Demonstrators Line Entry to Debate

NORTH CHARLESTON — As the candidates’ black SUVs filed into the North Charleston Coliseum for tonight’s CNN debate, protesters and candidate supporters lined the entrance.

Hoping to change minds or simply prove a point, protesters say the debate entrance was one of the last fleeting chances to make their voices publicly known before Saturday’s Republican primary.

“We are offering real hope,” said Bryan Howe, a Mitt Romney supporter from Mount Pleasant who stood with a dozen or so like-minded voters at the entry to the debate forum. “Mitt Romney is a businessman who can deal with the economy and all the other issues we face.”

Across the street were progressive demonstrators with SC Forward Progress, a liberal group that has poked fun at Republican candidates all year.

"This (field of candidates) has been a sideshow and a circus. It embarrasses the Republican party; it embarrasses our state," said Lachlan McIntosh of Charleston. "Mitt Romney has just proved to be extra shallow so we've given him extra attention."

His protesters, which numbered just four, stood with a man in a dog suit and an actor portraying Gordon Gekko, the villain business tycoon in the movie “Wall Street.”

Around the corner were Occupy Charleston protesters, some of the same folks that interrupted former candidate Michele Bachmann during a campaign stop in Mount Pleasant earlier this campaign season.

Occupy signs took jabs at both Republicans and Democrats, dispelling a common misconception that they are Democratic supporters, they said.

"We'd be happy to protest Obama," Dave Crossley said. "We'll be happy to mic check him."