Maryland State Fair Day 3 - Aug 26, 2007

I manned the GOP booth today from 10:30am until 8:30pm.  I was going to stay until closing, but I just ran out of steam

Interestingly there was a strange ‘support’ from the GOP.  The first crew was friendly and got friendlier when they realized I actually am a Republican.  The second crew was a couple of “closet Ron Paul” supporters…. Until I got them both to don a RP button!  So for a while there were 3 of us running the GOP booth – all RP supporters!   I had a couple of people tell me that the RON PAUL truck was out at the shopping center parking lot.  The 3^rd crew was mainstream GOP organizers, including the party chairman.

I went through quite a few slim jims, several bumperstickers and DVDs (I opened the 2^nd package and only had a few of the ones I brought left (I brought 20), all of the yard signs that were there, brought in 10 more from the car and I think there were 7 left when I left.  The buttons were a BIG HIT.  I had several of my favorite buttons on my shirt and invited people to go through the pile and get a couple that they liked best.  I had one person give me his email so he could join our meetup (I’ve already sent him the info).

I walked the exhibition hall, stopping at booths and checking out the wares.  Since I had on a RP shirt, I would ask people if they knew who he was (most said no) and then I handed them a slim jim and said “check him out, I think you’ll really like what you find”.  A couple of those merchants came by the GOP booth and picked up more stuff and voted.

Here’s the best interesting story of the night:  A man with a John Edwards button came by.  He asked if, for his collection, he could get some Republican stickers.  We said sure.  He looked at me with the RP shirt and said,
“you know he’s a really great guy.”  The he turned to the party chairman and said, “If you guys were smart, you’d nominate Ron Paul.  He’s the only one you’ve got that will beat us.  We’re not afraid of any of the GOP candidates except Paul.  But I don’t figure you’ll give him a chance, so the Dems have this election in the bag.”  WOW Then he turned back to me and said, “You’ve got a great candidate there and no offense, but I really hope he loses.”  Of course I said, “For America’s sake, I pray he wins.”

I told everyone I could think of about the publicity stunt on Tuesday night at 6 pm.  Gov. Ehrlich will be at the GOP booth on Wednesday night from 6-10.  They plan to totally rearrange the booth for Ehrlich’s visit so it might be a good idea if someone were there until 6pm.

The Revolution Starts NOW

Pam