John McCain rally in St. Charles, MO

It is interesting, but also sometimes disturbing to listen to what the other side is saying.

The McCain rally in my neighborhood in St. Charles this morning looked like a county fair. A small county fair. I’m not good at estimating crowd size, but maybe 1500 is in the ballpark. Children, old people, everyone was well behaved and excited, but the crowd response was weak. Lackluster. The lines that generated energy were those that referred to Sarah Palin.

Several Missouri politicians spoke before Senator McCain, and I was confused by their message. The evil of slavery was equated with socialism. A lot of talk about the idea of “spreading the wealth around”, especially in terms of giving “your hard earned money to people who don’t work”. Do rich people who don’t work deserve it more? I heard a lot about the danger of raising taxes, but not a word about raising the minimum wage.

I stood at the very back of the crowd, but still had a good view of Senator McCain. He looked good. The first words out of his mouth were a commendation of his running mate, Sarah Palin, that drew loud applause. Then it was mostly a re-hash of the confusing money issues that the other Missouri politicians had been drumming on. He ended with a chant about “stand up and fight for America”, and one old woman who had been sitting in a wheelchair stood and thrust her fist in the air. I was behind her and wish that I could have photographed it, but the memory was gone on my camera.

I’ve already mailed my Florida absentee ballot.

Here is NY Times reporting on the rally in St. Charles.

Some photos from the rally ... The crane was used to hoist a giant flag:

A Sarah sighting in the crowd ...

Sharpshooters...

And lots of buttons ... mostly Palin!