What The Media Didn't Tell You About the Romney WaWa Rally

Non-local Union Protesters bused in by Rendell

There is something the media did not expose about the Romney Rally scheduled to be held at WaWa in Quakertown, Pa on Saturday July 16th. Please read this first hand account from Ken Souder (@KenSouder on Twitter).

A quick personal note before Ken's story...This story brings home 3 powerful points: 1) Mainstream Media does not report facts that place Obama in a bad light.
2) - THE POWER OF GRASS ROOTS ACTIVISM - you do not have to be part of a "Tea Party" to attend events. Ken is a great example of hearing about an event, putting on his "activist boots" and making things happen.
3) The Power of Twitter - Ken learned that Romney would be at WaWa via Twitter. He then learned that Romney was going to be diverting from one location to another via Twitter. And he also met one local very active Tweeter at the Rally (via Twitter, of course) - @BrandonPoser (who is in highschool but has already figured out that Conservatism is what makes our country and our people strong and successful).

Y'all know I preach about the power of Twitter - and this is a prime example of how great a tool it is. I met Ken through Twitter - and then actually MET him. He is not only super cool - but as you can see - very active and passionate - and I know I can trust that what he tells me is the truth - unlike any "journalist" who went to school and vowed to be nonbiased and honest. Ha!

Here is Ken's account of the Romney WaWa Rally:

Crowd at WaWa Romney Ralley

I heard via Twitter on Friday that the Romney tour bus was planning a stop at the Quakertown Wawa.   There are two Wawa’s in Quakertown, so I was really not sure which it would be.  But using pure logic, it seemed likely that the one off the PA turnpike was going to be the one as he was coming down from the previous rally up state which was also right off the turnpike.  To go to the other Wawa would have been out of the way and would have meant travelling Rt. 309 which is busier and slower moving.  However, we had no assurance.  All we knew is it would be a Wawa. 

I headed up to Quakertown around 10:30 AM for breakfast at the local diner across from the Wawa on 663 which is less than a mile from the Quakertown interchange.  Around 11 am I drove over the Wawa (less than half a mile down Rt. 663 and noticed a Fox 29 TV truck front of me heading for the Wawa.  It seemed this was the Wawa Romney was supposed to stop at.  As I pulled in I noticed others gathering, but it wasn’t until around 12 noon that the crowds grew to probably a couple hundred or more.  The anti-Romney protestors would have been a minority if not for the bus which came in from Philly which off loaded 40 to 50 astro turf union folks from Philadelphia under the leadership of Ed Rendell.  These were NOT local people.  This did not come across in any of the reporting I saw. They started with the bull horns and the chants “we are the 99 percent” , the signs, even an airplane towed sign flying overhead saying how “Romney is owned by the 1 percent”, which drew the media (the media goes to where the action is!).  Meanwhile, the Romney supporters were quietly and peacefully standing a little distance away holding Romney signs waiting for the big moment.  Seeing this, I decided to rally the Romney folks.  So I said let’s make some noise, let’s sing “God bless America”  followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, and chant USA USA USA!!!  That did it.  The reporters from 69 News and CW came over to interview ME!!!  Asking why I was here, did I ever see Romney in person, etc…  I was happy to oblige.   Lesson:  When the media is there you need to make noise.  Don’t just stand there!  Otherwise, you will not get any coverage.  I did see that my brief moment in the spotlight did get airtime on the 10 o’clock 69 News.  My first interview aired on TV!!

I did receive a tweet from Brandon Posner around 11:30 a.m. saying that the event was called off due to the union thugs that decided to try to crash the party.  (Note:  this was never intended to be a full blown official Romney rally, but a quick pit stop, meet and greet, photo opp, then off again.  Normally an official rally will have a definite location announced in a few days in advance, tons of secret service, State police, crowd control, and screening of everyone coming to the event with barricaded areas where you can stand.  This was nothing like that.  Nobody was screened at this event!  Right away I realized something didn’t seem right.  Security was very lax).  The one secret service guy that was there told us that the presence of the protesters was a security risk. At one point the shouting was so intense between protestors and supporters, I thought there would be some physical violence.  I can see how if Romney showed up it could have been very messy.  This is why Romney’s bus decided to do an end run around the protestors and go to the OTHER Wawa on 309 where nobody was thinking he would go.  While the media said that Romney was afraid to confront the protestors, I see it as a brilliant move to frustrate their plans to embarrass the Romney campaign with the media capturing every minute of it.  They were really really angry that Romney didn’t show up.  It was worth seeing them walking away with their signs between their legs….They came all the way from Philadelphia without accomplishing their mission.  Romney definitely out foxed them!!  Romney got what he wanted, the astro turf from Philadelphia did not!!   Again, it’s important to note that without the astro turf union thugs from Philly, they would have been outnumbered by 10 or more to 1 by Romney true grassroots local folks who drove in their cars from the area.

It was around 1:30 p.m. that it was confirmed by the PA state police that the Romney campaign bus had decided on the other Wawa (along Rt. 309) about 5 miles on the other side of town..  I left, but was able to pick up more contacts and get more street wise in how to confront the enemy.  I will say they are definitely more street wise and savvy when it comes to protesting.   We could learn a lesson or two from them.  The Tea Party needs to be able to rally the troops quickly whenever and wherever they are needed to answer protestors.  I would say in the end, we won this one.  But it did get off to a slow start.

END

Thanks Ken! If you're intending on helping FIRE Obama and you're  not on Twitter - please set up an account and start following @KenSouder & @BrandonPosner - if you follow my Twitter (@heylaurafreed) - there is a list called FreedomWorks - it's a list of local PA grassroots activist. There is a list called FWBootcamp - and it's a list of FreedomWorks activists from across the country as well as people who work at FreedomWorks.

Don't think that just because Obama is doing a horrible job as a President that he will lose in 2012. People are easily mislead by Obama's handlers (as well as the Main Stream Media). It's going to take every single one of us to make noise, wake people up, and join together to get our country back on the Right track!