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Police on the roof of the Buffalo Chip Campground stage, Sturgis, S.D., 2008 motorcycle rally, an hour before McCain's arrival.
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STURGIS -- What does it say about the McCain Campaign that the poster for Monday's event featured a bar blond in chaps and bikini-top riding a buffalo, her left hand in a tuft of b-hair, her right cradling a beer? John McCain -- his photo -- is smaller and below her. The billboard on the road into Sturgis, site of the 68th annual Jackpine Gypsies motorcycle rally, read "Kellie Pickler, Kid Rock and John McCain," in that order, for the night's mainstage event at the Buffalo Chip campground. The McCain campaign folks back at the Virginia HQ must have been pulling their very human hair, but what does a war hero care about third billing?
I am at the event. I am choking on nitro, mown hay, chopper dust and pot. Police dogs are sweeping the crowd. The mainstage announcer says bikers have to move out of the security perimeter during the sweep. "Be sure to take all knives and bombs with you," he chortles. For sure, the knives are real. Cruising through town, I pass a "knives sharpened here" booth at the Episcopal Church. Three aged and rounded cavaliers of the road lounge before a poster, hand-drawn in black and red, featuring a dripping dagger and the advertisement "Under the Blood."
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Police on the roof of the Buffalo Chip Campground stage, Sturgis, S.D., 2008 motorcycle rally, an hour before McCain's arrival.
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Sturgis, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is cavalry country. Historic Fort Meade is here, as well as the Fort Meade Veterans Hospital. On the flight in from Denver, a benefits coordinator for the VA tells me that her job now is all about helping young men with head injuries re-connect. There are more types of brain trauma than human beings should be subject to.
All afternoon I'd been wondering how many of the thousands of bikers here are veterans. Most of them are middle-aged, some in their sixties and seventies. They tend to the large and soft. A bounty of beer bellies on parade. Authenticity aside, this is McCain Country, too. The best advertisement for a bar here is "owned by a veteran." The proprietor of a Gentlemen's Club -- wet t-shirt contests daily -- "served in Iraq on a medical team."
The lure of motorcycle week in Sturgis is the surrounding Badlands countryside with its miles of open road. But it's also alcohol, drugs and sex. My other plane conversationalist was a Texas woman coming in to help at her family's barbeque booth. Dorothy's husband called her down in Austin the night before to complain of the couples coupling nekkid on his picnic tables at the Chip. The evening will be more than a mere military tribute to John McCain.
The bikers are a sedate group, though, staying within the speed limits and using turn signals, strolling through town with plastic-bagged purchases in hand. Christianity is a strong current running through biker culture. Groups of threes and fours clasp arms to shoulders, heads bowed in prayer. There's a "bike for Jesus" charity bike wash and plenty of daily AA meetings. A younger man in khaki shorts strode down the sidewalk bearing up jauntily under a varnished and emblazoned crucifix that must have been twelve feet tall. The t-shirt on this pilgrim says, "Live a good life so the preacher won't have to lie at your funeral." Motorcycle week in South Dakota is the descendant of the old summer camp meeting -- sex and redemption in equal measure at campground.
Bikers brought their rides inside the security perimeter earlier in the day. The spit and polish on them makes them look as if they are standing at attention, waiting for McCain. The crowd itself is amiable. Sitting next to me and smoking at a press table, which has been claimed most amiably by bikers, is an older guy wearing a black cowboy hat with two toothpicks stuck through the brim. "I don't care if you're for the other guy," he says apropos of Senator Obama to his friends, "God Bless we have a choice!" His spirit of generosity is reflected in the low level of enthusiasm of this pro-McCain group for their man as candidate.
"I'm not excited about McCain," George tells me, "but Obama's gonna spend all our money." Unusually thin and wiry for a road hog, but decked out in classic black leather, George adds, "We're still fighting the Vietnam War." George and his wife Marie urge me to walk over to the fence and check out the POW/MIA car, printed with the names of all the American servicemen who were imprisoned or went missing in Nam. "It's possible it could happen again over there," George warns of Iraq. He's summed up the evening's sentiment, for most everybody seems to find the meaning of life and politics in the crucible of war. Many bikers wore the red poppies the elderly VFW volunteers sold throughout the day.
The Tribute to the Troops portion of the evening's entertainment was all genuine iconic McCain Event -- bold-faced and underlined. We sang the National Anthem to the accompaniment of a whining electric guitar and the vroom-vroom-vroom of dozens of Harleys. "Hu-a! Hu-a!" the leader of the Patriot Guard greeted the crowd, and the Marines hailed him back. "We believe in America! The land of beautiful roads, the land of beautiful bikes, the land of ice-cold beer, and a land of beautiful women!" Coyote howls from the men. "That's the best hu-a a man can get."
"No matter what you do, don't change!" the Marine tells the men in the audience. "Don't change for politicians, don't change for the press, don't change 'cause your momma or your wife or your daughter wants you to change. Because you are the real Americans."
Before the solemn rite of the Flag Folding Ceremony, in which a grizzled vet intones the meaning of the twelve folds, Jillian from the volunteer organization Hearts to Serve introduces another woman not with her name but with the description, "a proud Marine Corps wife of twenty-one years." She says that four years ago she received a phone call that her husband -- they had been high school sweethearts -- had been shot on his second tour in Iraq. "No one is prepared for that phone call," she says. Her husband had been shot through the eye, the bullet taking two inches of his brain before exiting. "He was handed to me as roadkill," she says of her Master Sergeant, who now needs her round-the-clock care. This Marine Corps wife is not looking for pity -- she is looking for donations to Hearts to Serve. "God Bless, and Semper Fi," she says.
"President Johnny!" the bikers shout as John McCain takes the stage. VROOM-VROOM-VROOM! The choppers add their chorus. "I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day," McCain says in reference to Obama's crowd in Berlin. "FREEDOM!!!" the poachers at the press table roar, and the table shakes as if under attack. McCain mentions his rival again, saying Obama wants to save gas by inflating tires, and some of the bikers cry, "Fuck him! Fuck Obama!"
"I want us to come home [from Iraq] with victory and honor," McCain tells the crowd. VROOM! For these biker vets, that's the pledge of Semper Fi -- that their sacrifices and the lives of their friends never be in vain. "You are the heart and soul of America," McCain says to the bikers. "America will remain the last best hope for man on earth." Beyond the hyperbole, the bikers get McCain's underlying message, his assurance that their lives do indeed count for something. Quickly, McCain moves on to humor, musing that his wife is pretty enough to win the beauty contest later in the evening, the only American woman to be both First Lady and Miss Buffalo Chip. "Wet t-shirt! Wet t-shirt!" a guy in the crowd shouts. McCain and some of the bikers laugh. In closing, he says, "I want to see a lot of bikes parked outside the polling places of America."
Not so many of the bikers stayed for Kellie Pickler and Kid Rock, a different crowd came in for the late show. Elmo, a biker whose black leather vest is sewn with Harley patches, grabbed my hand. "You're press, right? " He leaned in close to confide. "I'm not crazy about this guy [McCain] -- but that Obama! A Communist! We gotta save the country, you know?"
Can't they get a comedian ???????
Oh Mc Cain horned in on the ralley!!!!!!!!
As for McCain's appearance, there were some hardcore McCain fans there. I'd say about half the people were there specifically to see McCain either out of curiosity or because they're genuine fans. It's much more likely the other half were there to stake out and hold onto their space in the arena for Kid Rock. One of the Chip's guards told me the crowd for Kid Rock was around 68,000. On the high side, I'd say there were maybe 1,000 in the arena during McCain's speech. So, yes, I think he was banking on a lot of biker vets showing up, as well as getting some swelled crowd numbers from the later concerts. One of his quotes was that he'd rather address 50,000 bikers than 200,000 Germans. His crowd didn't come anywhere near 50,000 or even 5,000. Still, I'm sure it was something completely different for John & Cindy.
That will be the day when America will once again be proud of our electorate's choice of Republican leaders. God bless America!
Then consider this:
Republicans felt that John McCain would make a less capable president than George W. Bush.
Wow.
To the Founding Father's free speech had as much to do with any citizen's right to post their opinion in the public square as it had with the rags that passed for newpapers at that time (so little changes). Free speech is not about protecting corporate media. The internet has brought back the "public square", but talk to your neighbors and co-workers too.
And have fun! The only way we will win is by having the confidence of true patriots. The Constitution is a progressive document. "In order to form a more perfect union..." was PURPOSEFUL bad grammer. They knew there was always more to be done and so does Obama.
Please don't go away mad, just ..
If you still want to know why Obama and his supporters are seen as 'Elitist', you need look no further than the posts on this page.
Word to the wise...? That biker thing in Sturgis is theater, pure and simple. Most anyone who can afford the bike, lives in a nice or super-nice house in the suburbs. I have followed the history of bikers since they started as disillusioned returning WWII vets in California to the present time when the genuine bikers are meth dealers for the nation.
Those old farts and their "mamas" in Sturgis...? Think of it as the same kind of theater as a Renaissance Faire. Everyone dressed up in costume and pretending to be the real deal. Those people were a captive audience who did not show up to see John McCain. John McCain can't get 2,000 people in a room at the same time. Why do you suppose that is...?
Frankly, nothing you said bears any relevence to anything that I posted, so I'm not sure why you tagged it as a reply to my post...but that was certainly your right.
BTW, I also occasionally go to a Renaissance Faire....they're a lot of fun....
anybody who calls obama a "communist" simply has no idea what he's talking about. I wonder who he thinks pays for the roads he drives his harley on? also, anybody who screams "F you" to an american senator deserves to be sneered at.
Really? I see worse than that directed at the President of the United States here on a regular basis.
You seem to be making an awful lot of assumptions about me. I didnt call anyone a communist, I never said I was a Republican (okay, so maybe you got me there) and my idea of someone who is elitist includes those who post insulting, degrading and offensive remarks here at the expense of an entire class of people they dont know.
If you want to compare priorities, lets compare the most recent foreign trips of the two candidates. Obama stopped at Britain, France, Germany, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and the West Bank. McCain: Mexico and Columbia. And how many people did McCain draw?
Seriously, I don't see how this is a negative to McCain except for the bizzare stuff he said about offering is wife.
Obama should been out there to adsorbing up some of these potential voters.
Give it a rest already.
BTW: the "bizzare stuff he said about offering is wife." is negative enough. It showed him to be the misogynist that he is.