Milton' speech lasted roughly 45 minutes and drew a crowd of about 200, mostly media and curious passers-by.
First, the bad news: He's not leaving the race. (Is anyone really suprised by that?) Street told the Daily News' Chris Brennan that he was staying in for the people who called to say they wanted to come to his rally but couldn’t make it.
“I know I said that if I didn’t get 5,000 people out here today I would not run," he said at the noon rally. "But there something within me…I got to keep going. I got to keep on pushing.”
The rest of his speech was, reports the Daily News' Catherine Lucey, "decidedly free-form."
Some highlights:
“Politicians want to win office with soundbites and lies,” he said. “I don’t stand before anybody and lie. I stand accused of doing some wrong things. But I don’t stand convicted.”
He then unveils a casket onstage: “This is what it’s about. This is where our young people are going.”
(A guy from John DeBella's radio show asked about the casket later. “No, there’s not a body in it. I started to put one in it so that when we opened it, it sat up but I figured that might be a little too dramatic. You know, people might want to take me for a psychiatric evaluation.”)
Back to the speech:
“We have these stores run by the Asians…staying up until 2 in the morning. I’m going to shut them down by 9 o’clock.”
“Those white guys are heckling me. They’ll come down here when somebody says it’s time to organize and heckle you.”
He then started praying. “You told me that if I had the faith of the mustard seed – an itty bitty mustard seed – I could move mountains.”
He then sang a hymn called “If I can help somebody.”
“There’s all these movements out here designed to keep Milton Street off the ballot. Let the voters decide.”
Brennan thinks he may know why Milton's putting us through this:
“There are some other things I can do," Street said. "I may do some talk radio. People have expressed an interest, without me giving out a lot of information, about me doing some talk radio. As a job. So I need a voice. So I guess I’ll position myself where I can best have my voice heard.”
After the rally, Street joked round with two radio show reporters who were recording his every word. With a WIP reporter, Street sung a very short, off-key duet of “Fly me to the moon.” A reporter from John DeBella’s 102.9 WMGK-FM show asked Street who he thought was the father of deceased Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith. “Not me,” Street said, breaking into a wide smile.