Political Rallies and Halloween Parties

It feels sooooo good to be finally past my super-stressful couple-week stretch. I got a power-point presentation put together and submitted on Monday evening last week for the CBD Conference, which was a huge weight off my shoulders. I’m allowed to bring an updated presentation on a memory stick to the conference, so while I still am pushing forward to get some additional results, I can work at a much more relaxed pace. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still busy, but I’m not frantic or freaking out anymore, like I was a week and a half ago. That wasn’t fun. And then I had a 2-3 page “research paper” on flash flood events for my forecasting class that was due on Thursday, so when I finished that at 12:30am Wednesday night, I knew I’d be able to relax a bit. And that I have!
Before I finished my paper I did take a break on Tuesday evening to go hear Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin speak at Rec Hall, here on campus at Penn State. While I obviously did still have work to do, I figured that work could wait, but that it’s not every day that a VP candidate comes to your town to speak, especially within a week of a presidential election! I’d never been to a political rally before either, so I figured I should take advantage of the opportunity. I heard there were still tickets available Tuesday morning (they were free), so I quickly walked all the way down to the GOP campaign headquarters at Allen & Waupelani, about a mile and a half from Walker Building. They only let me get two tickets, so I got the extra ticket for David. The doors were slated to open at 6pm, country music singer Hank Williams Jr was scheduled to begin a concert at 8pm, and then Sarah Palin was supposed to begin her speech at about 9pm. Since neither David nor I really cared to get there super-early to get a prime spot or if we missed some of the concert, we got in line at 7:30pm. Thing is, the line was already halfway across the IST bridge! The line moved reasonably quickly, but it was still an hour and a half of enduring the cold wind until we got through the Secret Service metal detectors inside Rec Hall, just in time for Palin to take the stage. Rec Hall was sold-out, with between 7500 and 8000 people in attendance. We managed to find a spot at the top of one of the aisles, so while we may have been a fire hazard technically, we at least had a decent spot from which to stand and watch the speech.

Sarah Palin takes the stage at Rec Hall
I think Sarah Palin did a much better job at the rally on Tuesday night than she did in the VP debate. *Much* better. She really showed that she can actually be a good public speaker, something that didn’t come across in the debate. I’d chalk her shaky debate performance up to a combination of her being nervous and trying to remember all of the lines that McCain’s advisers were coaching her to remember and recite. But when she was here in State College, she just seemed so much more loose and natural, so if she is indeed “going rogue” and being herself, rejecting the advice of McCain’s handlers, I say good for her! We need more politicians who are willing to be themselves anyway, not not who the focus groups are telling them they should be. While I didn’t agree with everything she said, I thought she did a really good job, and I was glad to see her go on the offensive, both in making the case for McCain and against Obama. She put me at least a little more at ease with the concept of voting for McCain, but I’m still undecided between McCain/Palin and Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate. Barack Hussein Obama is getting even more frightening these days though, especially with his recent comments about the Constitution. I still don’t think John McCain would make a great president, but I honestly don’t think this country can afford even four years of an Obama presidency. Obama sure would provide change, but not all change is good change.
Snippet of Sarah Palin’s speech at Rec Hall
There were also a bunch of Obama supporters outside Rec Hall. A group of them were on the other side of Curtin Road, just chanting “O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!” and “Yes we can! Yes we can!” I had no problem with them. There were quite a few Obama supporters with signs on the Rec Hall side of Curtin Rd, who really demonstrated their intellectual and rhetorical prowess. [/sarcasm] Seriously though, they were quite a bit more testy, vocal, and snide. Oh, and condescending and rude too. (None of this is by any means to claim that there aren’t McCain supporters who exhibit these same lovely traits, I’m merely reporting what was publicly on display Tuesday night with these particular Obama supporters.) Anytime David or I would try to have a reasoned exchange of ideas with them, they’d only shout back with a slogan (if they’d even deign to pay attention when we’d answer one of their questions), to the point that it was impossible to talk to them. One of them even said to us, “You sound like you’re intelligent. Why on earth are you going in there [to see Palin]?” And yes, it was dripping with condescension. One of the best parts of engaging the Obama supporters was when David talked to a couple girls who had signs that said something to the effect of “Nothing Is Certain” and “Question What You Believe.” After a couple minutes, David got them to admit that their position was based on circular logic (if nothing is certain, then is that statement even certain?), and they just walked away! At any rate, I know that there are plenty of intelligent and reasonable Obama supporters, but all these sign-holding and argumentative youths were not among them.
Oh, and I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I’ll be extremely glad once Election Day is over. Whoever wins, it’ll be good to move on finally, after this ridiculously long campaign that’s been going on since Election Day 2006. All these political ads, for federal, state and local candidates, have been a bit much (even when they’re hilariously pathetic). So this is what it’s like to live in a battleground state…
Friday night Tracy & Amanda hosted a Halloween party at Dan, Luke & Noel’s place (their own place was a bit too small). For a long time I wasn’t all that keen on going, largely because I’m not a big fan of Halloween, even though Tracy & Kerrie were encouraging me to go dressed as a Mormon, “Elder Lee.” I still wasn’t excited about the party though. I just don’t like the history of a celebration of evil that’s associated with the holiday. I recognize that most people nowadays don’t view or celebrate it that way, and treat it as just a fun excuse to dress up in costumes and have a party. My family never celebrated Halloween growing up, though, and I just haven’t ever been that interested in the holiday. I went to Halloween parties my first two years of grad school, first year going as one of a group of Pac-Man ghosts, and second year going as a vector (in both cases the costume decisions were pretty last-minute and just some marker drawn on a t-shirt … not exactly elaborate). But I didn’t go to a Halloween party last year, and I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. In any case, by Friday afternoon I was leaning toward going to the party, at least to put in an appearance, if nothing else. Then I got a great idea for a costume — televangelist Joel Osteen!

I mean, I already had a suit/tie and plenty of hair gel, though admittedly I lack Osteen’s blindingly white teeth. I even found a couple hilarious posters that are parodies of two of Osteen’s books, and taped those pictures to a couple books, and used them as props. Basically, I thought it’d be fun to tap into my acting skills and try to be in character as much as I could (though I knew I couldn’t smile as much as Osteen). My attitude about going to the party changed pretty quickly around then. I think part of why I was suddenly looking forward to going to the party was that I finally had a costume idea of my own (that, and I decided I wasn’t gonna be completely antisocial). So when I showed up at the party, people were surprised that a) I showed up, and b) that my hair was pretty much slicked back. 🙂 It was a fun party though, and I’m glad I went. There were a bunch of people from PSCG there, and then a bunch of entomologists too. There were some great costumes too, including Dan as Michael Phelps, and Adrienne as a Christmas tree (she even plugged herself in a few times, haha). Toward the end of the night Ruth H. showed up too, and she was able to guess on the first try that I was a) a televangelist, and b) Joel Osteen. Most impressive! Here are some more pictures from the evening:

Maybe now I’ll be a little more interested in going to a Halloween party next year, and a little more motivated to think of a costume before the day of the party, haha.