You can’t tell from the photo above, but the sign on the door just under the red awning is an OFA poster that said something like “Thank you for voting for health care.” Of course, the Obama logo was at the top of the poster.
No protesters showed up at Dan Maffei’s Organizing for America event this afternoon. Other than a small blurb in the local paper, I couldn’t find any other announcement of the event. I assume the public wasn’t invited and that the guests were taken from OFA’s donor list. I saw a couple, who appeared to be aging hippies, get out of their aging Volvo and the man put a check in his wallet. Made me wonder if this was an event for the people to “thank” Dan Maffei for trampling our freedom, or if the purpose was to raise funds. I tend to think it’s the latter. Despite an enormous war chest, he must know he’s enraged a good number of his constituents and he’ll need all the cash he can get this fall.
Another thing I noticed was the number of high end automobiles in the parking lot. (Those two out front were the exception, not the rule.) Jaguars, Volvos, Audis, Mercedes, BMWs and even an American made Cadillac Escalade. Something tells me the drivers of those cars aren’t in need of health insurance. There were also a number of smaller cars, mostly foreign, and their drivers appeared to be union guys. In addition to the big bellies, balding heads and slumped shoulders, their style of dress screamed out “union guys.” There were a handful of younger folks, but most appeared to be staffers of some sort.
A few things happened that struck me as odd. The event was scheduled to start at 4:15 PM. At about 4:10 PM a camera man ran out of the building, crossed the street, got in his unmarked van and drove away. Did he get all the footage he needed and leave? Was he kicked out? Who did he work for?
Then there was this guy in a yellow knit hat walking quickly from car to car videotaping license plates. He crossed the street and videotaped license plates right in front of some of the people milling about the entrance to the bar. Here he is in the parking lot.
I have no idea why he was videotaping license plates. He did go inside the bar only to leave a few minutes later. Weird. Here he is just before entering the bar.
Another thing that’s odd is that I didn’t see any visible security measures outside the building. I thought Democrats who voted for this bill are afraid for their lives. Where was the security? Yellow hat didn’t look like a security professional. I didn’t see Dan Maffei enter the building. He either was dropped off out front (the front of the building faces a busy boulevard and there was no way to watch the front) or he arrived before 4:00 PM when I got there. Either way, from outside it looked like security was pretty lax. I guess the right wingers aren’t so dangerous after all.
Finally, one would expect to have witnessed a lot of jubilant faces celebrating passage of something they’ve waited so long for. But I didn’t see that. Mostly what I saw were a lot of middle aged useful idiots.
