Thoughts about the Bob McDonnell event at the Institute

If you haven’t figured it out from the previous two posts, SouthsideCentral was there. Here’s our random thoughts about it…

• I was at the Institute before anybody else… damn, this place just is simply beautiful. It’s too bad that most of Southside has never stepped foot in the building.
• The people from the Sorensen Institute really know how to host an event like this.
• The crowd was slow to build, but it became standing room only until the Institute staff brought out more chairs.
• Bob McDonnell is a very impressive speaker and he has the fire for the race and job.
• Dear God, you Uranium Loonies. His first question was about uranium mining and he clearly said he supported a study and had no opinion until the study was completed. His opinion isn’t going to change in the next 2 hours.
• Why wasn’t more Southside TV media present? Ashley Singh from WSET was the only TV reporter present.
• Nice little reception after the speech…
• Dear God (again), one of the main shouters from the Tea Partiers’ debacle at the Perriello event  is here. Thank goodness she remained totally quiet for McDonnell and maybe they’ve learned how to be respectful at events like this. Nahhhh…probably not.
• Danville City Council’s Larry Campbell continues to impress me highly. He was at Tom Perriello’s event as well. It’s good to see Danville’s leaders at events that make Danville shine. Thumbs up also go to councilmembers Fred Shanks & Wayne Oakes for coming.
• Danny Marshall, Don Merricks and Robert Hurt were in the audience. They’re good guys who represent this area well. (Not an endorsement for this year’s races, by the way)
• Gracie Gunnell from Chatmoss Cablevision was there looking classy as ever. Folks, if you don’t know Gracie (very few don’t), you should. She knows her way around the political world.
• One final round of name-dropping. Bob Gibson & Coy Barefoot from the Sorensen Institute are class acts.

Final thoughts: McDonnell is a strong candidate for governor. This event showed me that he’s smart and well-spoken. This is going to be a tough decision and a great election. Virginia will do well with either McDonnell or Deeds. There was no Republican-Republican-Republican-We-Will-Win partisanship from him and I was highly surprised and highly impressed by that. The turnout was great and it shows that Southside voters care about the issues and the candidates.