Charlie Park, a McCain protester in Greenville, S.C.
GREENVILLE, S.C.--It'd be an understatement to say that John McCain inspires a lot of passion--both good and bad.
I
felt the love--and the hate--immediately upon arriving here at the
Carolina First Center for the Arizona's senator first rally after last
night's loss in Michigan to Mitt Romney.
On one side of the
building's entrance stood a phalanx of gentleman holding "Stop Illegal
Immigration" signs, a giant Confederate flag stretched between them and
a complimentary Stars and Bars leaning on someone's shoulder. Soon, a
woman leaped out of a red Jeep Grand Cherokee, its bumper papered with
six Confederate flag stickers (one also said "Dixie"), and passed out
"Boot John McCain" Confederate flag placards; she happened to be
wearing a Confederate flag bomber jacket and waving a flag of her own.
Nearby, two Fred Thompson fans held signs--"Dems and Libs Vote McCain;
True S.C. Conservatives Vote Thompson"--and complained about the cold.
On
the other side of the entrance, a group of enthusiastic young McCain
supporters had gathered. "What did Fred Thompson get in Michigan?" one
shouted. His compatriots responded with a chant: "Two Percent! Two
Percent!" They continued for 30 seconds or so, accompanied from the
Thompson camp by the only appropriate riposte: the repeated,
contrapuntal quacking of a hunter's duck call. We're not in New
Hampshire anymore, I thought.
Moments later, a crew from PBS's News Hour with
Jim Leher approached the Confederate flag brigade, eager for some
Southern color. "McCain is a Democrat and we want him booted out of the
state!" yelled Charlie Park, a leader of the Confederate States of
America Historical Preservation Society. "Let's try that again," said
the cameraman; apparently he hadn't hit RECORD in time. "McCain is a
Democrat and we want him booted out of the state!" Park repeated.
Helpfully, he was holding one of the "Boot John McCain" signs. It seems
that Park, who was costumed in the khaki suit and feathered,
yellow-banded hat of a Confederate officer, had approved of McCain's
2000 vow to let the voters decide whether the battle flag should fly
over the South Carolina statehouse--and disapproved of his subsequent
reversal on the subject. "When he lost, he got mad about it," said
Park. "He started crying like a little baby and voted to have the flag
taken down in vengeance." After wondering aloud why the media has made
a such a big deal about Mitt Romney's Mormon religion but left the "Muslim" Barack
Obama alone ("I hate to be narrow-minded about it, but I don't like
Muslims"), Park vowed to "follow McCain everywhere he goes around the
state."
After visiting with Park, I decided it was time to head
inside. But I was intercepted by Andrea Malewski, 21, one of the few
remaining McCain volunteers; the rest had left to join the senator on
stage. "That's not the real story," she said, glancing at the protesters. A recent grad of Western
Michigan University, Malewski had driven 800 miles overnight from
Lansing to stand outside today's event and hold a sign. "He has to win," she said. "I've been for
McCain since 2000. I was just a kid--too young to vote." I
told Malewski that Park and Co. were planning to trail her candidate for the
rest of the week.
"Fun," she said. "I'm sure we'll become friends."
