Did something last night I've never done before... follow me below the dingledoodlesquiggliedKosagnocchidividerthingie fold after a word from our sponsor...
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I usually groan at the volume of political email I receive this time of year, but I won't ever again. Why? Because thanks to one that showed up in early September, I learned about a lottery and was lucky enough to score two tickets to the Warren-Brown debate last night. I'd never been to one outside the local-candidates-only type, and I was really excited.
When one is a political junkie has a healthy interest in the political process and a fair number of friends who are as well, the choice of who to bring might have generated its own lottery. However, my choice was made easily when I asked another member of Casa Brillig if they'd like to go, and the answer was yes!!. And so I headed towards Lowell with Mr. Brillig K1. Yes, K1 :-). The same one who will be making her appearance at NN13 and has impressed her teachers and even her swim coach with her interest in the political process.
K1 and I made it to the parking garage with slightly under an hour to spare, meaning the candidate supporters were in full force lining the streets. As I've never been to one of these before, I was as blown away as her by the visual of that much campaign signage in one place. K1 and I both noticed that supporters on both sides didn't conform to a 'stereotype'. We parked and walked past Media Row (at least a dozen media trucks if I used Democratic Arithmetic), into the Tsongas Arena and found our general admission section - about 2/3 of the way back on the right.
Unlike Netroots Nation, where all the seats are friendly seats, this was a decidedly mixed neighborhood: two older (mid-70s) gentlemen sporting Warren stickers to my right, a group of Brown supporters to our left and behind, and a young Democratic couple directly in front of us. K1 took the scene in and let it be known that she COULD have brought her ipod-which-has-a-camera in, tyvm :-). I started chatting w the gentlemen next to me, and we passed the time until the debate started. I got my twitter filters set to #MASenDebate and conserved battery :).
There have been so many excellent diaries on the debate itself, I'm not going to go into a play-by-play here; I'd rather focus on K1's reaction and our interaction. It's clear that I am doing my maternal job properly, as she was embarrassed every time I disregarded the plea for quiet and cheered/hissed as appropriate. She chuckled at my tweets and was thrilled to see that one comment she made to me was ALSO tweeted by someone with many followers ("hey! I said that too!!").
She understood most of the question topics, and was fantastic about quietly asking when she didn't. We both thought Brown's "I'm not in your classroom..." comment cemented his identity as a bully, and wondered why he's running as a Republican when clearly he's embarrassed to do so, or so it seemed from his clinging to the word Independent like a liferaft.
It was truly an enjoyable evening, and I loved watching her soak up the atmosphere and experience. I asked K1 to share her thoughts on the debate. While she does have a dKos account, she's been too busy to make an inaugural comment or diary (HS Swim Team ends mid-November, so hopefully then!) so I'm including her thoughts here:
I loved it. The debate was an historic event that I had the amazing chance to be part of, and as it was my first political event it was certainly an awesome experience. Both candidates has some valid points, and both revealed sides to their personality that I had not previously known. The moderator, while obviously showing a Republican slant, did what I'd consider a decent job being impartial (although 10 minutes to talk about Native American heritage was a bit much, considering they spent less time answering the question about jobs for students getting out of college).
I also noticed Scott Brown failed to answer opinion questions directly. He didn't have a favorite Justice, or an opinion on whether the Red Sox should fire Bobby Valentine, or anything. That's not really what you want in a Senator, is it... someone who can't form an opinion?
If I ever get the opportunity to do this again, I would gladly accompany you once more.
I will make sure there are opportunities for K1 to be involved politically. If you're at NN13 this coming June, make sure to say hi :).
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything
without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do
not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From Marjmar:
I got a good chuckle out of the simplicity of this rejoinder from westyny, in kos' Mitt's lady woes worsen.
From A Siegel:
xaxnar figured out the calculation. Responding to Crazy Hot Weathergirl, Xaxnar combined sex, Victorians, and Climate Change in a calculation that makes sense.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
Best comment ever on the matter of Brown's SCOTUS favorite, from Thutmose V.
sjburnman nails it on David Gregory. Make sure to read the replies by Rosalie907 and hungrycoyote.
Top Mojo for yesterday, October 1st, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic!
1) Even a Rose Gareden strategy wouldn't help by theKgirls — 144
2) Another explanation of why he swallowed by icemilkcoffee — 141
3) Clueless Noise Network.... by David Kroning II — 125
4) My husband is a huge fan of Guitar Center by Steveningen — 124
5) This would be a good time to round up quotes by Bob Love — 123
6) Really, it's pretty bad when by sparkysgal — 122
7) I've been through this by Keith930 — 117
8) It seemed like an impulsive decision to me, by Eileen B — 115
9) I'm sure the next Mitt rollout will fix this by Dallasdoc — 113
10) Harvesting musical instrument stores must make by nailbender — 111
11) Romney's own advisors by statsone — 105
12) I guess you saw the post about the former Bain by David54 — 94
13) What it does is explain why voters are low info by Glinda — 94
14) Sen. Webb's introduction by noweasels — 93
15) I love my British press. by Loquatrix — 91
16) None of them surprise me by BOHICA — 88
17) Getting the Commander in Chief's challenge coin by brooklynbadboy — 88
18) I wanted to say something intelligent by Kevvboy — 84
19) Dude Was Born Too Late by JekyllnHyde — 81
20) Was there somone present to ask her, "Ms. Bachmann by illinifan17 — 80
21) Yes, let's make sure we have them all on the by hungrycoyote — 77
22) The upside by Zwoof — 76
23) You Worry Too Much, Bill by JekyllnHyde — 74
24) But there was a time. . . by 4CasandChlo — 73
25) This by DuzT — 72
26) Says a lot about the low-information voters by moose67 — 71
27) When we win the election, we need to go after a by David54 — 70
28) & the ineptitude: announcing "zingers" in advance! by Torta — 69
29) And many of us who by gchaucer2 — 69
30) Mitt got took to the wood shed.... by tdslf1 — 69
Top Pictures for yesterday, October 1st. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!