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Reed wasn't there, but he helped start the party

August 18, 2008 — Every presidential campaign needs a little street theater, and Atlanta got a dose Monday when John McCain came to town for the much talked-about fundraiser which his former nemesis, Ralph Reed, helped organize.

Between the union and anti-war protesters, the Georgia Democratic Party officials there to hold a press conference, the squad of McCain youth who were there to represent, and a few curious cops and cabbies, there were probably a couple hundred people outside the downtown Marriott Marquis, as attendees made their way to the top-dollar event. Most were exercising their constitutional right to make a lot of noise.

There was a protester in a McCain mask, and other done up to look like Reed’s former pal, the currently incarcerated Jack Abramoff, in a cool hat and trench coat.

The only character missing was Reed himself. He didn’t show up for the fundraiser about which such a fuss had been raised over him, but he’d done his part already to charge things up on the street.

Jane Kidd, the Georgia Democratic Party chair, said McCain had “chosen to talk only with people who are giving him thousands of dollars,” and state Sen. David Adelman (D-Decatur) slammed Reed, who he said “sold his influence with Christian conservative voters to the highest bidder.”

Inside, the McCain Victory 2008 event raised $1.75 million, which will be divided among the McCain campaign and several party committees. Most of Georgia’s statewide elected officials were there, as well as McCain’s Zell Miller, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

While Reed is nationally identified with the religious right, Gov. Sonny Perdue also has close ties with that part of the Republican electorate, and after Saturday’s forum with McCain and Barack Obama at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, he was encouraged.

“I believe we’re in a struggle, a global struggle for good and evil. If you had much opportunity to watch Saturday night as many of you did I’m sure you got the contrast, the clear difference,” Perdue said.
“There will be many more opportunities like that. Not only us. The grassroots are still important. It’s going to be very important. We’re delighted your engaged and let’s go get ‘em,” he said.

“Not only us.” What the governor seemed to be saying was that McCain’s performance might have awakened the evangelical voters whom some expected to sleep this out.

McCain told his supporters he "felt good" about the Saddleback appearance, and restated his challenge to Obama to expand the debate schedule to include some town hall-style forums. He also gave an interesting twist to world events, given his recent appearance.

"Why do we care about Georgia? Some may not know that Georgia, the country, was one of the earliest Christian countries. Third century king of Georgia converted... They are a Christian nation," McCain said.

To counter the Republicans’ vaunted turnout operation, Obama has some 150 staffers on the ground in Georgia, according to Adelman, who predicted the Democrats’ Labor Day voter registration would be eye-opening.

“This is on the scale of the 19^th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act,” Adelman said of Obama’s candidacy and the increase in participation it has generated.

(Thanks to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Aaron Gould Sheinin for his pool report from inside the event.)