Sunshine patriots

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. "

This was the beginning of Thomas Paine's pamphlet "The Crisis." I thought of it because Rick and I went to a Mitt Romney event/rally yesterday afternoon. We left our house at 2:30 pm, an hour drive over to Yardley, PA (kinda by New Hope and Washington Crossing the Delaware) to Shady Brook Farms. It was packed with people - the lines were long and they just kept coming and coming. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get thro security and into the event. The crowd was upbeat and it was fun to talk to people. One woman and I talked for a long time; it is so much fun for me to come across someone who likes to talk politics as much as I do, and is as informed. I suppose most of the crowd was also as highly motivated.

It was quite cold, but we came prepared with coats, gloves, scarves, and earmuffs. It was out in a huge field, and was packed (crowded, crammed, full, filled, full to capacity, bursting, overflowing, chock-full, jam-packed, chock-a-block, heaving) with people. Lots and lots of police and I suppose secret service and other security types. It was supposed to start at 5 or 5:30 (I read and heard both times). This is where the sunshine patriot comes in. Rick and I were both cold, and Rick had to get up early today and drive over to New Jersey for a meeting - so after being there for a while we just left.

After we got home, I turned on the tv to FOX News and they were covering the event live. It was 7:15 and Romney was just ending his stump speech! I was amazed, thought he would have been thro about 6 or 6:30. It turned out he was late arriving, so it didn't get started on time. Gov Corbett and Sen Toomey were there speaking also, which I hadn't known. With the way parking was, I'm sure it took people several hours or more just to leave. FOX News said there was a crowd of 28,000 people, which I believe it.

But Rick and I were summer soldiers last night.