First-Person Account of Sarah Palin Stop in Carson, California

Carson, California -- The airwaves have been so flooded with pundit banter about the phrase that it's hard to pin down exactly when she said it. But because my family and I were there, we know when Sarah Palin first spoke that now-immortal soundbite: the long-awaited assertion on behalf of the McCain campaign that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists."

No, it wasn't the first thing she said from the podium at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, on October 4, a drizzly Saturday afternoon - nor was it the line that got the loudest crowd reaction. Perhaps the reason for that was, simply, all 12,000 + of us (yes, I believe the Los Angeles Times purposely underestimated the turnout for their own agenda-driven purposes) we were a tad bit stunned.

After all, McCain supporters have been hearing about Bill Ayers for the better part of a year, mostly within the confines of the conservative talk radio bubbles we retreat to during our otherwise shark-infested weekdays (somehow, the argument that "no one talks about Ayers except Sean Hannity" is supposed to make the idea that he played a role in Obama's early success less credible. Why that is remains a mystery to those of us who actually care about our candidates' associations). But I digress; back to the rally.

My family and I received our tickets via e-mail, although we were never asked to present them. Naive as we are, we supposed that by holding tickets and standing in line for two hours, we would be guaranteed seats in the tennis stadium where the event was being held. Not so; in fact, a campaign rep named Mike attempted to lead us and a few hundred others into the "overflow" soccer stadium (which holds several thousand more people. Why didn't the campaign book the soccer stadium in the first place? My guess: Just in case it didn't fill up, as news cameras would likely focus on the empty seats. Trust me, there wouldn't have been any. We were among the last group to be let in the gates, and there were easily another two thousand people behind us who were turned away). Oh and Mike, bless his heart, tried to convince us that Palin "might stop by here later too." Right...nice try. She didn't, by the way. So ignoring Mike and his honest effort to do his job, we made our way to the top of the stadium and stood against the rails, among throngs of other people striving to catch a glimpse (sound like anyone else's rallies you may have heard of? There was no fainting, though.). We positioned our kids carefully near the stairs - which had to stay clear - so we knew they would be able to see.

After talks by Jon Voight, Meg Whitman of Ebay fame, and a few local dignitaries, Palin walked onstage accompanied by the president of the Los Angeles chapter of N.O.W., Shelly Mandell, who boldy procalimed that we were looking at "the new face of feminism." Of course, this move rendered lots of crowd reaction, but (not surprisingly) no mention from the L.A. Times, although I saw their photographers snapping away, presumably to appear as if they are actual journalists intending to cover this near-historic endorsement. But appearances aren't everything. If you click the link above, in fact, you'll notice that they chose a rather unflattering still - one that makes Palin appear ditzy, to be frank - as the beginning of their video clip from the event.

Palin's talk contained several staples of her familiar stump speech, most of which alluded to John McCain's leadership abilities and her status as a Washington outsider. Oh, and there was a brief, almost unnoticeable interruption by one of those wacky granny-panty ladies from that silly Pink group. But since this event occurred just days after the Katie Couric interview, Palin chose to use it as a prompt to intorduce the Ayers component, saying, "Evidently there's been a lot of interest in what I read lately," (insert loud laughs and a few cheers). She continued, "I was reading today a copy of the New York Times," (insert loud boos). "And I was really interested to read in there about Barack Obama's friends from Chicago," (insert more boos). "Turns out one of his earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times (her emphasis), was a domestic terrorist," (stunned boos) "that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.' " (more booing). This is not a man who sees America as you and I see America."

And that was it. It's not as if there was no audience reaction to the statement, but compared to several other moments during her time onstage, it was almost minimal. And I do believe the reason was shock. Shock that the McCain campaign finally opted to touch the previously untouchable. No, there were no "racially-tinged remarks," as the Associated Press and one L.A. Times writer who admitted she was not even in attendance would have you believe. Whether people agree with the opinion portion of her statement or not is another subject entirely, but to report in a hard news story that it had racial implications is to mislead readers and distort the truth. What you didn't see in the news coverage were the hordes of Southern Californians, including some African-Americans, women holding "Hillary Supporters for McCain/Palin" signs, and others next to a banner proclaiming "Estamos Unidos con John McCain" - all of whom crammed into the stadium, behind the rails at the top, and onto the stairs alongside one another to show their support for John McCain and Sarah Palin.