I spent last week attending a few rallies in Tulsa and Oklahoma City…..
Welcome back. From last week’s column covering several big time college basketball teams and their drive to get to March Madness for a ticket to winning it all, I’ve moved on to another group of people driving to win it all. Last Wednesday at the Cox Convention Center I had the opportunity to attend a rally for Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. Officials estimated the crowd to be around sixty-five hundred and another two thousand people were still standing outside waiting to clear the Secret Service security checkpoints when Sanders’ speech started at 7:30. Not wanting to disappoint the crowd, Sanders went outside and spoke to them after the rally. As you can imagine, the crowd was very enthusiastic and in my opinion there were more people there under thirty than people over that age. By all reports, the support of this younger group is one of Sanders’ great strengths. It was an interesting hour long speech and during the five hours I spent at the Cox Center I also enjoyed visiting and people watching.
That was Wednesday. On Friday I was in Oklahoma City where I attended the 2 PM Marco Rubio rally in Bricktown at the Chevy Center which is close to both the baseball park and the Chesapeake Arena. There was no Secret Service protection there so it was easier to get into and the crowd was about a third the size of Sanders. I also noticed that there seemed to be fewer volunteers and they were a little disorganized, waiting to pass out their signs until the rally was over. Rubio did have some political star power on hand as Governor Mary Fallin was there to introduce him and Jim Inhofe spoke as well. I saw Governor Fallin at Donald Trump’s rally in the Oklahoma City Cox Center two hours later and although she was there as a spectator, she and her husband were in reserved seats close to the stage.
There were plenty of Secret Service and regular police at the Trump rally and I was told that the crowd was close to ten thousand people. His supporters went wild at just about everything he said but there were also about a dozen protestors there which was something that happened at Rubio’s rally too. The protestors were just as vocal as the supporters and things got nasty for a while with Trump ordering the cops to throw the protestors out. After all three rallies, entrepreneurs were selling buttons, flags and photo opportunities with cardboard cutouts of the candidates in the parking lots. There were activists outside as well, campaigning for women’s rights, higher wages for teachers and medical marijuana. The Trump rally was definitely better staffed than either Sanders’ or Rubio’s and I have already had several emails from his organization asking for my support.
On Sunday I was in Tulsa when Ted Cruz came to the Tulsa Fairgrounds. Friends let me tell you, with the big gun show going in the Expo Building where I was, a big time volleyball tournament in another facility, the circus in another and a horse show too, then add Cruz into the mix and I can tell you that even with all the big lots at the Fairgrounds parking spaces were scarce. It all added up to be quite a mass of human beings during the four days all turning out to support their candidate and it could only happen in America I’m proud to say.
Till next week I’ll see ya down the road……
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