A Fred Smith Rally In Wilmington

18 Apr, 2008 by John Hawkins

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Fred Smith is the Republican Gubernatorial candidate that I support and last night, I went to one of his rallies in Wilmington. It was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with my buddy Lorie Byrd, who works for Smith and the rally was surprisingly good.

Smith is pals with Lee Greenwood, who was actually there performing last night. Now, I am not a big country music fan, so about the only Lee Greenwood song I know is “Proud to be an American,” but he played a lot of great songs last night. The guy actually has a lot of hits, to which the country music fans in RWN’s audience are probably saying, “Well, duh!”

In addition, since this wasn’t a Barack Obama rally, it was very patriotic. They had someone sing the National Anthem, we pledged allegiance to the flag, there was lots of applause every time the troops were mentioned.

Fred Smith was actually pretty decent on the stump, too. He’s served in the military, he’s a successful businessman, and he’s conservative as the day is long. He’s actually a very impressive guy.

But, the surprise highlight of the night, believe it or not, was a guy by the name of Benny – Bangin al Dosakee. He’s a Sunni from Kurdistan who acted as an interpreter for our troops in Iraq and he has recently come to the United States to become an American citizen. He was there at the rally helping his friend Will Breazeale, who served as a soldier in Iraq, run for Congress.

They brought Benny up on stage and he thanked the crowd for everything America had done for Iraq and talked about how proud he was to be an American citizen. Then Lee Greenwood asked him to stay on stage for a moment and broke into “Proud to be an American.” After a few moments of that, Benny started to choke up and Lee let him go back to his seat.

That room had a candidate for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Congress in it — and Lee Greenwood — and yet, when the event was over, it seemed like every person in the room was trying to make their way over to shake Benny’s hand and tell him how happy they were to have him as a fellow American. It was a great scene.

PS: Here are a couple of interviews I did at the event,

First of all, here’s a short interview I did with Fred Smith,

Next up, here’s an interview I did with Will Breazeale, an Iraq Vet who’s running for Congress and Benny – Bangin al Dosakee, an Iraqi interpreter who worked with Will in Iraq and is now an American citizen. You may particularly enjoy Will explaining how Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid got so frustrated because they couldn’t understand what one of the generals in Iraq was saying to them, that they actually got up and walked out on the briefing.

Here’s my favorite quote from this video,

“I was a protocol officer for a 3 star general on my second deployment to the Middle-East and sure enough, here comes Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid in the door for their briefing before they go to see soldiers. And they got so frustrated from their lack of knowledge of military operations, like the acronyms we use or even what an up armored Humvee was, between level 2 or 3 armor, that they got frustrated, got up in the middle of this briefing with Lt. General Whitcomb, commander of Third Army, and left in disgust. And I said, “who are these people to do that?” — Will Breazeale

PS #2: Here are some pics from the event,

Our next Governor — I hope.

Fred staffers: Morgan Dickens, Lorie Byrd, & Joe Humphries.

Here’s Lee Greenwood getting deep into a song. The lighting on the stage wasn’t very good unless you were close enough to use the flash, so that’s why it looks a little grainy.

Fred’s wife Ginny and Lee Greenwood look on as Benny – Bangin al Dosakee talks about how happy he is to be in a great country like America,

The man whom I’d like to have as my next Congressman, Will Breazeale, paying tribute to the man of the hour,

PS #3: Will Breazeale told me that his campaign is looking for a volunteer to help spruce up his website a bit. If you can code, have experience with designing, and have the urge to help out a conservative running for office, shoot me an email that shows some of the websites you’ve done work on before and if you look good, I will pass your info on to Will’s campaign.

PS #4: You can contribute to Fred Smith’s campaign here and Will Breazeale’s campaign here. Fred is trying to fight his way past a RINO by the name of Pat McCrory who is a little ahead of him in the polls and Will is engaged in a tough, but still winnable fight against a Democrat who has a big fundraising advantage on him. They could both use your support.

PS #5: Fred Smith currently is running an ad at my site.