Most attendees The Daily Caller interviewed at Comedy Central political pundits Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s rally to “Restore Sanity and/or Fear” didn’t know for whom they are voting on November 2. They did, however, know they’re voting Democrat, down the line, because, they said, Republicans don’t fit their mold of “moving forward” in the country.
For instance, Liz Pifer, a student at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Pa., told TheDC that though she plans to vote in the midterm elections on Tuesday, she didn’t know who was running for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat. She later said that she thought Joe Sestak was running, and that she’ll probably vote for him because he’s a Democrat. As for House candidates, she said, “I don’t know who’s running.”
Tara Formica, a junior in college in New Jersey, told TheDC she’s not sure if she’ll vote on Tuesday, and that “it kind of just depends.” She said she came to the rally Saturday “just to come,” and that she didn’t know who was running in her district.
Jared Young, a California resident who attended the rally with fellow William and Mary student Chris McIntosh, told TheDC he already voted via absentee ballot in California’s heated Senate and Governor races – but not for Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Barbara Boxer or Jerry Brown. He said he wrote himself in on the ballot for the Senator seat and voted for the Green Party candidate in the governor race – even though he had no idea who the candidate was.
“I’m not kidding,” Young said. “I really did that.”
McIntosh, who is registered in Virginia, said he plans vote Tuesday for Democratic candidates down the line, even though he doesn’t know who they are.
Melissa Miller, who came to rally from Texas with her husband Tom, said, told TheDC she’s voting for the Democrat House candidate, but couldn’t name the candidate from her district.
“I was mostly paying attention to the governor’s race,” Miller said.
Anti-Tea-Party-ness and anger toward Fox News dominated most signs at the rally on the National Mall, a clear fit for comedian Stewart’s jabs at what he calls extremism.
Shoshana Senn, 15, of Arlington, Va., thinks Tea Partiers are “dumb.”
Senn made the trek to the rally from DC’s suburbs with her mom, who she said dressed up like a “zombie Tea Partier” for Halloween.
Elwin Guild, who currently live in Connecticut but lived in the District for 30 years before, said he was pleased with the rally’s outcome.
“I expect this is flooded all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial [from the Capitol],” he said. “I don’t know yet, but this certainly a lot bigger than Beck was able to put together. This is the real America.”
Katie Fagan, who came to Washington from Delaware, dressed up as a bat in the spirit of Halloween and made a sign that read, “we’re both batty,” next to a picture of Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell.
“She has said some really off-the-cuff, off-collar things that don’t really make sense to me,” Fagan said. “I would consider that ‘batty’ and I wanted to be a bat for Halloween, so it kind of worked out.”
Folks weren’t too sure the “Sanity or Fear” rally would get out the youth vote, either – Formica said she might vote because of the rally, but she’s not really sure.
Keith Musselman of Alexandria, Va., said he’d “like to hope it [the rally] does [helps turn out youth voters],” but that he’s not entirely sure.
“I’ve been 18 and 19 before and I know how lazy you can be,” Musselman said.