Today Show descends on Williamsburg for Battleground VA

The Today Show was in Williamsburg Wednesday morning spotlighting battleground Virginia.

But, it wasn’t the candidate that fired up the crowd. No, it was Matt and Al.

“I wanted to meet Al Roker,” said John Michael King, a William and Mary student from Roanoke.

You can say this about Al Roker: he knows how to make an entrance. He arrived for the first segment of the show in a horse drawn carriage, wearing a colonial wig and jacket.

Hundreds of people lined up to see it all including Brian Alphin, a William and Mary student from Buchanan. He said, “It was pretty cool seeing him in the wig and so for and getting his autograph.”

The crowd was there in part for the spectacle.

“This is not an election sign,” said Jamison Shabanowitz, a William and Mary student from Blacksburg. “I’m not chanting yes we can, but I’m also not going with the McCain people.”

But many others were there for political reasons.

King held a sign that read “No Bama.”

“I just don’t think he’s right for America,” he said.

Alphin added, “We’re showing that it’s not this monotone of Obama, it’s also McCain as well.”

That political passion was the very reason the Today Show picked Virginia. And really, where better to host a conversation about battleground Virginia than in Williamsburg? The pictures are perfect with most shots including old Colonial capitol in the background. It’s an enduring symbol of democracy.

Colonial Williamsburg is a location that’s seen it’s share of political battles, but not in a long time. All of that is changing and who better to ask about that than former Republican Governor and Senator George Allen, who lost his re-election bid to the US Senate in 2006.

“I know darn well that is a very closely contested state,” Allen said of this presidential contest. But, he added that the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket has energized the base of the party and helped unified Republicans in Virginia.

Matt Lauer, who interviewed Allen during Wednesday’s show, agrees.

LAUER: “It is up for grabs and anything can happen in six weeks.”

WARREN: “YOU USED TO LIVE IN RICHMOND. DID YOU EVER THINK THAT IT WOULD BE A BATTLEGROUND?”

LAUER: “You know, no probably not. A lot has changed. I lived here back in the early 1990’s. It’s changed an awful lot.”

And it means we’ll be getting more and more star treatment in the final weeks of this tight presidential race.