http://www.thestate.com/2010/07/18/1382173/alvin-greene-speaks-to-packed.html
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2010/07/18/sot.greene.first.speech.cnn.html
click link for video above
MANNING —
More than 400 people – including a throng of state and national media – filled the Manning Junior High School gymnasium to hear from Alvin Greene, the Democrat U.S. Senate hopeful whose unlikely primary win thrust him onto the national stage.
Greene, 32, an unemployed veteran who upset political favorite Vic Rawls with 100,000 votes, spoke to the crowd for about eight minutes, reading from prepared text; the speech got frequent applause.
Greene started his speech at the monthly meeting of the local NAACP branch in his hometownby slowly rattling off national job loss statistics and South Carolina’s dismal rankings in standardized tests. Organizers moved the location of the meeting twice — first to a larger church, then the local junior high school as the number of people expected to come swelled.
“We have more unemployed now in South Carolina than any other time in our state’s history,” he said.
He suggested infrastructure projects put on hold after 9/11 could be restarted, such as an interstate from Michigan to the South Carolina coast.
“Let’s get South Carolina and America back to work and let’s move South Carolina forward,” he said.
After the 1-hour, 20-minute affair, which included several local speakers, Greene stood on stage signing autographs. The press was kept away. Then he was escorted quickly off the stage by a group of retired master sergeants who were in full uniform. Greene didn’t take any questions. He walked through the halls of the school and got into his Mercury SUV and drove off, escorted by Manning police. One of the retired escorts said he inspected Greene’s vehicle beforehand; it was just a precaution, he told reporters.
The 300 seats set up for Greene’s first public appearance since unexpectedly winning the June 8 primary were all filled. The parking lot of the relatively new school was filled with cars and news media trucks.
And counting the 15 video cameras trained on the stage, it was a packed house.
A campaign worker with a Greene for U.S. Senate shirt was videotaping the crowd of reporters surrounding the candidate as he drove away.
This was Greene’s first public appearance as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. He faces incumbent Jim DeMint in the November election.
View the entire speech
Ole boy from the wire
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2010/07/18/sot.greene.first.speech.cnn.html
click link for video above
MANNING —
More than 400 people – including a throng of state and national media – filled the Manning Junior High School gymnasium to hear from Alvin Greene, the Democrat U.S. Senate hopeful whose unlikely primary win thrust him onto the national stage.
Greene, 32, an unemployed veteran who upset political favorite Vic Rawls with 100,000 votes, spoke to the crowd for about eight minutes, reading from prepared text; the speech got frequent applause.
Greene started his speech at the monthly meeting of the local NAACP branch in his hometownby slowly rattling off national job loss statistics and South Carolina’s dismal rankings in standardized tests. Organizers moved the location of the meeting twice — first to a larger church, then the local junior high school as the number of people expected to come swelled.
“We have more unemployed now in South Carolina than any other time in our state’s history,” he said.
He suggested infrastructure projects put on hold after 9/11 could be restarted, such as an interstate from Michigan to the South Carolina coast.
“Let’s get South Carolina and America back to work and let’s move South Carolina forward,” he said.
After the 1-hour, 20-minute affair, which included several local speakers, Greene stood on stage signing autographs. The press was kept away. Then he was escorted quickly off the stage by a group of retired master sergeants who were in full uniform. Greene didn’t take any questions. He walked through the halls of the school and got into his Mercury SUV and drove off, escorted by Manning police. One of the retired escorts said he inspected Greene’s vehicle beforehand; it was just a precaution, he told reporters.
The 300 seats set up for Greene’s first public appearance since unexpectedly winning the June 8 primary were all filled. The parking lot of the relatively new school was filled with cars and news media trucks.
And counting the 15 video cameras trained on the stage, it was a packed house.
A campaign worker with a Greene for U.S. Senate shirt was videotaping the crowd of reporters surrounding the candidate as he drove away.
This was Greene’s first public appearance as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. He faces incumbent Jim DeMint in the November election.
View the entire speech
