they’ll never go away.”
I saw him in Seattle a few months ago, I thought he was above average speaker, and very compelling in a small group
He did pretty well, but there were times when he seemed to ramble. When he got down to what the administration has accomplished and what he is going to do to continue to build the economy, the crowd got pretty jazzed. The group was probably around 900-1,000, plus the high-rollers who paid $30K to have a one-on-one with him. He also dropped into a diner earlier in the day and had lunch with some volunteers who were military vets. Paid for his lunch and left a tip, for those who may think otherwise.
He was in Reno, and my wife got to watch him go from motorcade to AF1 (because she was held up by traffic cops to let him pass), then watch AF1 take off. Then she called me right quick, and I stood outside and waited for AF1 to pass over/near our house on the climb-out, about 25 miles away.
Somewhat obscured by cloudes, but it was AF1 that I saw. Kinda strange, as it was on a flight path I’ve never seen around here before. Kinda did what ever the hell he wanted. Came from west to east after gaining a bunch of altitude to the west of us. Never seen that before. I figured he wanted a good view of the Most Beautiful Place On Earth, Lake Tahoe, but who knows? Hey, it AF1, you do what you want!
Take-offs normally go south-westy, or I don’t see them at all. Landings come right over our house, and into the “downwind” leg. Wish I knew when he landed, as that is always a better view.
The point is, he fucked traffic up for hours in Reno, and airspace for a while too. All to flap his lips at a VFW thing for a few minutes. That I’m sure nobody give a flying F about. Lame.
Then that ass-pipe Romney did it the next day, too! Wife managed to avoid the traffic stoppage. I heard that Dana Bash was there and I nearly went over to see if I could get close enough to see if she is as greasy as she looks on TV. But didn’t. Beer to drink.
Nah I got all of it. Romney’s motorcade (actually a single lame Suburban) had me blocked in traffic for ten mins in San Francisco on sunday.