Ok. My facebook status was a little misleading. I said I would be at WASHU during the VP debates. I was...but not in the debate hall. I was in an auditorium with a bunch of other people hoping to see Sarah Palin pull out a rifle and pose in a bikini. That said, we did have the credentials to be on campus-otherwise, we couldn't be there- and photo I.D. was required. So in my book, we were pretty cool. My book is pretty thin, but it exists. Ask me about it some time and I'll show it to you (That's What She Said).
We sat in Steinberg Hall where we were to watch the debate live with a room full of WASHU Alumni. The prestigious school spared no expense.The reception area included cookies, fruit, soda, sandwiches, buttons and beads. I enjoyed the peanut butter cookies. Those were particularly soft and tasty. We took pictures with the lifesize cardboard pictures of the presidential and vice presidential candidates. We noticed a few interesting t-shirts, notably a "I'm a black Republican" t-shirt and "I'm a redneck who supports Obama" t-shirt. And they were both in the same room. Magical night.
A political science professor briefly spoke to us about the influence of vice pres. debates and delighted me by throwing in puns here and there. I like pun-tacular professors. Good times.
Pun moment of glory for this professor: Audience member asks a question. Prof. begins to answer but lights go out. Professor wastes no time in quipping, "I could be in the dark about this, but..." and we all laughed in pun glee.
I was lucky enough to procure a PALIN Bingo card from a group of strangers in front of us. Here's how PALIN Bingo works: Check off any of the number of words she is, like the robot-doll she is, likely to use during the debate. Here's what the card looked like-
As you can (somewhat) see, we could check off words such as "gosh", "hockey mom", "Russia", "earmarks" and "Gotcha journalism". The middle box has a picture of Palin's head with the appropriate words-FREE SPACE. As the night went on, I noticed that the PALIN Bingo cards were not only particular to our area. They were all over the place. Apparently this is big. Get on this, people.
Luckily for us, the room was almost completely either in support of Obama or just wanted to laugh at Palin. Here are some of the room's reactions that we got as a group:
When Joe Biden finished one of his lines with, "that's what I call the ultimate bridge to nowhere", we all errupted in cheers. We also laughed when he said he spends a lot of time at Home Depot. Gotta love Joe. Oh, and when he discussed the ridiculousness of the notion that he, once a single father, could not also feel for the struggle of the average American families just as any hocky mom apparently does, and paused to compose himself- you could hear a pin drop.
Whenever Sarah Palin spoke, you would hear a lot of frustrated sighs and "ughs". You might think I'm exaggerating, but I cannot stress how loud the groans were every single time Palin said, "in Alaska", or "in Wasila!" or mentioned "soccer moms", or brought up her "executive experience" or ignored Gwen Ifill's actual questions and insisted that she'd talk about whatever talking points she decided was appropriate. When Palin winked at the camera, I threw up in my mouth--- just a little bit. When she told Joe Biden that his school-teacher wife's "reward is in heaven", we all laughed. I mean, was she really saying these things? When she gave a shout out to the 3rd graders, you couldn't even hear her next line because, again, we were all laughing. It was like watching an SNL skit. Only it wasn't a skit. It was Palin.
I know what a lot of the strategists are saying. She did a good job. But they've lowered their standards of what a good job is, because contrary to a few days ago, she could actually put words together this time. Well bravo, Sarah. Keep up the good work. Keep speaking coherent English.
Anyways, I fought the urge to yell out, "you ignorant-f*cking-runner-up-in-Miss Alaska-George W. wanna-be! I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU! You are an embarassment to women everywhere and you do not-in any way- represent me! BIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!" Yes, in that regard, I was victorious.
But in other ways, we are all still losers because she is-at this moment- spewing her hatred and fear mongering to another crowd. Hopefully this election ends without anyone seriously getting hurt. And hopefully it ends in victory for someone whose name rhymes with Marack Mobama. Am I clear enough?
By the way, we stayed after the debate and were amongst the crowd for Hardball with Chris Matthews. He is flipping awesome. He told us he thought George Steinbrenner (or was it Hank? Now I can't remember) was an S-O-B. And talked to the college crowd during commercial breaks. A highlight for the Ead sisters came when Matthews was interviewing a guest, brought up Palin's dangerous remark about moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, and asked the guest if he thought Palin was aware of the implications of this statement which goes against every former American adminstration's policies, to which we replied, impromptu, simultaneously, and loud enough to probably be heard on T.V., "NO!". This drew laughs from the crowd and a smile from Matthews. Thank you, thank you.
Anyways, I'm out to watch M-I-Z Z-O-U!
PEACE
No comments:
Post a Comment