Chanelle Lawson almost didn't make it in the room to hear Barack Obama's speech.
Lawson, 31, and her husband, who is in the Army, were not allowed into the room where Obama was to speak when they showed up at 8 a.m.
Lawson heard about the speech on the news, which said it would be open to the military as well as those who were invited.
They came because it was important for them to be there, Lawson said. Since Obama was addressing military concerns, it was important for military personnel to hear it, she added.
Fayetteville City Councilman Charles Evans, who the couple had never met, noticed the military uniform of Lawson's husband and asked why they were in the lobby and not inside. He then helped them get inside.
After hearing the speech, Lawson said she supported Obama's positions on the war in Iraq and foreign policy, including an increased use of diplomacy.
"He was very concise in his strategies to reduce deployment and keep our nation safe," she said.
Still, she said she expected to see more military uniforms in the audience.
Comments
It was a relatively small room, considering the press
March 19, 2008 - 4:35pm — captsfufpOkay, this is ridiculous...
First of all, I'm a Hillary-supporter, and I got in. So if Obama is "handpicking" his audience, then they're really bad at it.
Who was the "handpicked" audience? Local elected officials, community leaders, military, military families, and veterans (I would be the latter), and local Obama supporters.
Let's compare this to the vetting process that the Bush Administration has gone through with its audiences. I remember when I was in uniform and Sec. Rumsfeld visited my post, they were handing soldiers questions to ask. Ridiculous and an improper use of the military for their public relations. On a separate note, I would encourage military to NOT wear uniforms to political events. I'd have to check if it's explicitly against the regulations, but, implicitly, it's improper. Wear civies for the hour or so of the speech.
The Fayetteville Observer just continues to fall flat on their political coverage since they also headlined that the audience was "handpicked" in today's paper. They also said it would be an "anti-war" speech which shows the reporter to be very confused on three grounds:
A) The reporter/paper must consider any criticism of current policy as "anti-war"
B) The report/paper must abbreviate "anti-Iraq war" as "anti-war" which is not the same thing (at all)
C) Who the heck gets labeled as "pro-war"?
Again, I'm a Clinton-ista, but still think the Fay Ob messed up on their coverage of Sen. Obama today. One can only hope tomorrow will be better...(see, his "hope" is rubbing off on me!)
Re: Barely making the guest list
March 19, 2008 - 1:14pm — j1c2kpDon't ya just love it when politicians handpick who can sit in the audience? Guess that eliminates any distractions. Ya'll be good now.