About a dozen supporters of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin formed a self-described "flash mob" on Turlington Plaza on Thursday and had some fun at the expense of ObamaBot, which was also out campaigning.
They swarmed the student-made robot with their signs, slapping a sticker or two on the machine, then stood around and watched it jerk and lurch for a couple minutes before marching to the Plaza of the Americas.
Bryan Griffin, the UF College Republicans chairman and organizer of the event, said the purpose of the mob was to show support for the Republican ticket and increase the visibility of conservatism on campus, not necessarily to antagonize the left-leaning robot.
He said the group plans to conduct three more flash mobs before the election.
Andres Vargas, a mechanical engineering grad student who was operating the ObamaBot with a handheld controller when it was approached by the mob, said he probably hit a few of the people unintentionally with the robot.
"They swamped me and I was just like, aaagh!" Vargas said. "I couldn't see what he was doing."
He said the robot was unfazed by the incident.
"They came, and they went, and he's still here," he said.
Craig Obenauer-Motley, a graduate nursing student who watched the scene in Turlington, said he was unimpressed by the mob.
"It looked like a rather petty attempt to block what is a rather well thought-out campaign idea, the robot campaigner," he said.
