January 19, 2008
Rally Time
CHARLESTON, SC - If the final election eve rally is any indication of who has the bigger advantage going into today's voting - John McCain or Mike Huckabee - McCain would win handily.
McCain chose to end his statewide swing through the state on board the U.S.S. Yorktown, a mothballed aircraft carrier floating near the new Cooper River bridge in Mt. Pleasant. (Side note: this was also the sight of unpleasant childhoold memory - namely being dragged away from the beach to tour a military museum in 95 degree heat - but I digress). The setting was an apt one for the naval aviator who has made his support for the surge in Iraq a centerpiece of his campaign. The crowd size was decent (maybe 300 people) and well-placed risers and barriers helped create a more "intimate" setting despite the cavernous setting.
Perhaps more telling was the make-up of the crowd, a mix of military types (a hoo-rah went out when Cindy McCain mentioned her son's military service) and preppy, country club-ers. WIth Huckabee and Fred Thompson competing for the evangelical base, McCain has focused on courting the two other key elements of the SC GOP vote, economic conservatives and military veterans.
Huckabee, meanwhile, decided to end his day on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. With the evangelical "establisment" on the sidelines the Huckabee campaign is courting (and counting on) the support of college age evangelicals, a risky strategy given the traditionally low turn-out of younger voters.
His tour of the Upstate (the heart of evangelical vote), included stops at Greenville Technical College and Winthrop University. At USC, the crowd was thin and distracted. A couple of warm up bands tried (unsuccessfully) to get the under-25ers in the mood.Two young guys w/ guitars (I missed their names but according to the MC, they are big on youtube), regaled us with a remake of Paul Simon's "Mrs. Robinson." The refrain: God Bless you please, Mr. Huckabee/Jesus loves you more than you will know. God Bless you please Mr. Huckabee/the White House holds a place for those who pray."
Wheras McCain was surrounded on stage by a sea of blue-blazered local and national elected officials (including the state's Attorney General, the Speaker of the state House, Sen Lindsay Graham and ex-Sen. Phill Gramm), Huckabee's entrourage looked, well, less polished. Introduced by WWF star Ric Flair, Huckabee bounded on stage apologizing for the "late hour" (something that surely caught these college students as odd - it was 9:30 on a Friday night). His speech centered on his traditional populist themes ("I'm a guy over 50 looking for a job), but only late into his remarks did he even get to college-oriented concerns like student loans. He ended, of course, by jamming with the band, pouding out "Sweet Home Alabama" on his bass.
[AMY WALTER]
Posted at 10:29 AM
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