I have to admit that I snorted out loud when Deval’s whips started passing out instructions for his speech during the convention. “Stand up when” this and “don’t speak” that. No way could a cheap stunt look decent. Too obviously manipulated.
I have to admit, I was wrong. It worked. First of all, because all of Deval’s supporters stood up and sat down and hushed up on cue. I’ve read three editorials in papers (sorry, I peruse paper versions, I love the smell of newspaper?) about his delegates standing in unison as if it were spontaneous. What was choreography was taken as enthusiasm. I’m not saying Deval’s people weren’t pumped — they were. Just like Chris and Tom’s folks (we stood too, but there were far fewer of us). I’m sure Deval would have gotten a raucous welcome, but nice of his campaign to co-ordinate for the visual impact. Nice imagery.
Shame on the Boston news crew for not getting their hands on one of those instruction sheets, and shame on the other campaigns for not making that happen.
I suppose we cant expect more “spontaneity” in four years since this one worked so well. And I’ll always remember Deval’s campaign as the one that came armed with hundreds of papers that read “silence”.
The silence cards had a few functions.
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You may have noticed that Deval had a significant amount of delegates at the convention. You may have also noticed that Deval supporters tend to get very excited when he’s in the area. Unfortunately Deval was not given an unlimited amount of time in which to make his comments. That’s where the silence cards came in handy to help settle the crowd.
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They were also used during both roll calls and the voting, so it was slightly easier to hear what was going on. The tellers in my section were very appreciative of our efforts.
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As for the standing in unison, most campaigns do some sort of coordinated demonstation. Or did Tom Reilly and Chris Gabrieli just happen to run into large crowds of people wearing their tee shirts and chanting their names?
Tim “for Treasurer” Cahill’s army on Friday night? Nothing against Tim, but that was a little frightening.
All I saw were “silence” signs, which in my district were used to keep people quiet during voting so that our teller could hear the votes.
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The only instruction I got on when to stand was when Deval, in his speech, said “stand with me.”
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FWIW, I thought it was classy that DP’s army of green-shirts stood in front of the podium during his speech and not in the aisles like the other candidates’ armies. It made it easier for everyone to see.