Does anybody happen to know how last night's audience

[lamp_shade]

was selected? church members/evangelicals only... invitation only... open to the public... what?

[FrenchieCat]

1. I think you had to pay a thousand bucks.

[madeline_con]

2. Not sure, probably had to give a big "donation" to the church.

That's how McCain't did his recent local visit. Invitation only, which means the big dodnors are welcome.

[lamp_shade]

3. There was a lot of controversy surrounding ticket sales

Here's just one of many items:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/church-tickets-saddleback-2122308-members-ross

[lamp_shade]

4. I think it's safe to say that the bulk of the audience was

"church flock". A NY Times article noted that ticket preferences were given to charter members of the church and that each candidate was given a block of seats. I wonder how big those blocks were? Obama didn't get the loudest or most frequent applause, but he certainly got much more than I thought he would. McCain could have spent the hour reading a newspaper to the audience and they would have applauded after each sentence, whether they were paying attention or not.

[Undercurrent]

5. Oh good grief! The audience was stacked!

No regular working people could afford "$500 for bleacher seats, $1,000 for angled floor seats and $2,000 for front center seats." (from the OC Register article you linked to.)

What a set up!

:puke:

[lamp_shade]

6. Going in McCain had nothing to lose and nothing to gain

Obama also had nothing to lose but something to gain... maybe only one vote... but hey. A republican-turned-indy lady called in to cspan after the show and said she's leaning toward Obama now because he answered the questions. She said McCain did nothing but practice his convention speech.

[Undercurrent]

7. That's good to to know that some of the .

brain dead are waking up to the neocon scam.