The FreedomWorks Rally In Raleigh (12 pics)

The FreedomWorks Rally In Raleigh (12 pics)

The fine folks over at FreedomWorks brought me in to do a speech at a rally in Raleigh, NC last week-end.

I drove down on Friday and that night, my pal Lorie Byrd picked me up at the hotel and took me over to a BBQ place where FreedomWorks was holding a little shindig for some of the speakers and volunteers.

Along with Lorie and me, Betsy Newmark from Betsy’s Page, 14 year-old wunderkind Jonathan Krohn, author, motivational speaker, & candidate Mason Weaver, Tabitha Hale, and Dick Armey among others, were all there for dinner (Incidentally, I got to talk to Dick Armey for a few minutes after we all ate and he’s one heck of a nice guy).

Tabitha Hale & Jonathan Krohn

Tabitha Hale & Jonathan Krohn

Tabitha Hale, Dick Armey, & Lorie Byrd

Tabitha Hale, Dick Armey, & Lorie Byrd

The next morning, I got up, checked out of the hotel and walked about 1/2 mile over to where they were holding the rally. On the way there, I passed the Capitol building in Raleigh where I took a single snap:

Confederate War Dead Memorial, Raleigh

Confederate War Dead Memorial. Suck it, libs.

After I arrived at the rally, they had a singer who did some patriotic and Christian songs to get things started. Then, Dick Armey gave his speech:

Dick Armey

Unfortunately, I wore a monkey suit to the rally, which I hated, and felt kind of silly about it, because Dick Armey showed up wearing jeans.

After Armey’s speech, they did a bit more music and then started a mile long walk around the Capitol. I skipped that because I wanted to practice my speech a bit more.

When people returned from the walk, they had about a dozen speakers who were scheduled to talk and I was number three in the rotation. You can see my speech, which was called “Foot Soldiers” below.

Incidentally, I came up with and practiced that whole speech completely out of my head. I had no notes with me on the podium and I never wrote anything down, other than 5 lines I scribbled on a hotel notepad.

Speech Notes

Although I’m admittedly terrible at doing crowd estimates, I’d guess that there were about 500 people there. Here are some pics I took at the rally:

FreedomWorks Rally, Raleigh

FreedomWorks Rally, Raleigh

FreedomWorks Rally, Raleigh

FreedomWorks Rally, Raleigh

FreedomWorks Rally, Raleigh

FreedomWorks Rally, Raleigh

Eventually, after Tabitha Hale returned from taking Dick Armey to the airport and things were starting to wind down a bit, the two of us went out and grabbed a bite to eat at some random restaurant that turned out to have passably good nachos and chicken wings — along with some interesting decor:

Tabitha Hale

All in all, I had a great time at the event. It was nice to catch up with some of my blogging friends and: the people from FreedomWorks.

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