Caste System at Springfield OH Rally ? Could Be...

[ChangeMan]

I just now got home from tonight's midnight Kerry/Edwards rally in Sprinfield OH. The turnout was great and John & John were in good form responding to both Dick-Weed and Shrub's comments at the RNC.

However, A couple of things really pissed me off tonight!

Tonight there were BLUE tickets, RED tickets, WHITE tickets and lastly inter-net tickets. Naturally there were the familiar orange barrel and yellow tape barriers.

Tonight if you had a BLUE, RED, or WHITE ticket you were allowed past the barriers and had a chance to get as close as possible to the stage.

BUT if you has an inter-net ticket you were refused entry to the stage area. What gives here? Is the person with the inter-net ticket less of a Democrat? or does that persons vote count for less then the other ticket holders? The Kerry folks had no problem accepting inter-net contributions, but evidently couldn't bear to have the inter-net tickets holders too close to the candidate.

When some of us started complaining, the volunteers replied that those were their instructions - inter-net ticket holders were not allowed inside the barrier.

When many of us started chanting "We Want In",the powers that be simply had the bands play louder.

NOW HERE'S THE PART THAT SUCKS..................................

When the volunteers and those in charge thought they might have a problem on their hands, they had the security dog handlers brought front and center before the clearly unhappy inter-net tickets holders, and REMOVED THE DOGS MUZZLES!

Now wait a second folks! That is what I would expect the Repukes to do!

The inter-net ticket holders were White, Black and Asian. Young and Old. Straight and Gay. Veterans (WW II and Vite-Nam). Moms and Dads with childen of all ages. College and High School Students. Tradesmen and Professionals. And when one elderly couple asked to sit down on the bleachers, they were told that the bleachers were for the BLUE, RED and WHITE ticket holders and to step back behind the barrier.

After all we had INTER-NET tickets and were not allowed to get close to OUR candidate!

Oh Yes! The inter-net ticket holders were eventually allowed inside the barrier. After all we needed to show a good sized crowd to the cameras, didn't we? (I was at the Dayton Rally before the DNC with 10,000+ plus and I believe tonights crowd rivaled that).

BUT WORST OF ALL:

The dog handlers were wearing BROWN SHIRTS!

I don't know how any other rally's will be organized. I only hope tonight's fiasco was the result of some power drunk local offical and not the norm.

And I would bet a dollar to a doughnut that John & John don't know this happened.

SORRY for the rant, but I didn't think our side did it this way.

[NJCher]

1. staff decision, I'll bet

I only hope tonight's fiasco was the result of some power drunk local offical and not the norm.


I don't think a local official could make such a decision. That sounds like something that would be made by campaign staff. I would like to know if either candidate was aware of it.

I think it's important to track this info down. Are you going to call the campaign?


Cher

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. No that is more like the Secret Service Decision

and I am willuing to bet it has partially to do with the nutso who
shot at the RNC HQ... and the rock thrown at the DNC... having been involved in security at one time, Kerry is far more of a nightmare, Ironically, to keep safe than Bush.... Bush stays in relatively safe places... which are easier to cotnrol and crowds are vetted... Kerry they are harder.

The more popular you are the harder you are to protect.. the more unpopular you are, the more draconian security has to get

[Dookus]

2. OMG

their shirts were brown?!?!??!

Welcome to DU. Enjoy your stay, however long it lasts.

[stopbush]

4. There was a similar tier to the tix at the Vegas rally. The people

working for the campaign and involved in local politics got tix directly from the local Dem office. They got in quicker and had better seats and signage. Those of us who got internet tix weren't so lucky.

However, before the event really got rolling, they invited anyone who wanted to come down and join the standing crowd right in front of the podium. I did this with my 2 kids. We ended up 20 feet from Kerry and got to shake hands with him at the end.

But this was an inside affair where the crowd was pretty easy to handle (the usual staffers for the Thomas & Mack Center were on hand doing their crowd-control thing). Maybe the Springfield event was tougher as it was outside and in the dark.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. deleted

[UdoKier]

6. I'm the first to criticize Kerry's campaign for stumbles...

...because they piss me off. But who cares? At least Kerry lets people who want to see him see him. Bush has hecklers instantly arrested. Kerry brings them up on stage to say their peace.

I see nothing wrong with them having a system for tickets. Those who got the best tickets are PROBABLY the one who have put in all the grunt work for the campaign. They deserve it. How the hell much commitment does it take to get an internet ticket?

Kerry's events have offered much freer access than the "president's", and tonight was an important speech. And your "brown shirt" comment -well.. as others have said - enjoy your stay...

[Philostopher]

7. I know for sure the blue tickets were local campaign volunteers.

A DUer who posts in the Ohio forum is a Kerry campaign volunteer and entered on a blue ticket, she said they were for the local volunteers. Kind of a bonus for those who've been working for the campaign, and I have no problem with that. Perhaps the red tickets were something similar? Maybe volunteers for other campaigns, like Fingerhut or the other local pols who spoke.

I don't know where the white tickets came from, but white ticket and Internet ticket people all entered through the same gate and were directed to the same area at the beginning.

The thing you have to consider is this: there was no filtering on the web site, other than you had to provide a valid e-mail address. Had they wanted to, disruptors could easily have signed up and gotten tickets to the rally. Rather than mucking with the system by causing even more of a backup at the start, I think they took the most time-expedient way possible to ensure nobody who was close to the stage was likely to be a disruptor by filling the space with local volunteers and packing everybody else farther back. That way, if there was a disruption, they'd have had an easier time of nailing the fReeper and hauling him/her out the back gate.

I don't know -- I wasn't especially troubled by the way they handled it, and the dogs weren't muzzled when we entered, so I can't address what you're saying about that. I'll be honest with you -- I assumed they were drug dogs, and that they thought they'd pull in a little revenue for Clark County by busting some small-time dopers, but I'm probably older than you are and generally assume that's the intention of something like that.

[AnnitaR]

8. Color coded tix are the norm for these type rallies.

Gore did it the exact same way in 2000. I went to my local Dem HQ to get my ticket for his event at McGhee Tyson Airport and they were giving out the color coded tickets. This is how campaigns try to keep things somewhat organized. As someone who also ended up volunteering to help out with Gore's airport visit... please don't blame the volunteers. You are given very specific instructions by the campaign and they were only doing what they were told to do about the tickets.

Do I think it's fair to give better tickets to someone who volunteered to help out or who has helped out at HQs or who took the time to go to HQs to get their tickets versus people who just went online? Sorry, but I think that's fair.

Now as far as the calling the dogs out? That's not cool.

[Robbien]

9. Why all the shouting? Why be so rude here and at the rally?

And removing the dog muzzles, I do not believe that for a moment.

Yes there are different colored tickets. If you read even one other thread about rallies, you would know that.

Your whole post smells fishy to me.

[rucky]

10. "I'm going to leave it up to the voters to decide..."

"I'm going to leave it up to the voters to decide whether five deferments makes someone more qualified than two tours of duty."


great speech. but if you'd rather talk about your internet...

[blm]

11. People forget that the Secret Service is in charge of who gets that close

these days. The internet ticket would have been the easiest ticket to get for the person who would see Kerry as a target.

[0rganism]

12. Standard practice except for the dogs, here's how it works

I worked at the Portland rally a few weeks ago where we pulled in 50000, and it was mostly the same.

The Blue tickets are for campaign volunteers. They can be counted on to be mostly loyal, vetted, and credentialed.

The Red tickets are for veterans and the white were probably for VIPs (they were yellow at the PDX rally). John Kerry regards vets as equal to VIPs. Good for him. A presidential candidate should do that, IMHO.

The rest of the public can get in too, no fee charged, no loyalty oath like the bushes would demand, and they're a bit further away from the candidates. We didn't even check tickets in Portland for the main area.

I don't know about the dog handlers. That shit kind of sucks, and it's probably local security procedure that the candidates didn't know about. The Portland police used some sniffer dogs to check the supplies that were brought in, but they didn't interact with the crowd at all.

Actually, in Portland, the stage-area people had it a bit harder than the background area. The colorful ticket holders had to go through metal detectors to get to the stage area, while the general public just went straight into the park. I spent most of my time hauling water out to the crowd by hand, and even tho I was backstage a lot I hardly got to see anything.

In contrast, bush held a rally the same day for 1000 rich loyalty-oath-signing people in an upscale white suburb. It's like night and day.

[ikojo]

13. Similar things happened at a 2000 Gore Lieberman rally

held in downtown St Louis. It was the only G/L rally I attended. I don't recall any Internet tickets but tickets were color coded and the proletariat was kept to the back. I assumed the folks in front were local Dem "leaders" or campaign contributors.

[Hubert Flottz]

14. Those dogs were no doubt $h*t eaters!

They would have pounced on Freepers instead of good Democrats! Faith is the Key my friend!

IF, you saw that, I'll bet there was a GOPer behind it!

[ObaMania]

15. In your estimate...

.. how many people would you say were there?