Throngs of Glenn Beck fans greet their ’savior’ in Tampa

By Stephen C. Webster
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 -- 8:06 pm
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glennbeckfakecrying3 Throngs of Glenn Beck fans greet their savior in TampaHave you ever seen an impromptu parade for an animated right-wing personality? Want to?

That's precisely the scene which emerged ahead of Glenn Beck's book signing in Tampa Bay, Florida on Saturday. As up to 1,000 fans gathered at a Tampa Bay Borders Books to see the Fox News host, a parade of vehicles began circling the parking lot, adorned with signs bearing vague right-wing slogans, the drivers blaring their horns.

"I don't want to say he's our savior, but he's pretty close," said Bob Antoinette, a Beck fan who spoke with MyFox Tampa Bay. "I don't think he's on target. I think he's on bullseye."

"When we drove through and I saw [the line] was wrapped around the block, I mean, it's ... It's a little humbling," Beck said.

Another of Beck's fans suggested that President Barack Obama "wasn't vetted" and that Congress is using emergency powers to push all legislation through. (They are not.)

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Beck enthusaist Patty Blackburn added: "We don't like the White House at this point. We're taking our country back."

Beck's solution to progressive America: "He will hold conventions on education issues, the first at the University of Central Florida in March," The St. Petersburg Times reported. "He plans to develop a 100-year plan for America, and he will publish a book with action steps called The Plan."

"I am drafting plans now to bring us back to an America that our founders would understand," he said before claiming that Americans "need to start thinking like the Chinese."

Speaking to the SPT, Flor Rodriguez, a 71-year-old Cuban-American, claimed that she has been watching Beck's show and growing increasingly fearful that President Obama is doing to America what Fidel Castro did to Cuba.

"For the young people of this country, I'm very afraid," she said. "I never thought I'd see this happening here." Her sign read, "If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention," according to the report.

(To those paying attention to media aside from Beck, the right-wing talker is well known for frequently perpetuating false and misleading claims about the Obama administration, among his many other targets.)

The signing went smoothly until a man began yelling for the crowd to stop watching Fox News, calling their brand of right-wing entertainment "brainwashing." He was quickly escorted out by police.

This video is from MyFox Tampa Bay, broadcast Nov. 21, 2009.

This video is from Media Matters, broadcast Nov. 21, 2009.

David Edwards contributed to this report.

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Story comments are below...

  • SharksBreath
    If you voted for Bush twice you can't have your country back. You F'd it up.
  • Mooftown
    We're taking our country back?

    It hasn't really changed a lot in the portion of a year since Obama has been president...

    Where were these "patriots" during the atrocities of the bush admin?
  • cameramandavid
    As to my previous comment... "Hey, he's the schmuck that wore a Nazi uniform on the cover of his book..." the better for his retarded followers to identify him...
  • edwards_com
    As he takes sides always with a heavy dose of theatrics which he has admitted in public as a source of his generous payroll.. He is vary good at getting uneducated & those unable to reason to 'watch' his spew which is just something to fill the gaps between Commercials. Commercials are the only reason any show is on. It's show business bot show art. And Glen Becks plethora is not news.
  • jeffersonperrin
    One knows all one needs know about someone with the answer to these three questions; Did you vote for G. W. Bush? Did you think John McCain made a wise and thoughtful choice in choosing Sarah Palin to be 2nd in line to the Presidency? Do you think Glenn Beck should be given public access to the minds of simpletons who may own guns? A "Yes" to even one of these questions is evidence of a seriously disturbed and quite possibly dangerous individual.
  • dotherightthing
    Glen Beck is still a dry drunk!
  • scytherius
    1,000 psychotics? that's it? Not quite what one would call a throng.
  • musk
    LMAO! A hundred year plan?
  • overdoneputaforkinit
    1000 idiots in one place do not represent the mainstream IQ of this country.
  • dennycrane
    Watch out, Thomas Monson, you are going to be replaced by the "beckhead" as prophet of the mormon church. Whooppee!
  • cameramandavid
    Sieg! HEIL!!
  • damixaustex
    Does Becks 100 year plan include a final solution?
  • This is the rise of the Nazi's, and Glenn Beck is Hitler. "Taking our country back" = getting a Republican president back in there.
  • piltdown
    The parallels are glaringly obvious to anyone who has been paying attention.

    But not to those caught up in it.
  • 1000 glenn beck thongs?
  • blechh
    I think Glenn Beck is laughing, laughing at the fools who actually take him seriously. What a sad, deranged sideshow.
  • drorez
    Beck is a racist and a bitch. nuff said...
  • Atilla
    There all Beckerheads!
  • Atilla
    They're all Beckerheads!
  • Atilla
    They're all Beckerheads!
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