Posted on 10/29/2008 8:22:33 PM PDT by BIOCHEMKY
Look in later today for our On the Road piece from Wilmington, North Carolina. We're a bit ahead of our coverage, which occasionally happens out here with the long distances, input, output and timing demands. Tonight we'll be at the Obama-Clinton rally in Kissimmee, Florida, and we're breaking in from Miami, where John McCain just concluded his "Joe the Plumber" rally at Everglades Lumber.
After the rally, we witnessed a near-street riot involving the exiting McCain crowd and two Cuban-American Obama supporters. Tony Garcia, 63, and Raul Sorando, 31, were suddenly surrounded by an angry mob. There is a moment in a crowd when something goes from mere yelling to a feeling of danger, and that's what we witnessed. As photographers and police raced to the scene, the crowd elevated from stable to fast-moving scrum, and the two men were surrounded on all sides as we raced to the circle.
The event maybe lasted a minute, two at the most, before police competently managed to hustle the two away from the scene and out of the danger zone. Only FiveThirtyEight tracked the two men down for comment, a quarter mile down the street.
"People were screaming 'Terrorist!' 'Communist!' 'Socialist!'" Sorando said when we caught up with him. "I had a guy tell me he was gonna kill me."
Asked what had precipitated the event, "We were just chanting 'Obama!' and holding our signs. That was it. And the crowd suddenly got crazy."
Garcia told us that the man who originally had warned the two it was his property when they had first tried to attend the rally with Obama T-shirts was one of the agitators. Coming up just before the scene started getting out of hand, the man whispered in Garcia's ear, "I'm gonna beat you up the next time I see you." Garcia described him for us: "a big stocky man wearing a tweed jacket." He used hand motions to emphasize this was a large guy. We went back to look for the gentleman twenty minutes after the incident but didn't find him.
The two Obama supporters had attempted to attend the event with tickets printed from the McCain website. Both were clad in Obama T-shirts, Sorando in a blue "Obama '08" shirt, and Garcia in a white "Obama-Biden" shirt. They were told that the event was being held on private property and that wearing the shirts or carrying the signs they would be asked to either remove the shirts or not attend.
For an hour during the rally, the two had stood across the street from the lumberyard on public property holding yard signs. Some drivers honked in support, and others honked in disapproval. When the rally ended and the crowd spilled out, the disturbance began.
Garcia had a message for his stocky, tweed-clad threatener. "You tell that guy he can find Tony Garcia down at the West Dade library every day from 7 to 7 helping people early vote. I'll be there from 1 to 5 on Saturday and Sunday. You tell him if he wants to kick my ass that's where he can find me. Come beat me up."
Not thirty seconds later, John McCain drove by in his SUV and waved at Garcia on the sidewalk, who was happily waving his Obama sign.
The sun is starting to come up over America again and the ‘RATS are starting to scurry about.
Well, that isn’t the brightest move and most certainly wasn’t going to change any minds there.
Two? That’s it? Two?
Should have been no problem.....
Part of me is beginning to think we just might win this thing.
Getting in their face is no good for conservatives, but that’s the marching orders for the Obama team.
Instead of protesting outside the event like FReepers do they choose to go inside and agitate. I don’t like that style no matter which side does it.
They are putting themselves in the way of exiting conservatives looking to cause problems.
Most Americans can put 2+2 together, especially if they had parents at home to get the kids past public schooling.
Yeah, sounds like a suicide mission...
The two holding Obama signs should be shipped back to Castro's paradise where political freedom is punished by death. Castro & Chavez have many paid agents in South Florida. Obama does as well. Comrades all.
Cuban-Americans genrally have a problem with communists like Obama. They have seen this movie before. the good news is Obama will lose FL and the election.
GOTV, Donate & Volunteer.
I am more confident every day that McCain will win in a landslide.
Instead of protesting outside the event like FReepers do they choose to go inside and agitate. I don’t like that style no matter which side does it.
Just a wild guess here, but I doubt any of the Cuban-American Obama supporters were part of this group:
Cuban Soccer Players Defect to US
By Brian Wagner
Miami 13 March 2008
As many as seven members of a Cuban national soccer team are reported to have defected in the United States shortly after playing a match in the U.S. state of Florida. VOA's Brian Wagner has more from Miami.
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-03/2008-03-13-voa40.cfm?CFID=58970968&CFTOKEN=36371765
“I had a guy tell me he was gonna kill me.”
Yeah, right...
I’d prefer to see the losing kind.
FIVETHIRTYEIGHT are a regular organization hosted by Keith Olbermann on a nightly basis...including this evening and they are a full on leftist group. Why bother reporting this garbage here?
if pubbies are acting like that, imagine what they will do to get to the polls on election day......very encouraging.
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