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Chattanooga Tea Party Goofs–Santorum Cut Short

By: quill67 (Diary)  |  February 25th, 2012 at 04:42 PM  | 

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I went to hear Senator Santorum speak today in Chattanooga, TN. I am on the fence about Gingrich or Santorum so I thought it would be good to hear both in person. (I’ve heard Gingrich before)

Santorum’s speach was good and well-delivered. He is more impressive in person than on TV (which is the opposite of Gingrich). Athough he needs to incoroporate more applause/attack lines and this speech did not move me like his Iowa victory speech did, the biggest disappointment had nothing to do with Senator Santorum.

Santorum arrived a few minutes early and his speech started early and he finished on schedule, but when he asked if there were any questions, he was quickly cutoff by the local tea party organizer. He told the audience that he wanted to allow time for more local speakers!!! This did not sit well with many in the audience who proceeded to leave the auditorum rather disgusted.

This is the one problem with the tea party movement–lack of political experience. Santorum was the headline speaker of the event, he should have been allowed to answer questions. He flew in from campaigning in Michigan and the audience would have appreciated more of his time to allow him to answer some of our questions. We will not get another chance to hear directly from Senator Santorum before we vote on Super Tuesday–So with all due respect: Chattanooga Tea Party–You Blew IT.

COMMENTS

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  • westcoastpatriette

    One wonders what on earth that TP organizer was thinking. Too bad no one was able to change his mind. I would have been pulling my hair out if I was there.

  • bobmark

    who was due to speak at a certain time and getting everybody in that he promised time to before he had to leave the hall.
    Santorum may have been the headliner, but he’s gone now and those buddies of his are still around.

  • msbs05

    I was there yesterday also and thought Santorum gave an incredible speech that was very moving. I saw an older man on the News channel 3 report talking about the speech and he was choked up about Rick speaking on honor. The local Tea Party has never put on an event this size, so I am impressed it went off as well as it did. However, I wanted to hear questions and answers and it seemed like such a let-down ending to a great speech. In their defense though, I think Rep Fleischman was part of the problem. He was supposed to speak 1 person before Santorum. He did not arrive on time, so they sent Santorum on early. Then Fleischman ended up speaking last, to an empty house. All in all it was great to have him speak. I was also chosing between Newt and Santorum, and after his speech my mind was made up. I am voting for Rick.
    A quick side note, after the speech Rick stopped at Firehouse Sub for a sandwich and stunned everyone there. He is really down to earth. I hope he wins Tennessee

  • lgrohn

    Sorry to knock all the wind out of your sails on this issue. I have three points to cover. You really should not criticize unless and until you cover your bases and find out why things happened the way they did. A simple post to the CTP would have answered your concerns.

    First, I was one of the coordinators of the Santorum event for the Chatt Tea Party. We had two remote mics ready to go for Santourm to take questions. It was Santorumis staff that cut him and the event off. Rick was actually running late for his next event in Virginia. I was standing stage-right when we were told Santorum HAD TO LEAVE (not shouting, just emphasis).

    Second, He picked up the sub at Firehouse BEFORE he arrived at Abb’s House, and yes everybody was stunned – especially his security team!

    Third, Congressman Fleischmann had been sitting in the speaker’s section since before 1 pm and was ready to speak. However, since the Santorum schedule was so tight and they wanted to get to Virginia on time the Congressman was asked to speak AFTER Santorum..

    Please feel free to ask any other questions about the Chattanooga event so as to clarify things.

    • westcoastpatriette

      of what was taking place. It sounds like the audience was left with a different impression than what you describe and that could have been averted if the audience was clearly informed about the reason Santorum could not stay and answer questions. Little things like that can go a long way in averting negative impressions such as the one this diarist was left with.

      Chalk it up as lessons to be learned and ways to improve in the future. But, thanks for taking the time to explain.