Wow.
That was some politically themed production that the Manufacturers’ Association of Northwest Pennsylvania put on Tuesday night on the floor of the Tullio Arena.
For the business group’s 102nd annual event, the hockey arena was transformed into what looked like a major party’s convention floor for one night. If he had been asked, Democratic strategist James Carville might have called it a Republican Party convention.
“Welcome to you Democrats out there — both of you,’’ he told the crowd in opening his speech.
Carville and his wife, Republican adviser Mary Matalin, were the keynote speakers in what could be described as the unofficial kickoff to the 2008 presidential campaign in these parts.
Carville said the wide-open races for both parties has generated interest much earlier than in past elections. “This is more like an event that we would do in March or April of an election year,’’ Carville told reporters after the political odd couple gave their separate 20-minute talks.
The 1,500 people in attendance seemed to buzz about getting a jump on the national campaign. They used 10 of the county’s touch-screen voting machines in a straw poll of the Democratic and Republican nominees. The “winners’’ were Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani.
Millcreek resident Sharon Rooney, the wife of former Niagara Plastics owner Shawn Rooney, now retired, was one of those who got caught up in the charged atmosphere. She wouldn’t reveal her straw poll vote, and she said it’s too early to commit to a candidate now.
“But it was fun to start thinking about it,’’ she said.
Carville, meanwhile, predicted on stage that at least one major third-party candidate would get in the race. Now we learn that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has changed his party registration from Republican to no affiliation. The move has fueled speculation that Bloomberg could be making his move to enter the 2008 presidential contest, according to the Associated Press.
On a lighter note, comedian Frank Caliendo gave dead-on impressions of President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, football color commentator John Madden, and assorted comedians and actors.
Caliendo said that President Clinton could talk his way out of anything. Caliendo, biting his lower lip and sticking out his thumb in the trademark Clinton way, said the former president could stand right in front of him and say, “I … am … not … here.’’
President Bush never would have been caught up in a Monica Lewinsky-style scandal, he said. But imagine for a moment that he did and he was asked about relations with that woman.
“What did they tell me to say here?’’ Caliendo said, mimicking Bush’s Texan drawl.
Later, Caliendo took Madden to task for stating the obvious during his football analyses. Then, impersonating Bush again, he said: “Makes me feel like a rocket surgeon.’’
Caliendo, by the way, will return to Erie and perform at the Warner Theatre on July 28.
— John Guerriero