A near capacity crowd piled into the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham on Monday night to hear Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich give their final pitches to the Alabama electorate.
We’re getting started with an introductory speech by Bill Armistead, @ALGOP chairman. #alforum Starting with prayer, pledge, nat’l anthem
— The Second Front (@SecondFront) March 12, 2012
The Birmingham News summed the night up well: “The crowd was friendly to both candidates but seemed most warm to Gingrich, as was apparent by multiple cheers of ‘Newt, Newt, Newt.'”
You’ll get plenty of the usual event coverage from traditional media outlets so I’ll try to paint the picture in a little different way using tweets, pictures, videos and random observations.
The excitement in downtown Birmingham was evident as the crowd spilled into the side streets around the Birmingham Theatre. It’s not very often that Alabama gets genuine interest from the rest of the country about anything but football.
History in the making for @ALGOP@ The Alabama Theatre instagr.am/p/IF1qMfBHgo/
— Shana Kluck (@ShanaJean) March 12, 2012
The national media had a significant presence at the event and satellite trucks lined 18th Street taking up most of the block.
The pre-event music was provided by a guy tearing it up on a massive red organ. You can see it on the left side of the stage in this picture of Newt from my vantage point on the Mezzanine level where most of the press was set up:
ALGOP Chairman Bill Armistead served as the event’s MC which, unfortunately, is not his strong suit. The event as a whole suffered a bit from a significant lack of personality on stage but the audience’s enthusiasm kept it from becoming too much of a downer.
Senator Santorum was first up to the mic and hit the stage to thunderous applause. Although the crowd was very responsive throughout his speech and he had tons of supporters in the audience, I don’t think Sen. Santorum won over many folks who were on the fence going into Monday night. He was extremely longwinded and several reporters in the press corps remarked that he seemed tired.
Santorum will be on show 8am tomorrow– that is, if he’s done with his current answer by then.
— Matt Murphy (@mattmurphyshow) March 12, 2012
You can see the audience’s reaction to Santorum and the first few minutes of his speech in the video below:
Gingrich hit the stage next after some apparent miscommunication caused ALGOP Chairman Bill Armistead to introduce Gingrich before he was prepared to come on stage. The audience sprang to their feet to welcome the former Speaker only to fall silent moments later as Armistead returned to the podium with some awkward comments in an effort to fill the time. Fortunately Gingrich appeared before things completely ran off the rails and the crowd roared once again.
Here are some other thoughts and observations from the Twittersphere:
Say what you want about him but Newt ain’t boring #alforum
— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) March 12, 2012
Gingrich: “I will NEVER apologize to those that are killing our men and women!” #alforum #tcot
— Camaran S. Williams (@Camaran) March 12, 2012
NEWTZILLA crushes it at the @ALGOP #alforum !!!! #WhereWasMitt
— Jon McC (@fatdaddybulldog) March 12, 2012
Mychal Smith continuing to make @GBYRs, @YRFAL, & @yrnf proud as an @ALGOP Presidential Forum panelist #alforum twitter.com/GBYRs/status/1…
— GBYRs (@GBYRs) March 12, 2012
“The Constitution is the “how” of America, the “operators manual.” – Santorum #alforum
— Yellow Hammer (@YHPolitics) March 12, 2012
Aaaand we got our first “hallelujah” of the night #alforum
— Yellow Hammer (@YHPolitics) March 12, 2012
The Duggars are in Birmingham supporting Santorum…
— Dale Jackson (@TheDaleJackson) March 12, 2012
Overall it was a great night for Alabama and a fitting prelude to the most-watched election day in Alabama history. The polls are open from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. VOTE!
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