AP Photo

SPRINGFIELD, Missouri–Standing in the parking lot outside one of the world’s largest sports stores, Sarah Palin told supporters that she sees the polls closing and that the Show Me State can help the GOP ticket.

“It is gonna be a close race. Man, it’s coming down to the wire and thankfully, we’re seeing some closing there in the poll numbers.” Palin said, “We know its gonna be close, but Missouri, with your support, with your vote, we’re gonna take the maverick of the Senate and put him in the White House.”

The Alaska governor walked through the flagship store of the Bass Pro Shops before taking the stage and she apologized for being late, but said she was looking around. The store specializes in outdoor sports gear and she told her supports that it reminds her of home.

“I appreciate the good folks here at the Bass Pro Shop, again, it does feel like home. And standing here reminds me how similar Missouri is to my home state of Alaska. They’re both states, just filled with good, hard working, all American people, loving the great outdoors.”

She summarized many of the details she unveiled this morning in her speech devoted to a policy rollout focused on helping children with disabilities. She again pledged her advocacy for those children and their parents.

“I pledge that if we are elected, you’ll have a friend and our families will have an advocate in the White House.” Palin said. “So Missouri, I know that each one of you here today, you’ve got to be here because you know the stakes in this election are so high. This is
so important. This is about the future of America.”

As she does on the stump, she praised small business owners and slammed Barack Obama for stifling job creation and hiking taxes.

“And no one knows that better than Johnny Morris, who founded Bass Pro Shop. Johnny founded one of the America’s great companies with nothing more than a dream and eight feet of space in his dad’s store. And like a lot of other businesses, it grew into a big one. It got to hire more people and create more jobs all across this country.” Palin said, “And that’s the kind of job growth and the job creation that our opponents’ massive tax increase would kill. And we’re not gonna let that happen.

The Obama campaign consistently defends their tax plan saying they will not raise taxes for any Americans making less than 250,000 dollars a year.

Palin has been traveling with country singers, Hank Williams, Jr., Lee Greenwood, and Gretchen Wilson. So, today was no different when Naomi Judd introduced the GOP Vice-Presidential candidate. She railed against the “unrepentant liberal biased media” and said she could not stand by anymore. She told the cheering crowd that she knows after throwing her support behind Palin she won’t be invited to any more Hollywood parties or Georgetown cocktail parties, using a phrase from the top of the GOP ticket.

Her daughter, actress Ashley Judd backed Hillary Clinton in the primaries and even went out on the campaign trail with both Hillary and Bill Clinton. She has since endorsed Obama and has been stumping for him as well.

Jacksonville, FL

Governor Romney paid tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. when speaking to a group of employees at Gate Petroleum today and then shook hands and posed for photos with African-American families at a parade.

The presidential hopeful met a friendly crowd at the Martin Luther King, Jr. parade here. The former Massachusetts governor often runs back and forth across streets during parades to greet people and today was no exception. He shook hands with ROTC members, tiny beauty queens, police officers and many parade-goers, including children screaming his name.  He jumped off the Mitt Mobile to greet a waiting crowd, took a picture with some kids and young adults and awkwardly quipped, ”Who let the dogs out? Who who.”

He took pictures with many in the crowd and greeted one baby wearing a necklace saying, “Hey buddy! How’s it going? What’s happening? You got some bling bling here!”

Romney even received some hugs, but some Obama supporters held up signs and one woman yelled, “Mitt Romney go home. You are holding up the parade!” Once the parade did start Romney hopped back on the Mitt Mobile and headed to his next stop.

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He began his remarks at a petroleum company honoring the legacy of the civil rights leader saying he “fulfilled the promise of the Declaration of Independence.”

“Obviously the Declaration indicated that we are all individuals created by the same maker, we’re sons and daughters of God and we’re given equal opportunity,” Romney continued, “And that was not fulfilled in this country for a long, long time. And in some places today, it is still yet to be fulfilled. And Martin Luther King is an individual who opened the doors to bringing down so many of the barriers that had kept so many people from having their full potential realized, and showed again what one person can do. It’s amazing the impact of an individual.”

Romney segued directly into his stump speech:

“So I wish to begin by paying my respects to his great memory and accomplishment. My areas of accomplishment are not like his, not on that level, and yet I took a very different course in my life than most people who are in office. My life was like your mayor’s: I spent my life in the private sector.”

Romney is campaigning down the entire Florida peninsula today—starting in Jacksonville and ending in Boca Raton.

Ft. Dodge. IA–

Governor Romney faced a barrage of questions today surrounding reports that his father, George Romney did not march with Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement. As recently as Romney’s “Faith in America” speech Romney said, “I saw my father march with Martin Luther King.” He reiterated that point last weekend on Meet the Press. Today Romney adamantly stood by the story that his father did march with the civil rights leader, but acknowledged he didn’t mean he literally saw them march, instead he meant it “figuratively:”

“If you look at the literature or the dictionary the term ‘saw’ includes being aware of in the sense I have described. It is a figure of speech and very familiar and very common and I saw my dad march with Martin Luther King. I did not see it with my own eyes, but I saw him in the sense of being aware of his participation in that great effort.”

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One of the reports says that George Romney could not have attended the march because it was on a Sunday and George Romney did not hold political events on Sunday because of the Mormon Sabbath:

“My brother also remembers my dad having spoken about the fact that he did not do political events on Sunday, but that he decided at the last minute that he was going to break that self-imposed rule and participate and I think he did so on a Sunday as I recall.”

In a particularly uncomfortable moment Romney tried to explain what “figuratively” seeing something means:

“I’m an English lit major as well. When you see the Patriots won the World Series it doesn’t necessarily mean you were there. Excuse me, the Super bowl. I saw my dad become president of American Motors. Did that mean you were there for the ceremony? No. It’s a figure of speech. I saw my father as a champion of civil rights, this is a figure of speech and it refers to that figure of speech. “

The Romney campaign sent reporters documentation that shows George Romney participating in several civil rights marches. He was a staunch civil rights supporter. They also cited a 1967 book as confirmation that the two marched together in 1963. (more…)