8-Year-Old's 'Dreams Crushed' After Being Denied Entry to Obama Event

9:38 AM, Aug 10, 2012
By DANIEL HALPER

The Weekly Standard - An eight-year-old girl's dreams were crushed when she was denied entry into an Obama event in Colorado. "Alana has Asperger’s and she doesn’t do well in the heat. So her dad waited until 4 p.m. to show up to the event because his tickets said the president would speak at 5:30," according to this local report:



Here's the transcript:

ANCHOR: Ticket in hand but not allowed inside. That’s the story for some people who showed up too late to see the president speak last night in Grand Junction.

ANCHOR: He took the stage an hour early…and was finished before he was even supposed to begin. And now as KJCT News 8′s Janelle Ericsson reports one local girl and her father are more than disappointed.

ALANA WENGER: He’s an African American and he’s the first one in our lifetime.

ERICSSON (REPORTER): An eight-year-old’s dreams were crushed when she wasn’t let in to see President Obama speak at Grand Junction High School.

ALANA WENGER: When they said that no one could go in I was so frustrated.

ERICSSON (REPORTER): Alana has Asperger’s and she doesn’t do well in the heat. So her dad waited until 4 p.m. to show up to the event because his tickets said the president would speak at 5:30.

SHANNON WENGER: I thought what a great historic event to take my daughter to and she’ll remember it her whole life. I wanted to instill a sense of patriotism and then we got there and they said nope sorry. No explanation, just you can’t go in and she spent the rest of the day yesterday saying, “I really wish I could have seen the president talk.”

ALANA WENGER: Because I was really wanting to see the president and I couldn’t.

ERICSSON (REPORTER): But the part that rubs this father and daughter the wrong way is that after they were told they wouldn’t be allowed inside a man was let in.

SHANNON WENGER: That a prominent Democrat would get let into the event after we were told the Secret Service said nobody else is allowed in. It’s a security risk…but there was obviously somebody that wasn’t.

ERICSSON (REPORTER): And Wenger says Obama’s people are contradicting what his campaign is all about.

SHANNON WENGER: A lot of his campaigning is about people shouldn’t be treated special because of who they know or how much money they have and we saw it in action yesterday that somebody did get treated special.

ERICSSON (REPORTER): Worst of all, is that people were never told the doors would close once the president arrived. And they had no idea Obama would show up and take the stage an hour early.

SHANNON WENGER: Now this memory that my daughter would have had of seeing the president speaking she will always remember that’s the time I didn’t get to.

ANCHOR: Wenger says he’s considering changing his political affiliation now. He says he’ll still vote in November but he’s weighing all his options.