Bush to meet with Rolling Thunder leaders

Washington Times ^ | May 29, 2004 | S.A. Miller

[kabar]

President Bush will be the first to meet privately with leaders of Rolling Thunder Inc. when the group's 200,000 motorcycle riders rumble into downtown tomorrow for their 17th annual Memorial Day weekend rally.

"This is the first time we have a personal invitation from the president to sit down and talk about our issues," said Artie M. Muller, president and co-founder of Rolling Thunder, a nonprofit dedicated to publicizing the plight of American prisoners of war left behind in all the nation's conflicts.

"In all the years we have been doing this," Mr. Muller said, "this is the first administration that has been working with us."

They will meet at the White House, where Mr. Bush will deliver a message either by phone or by tape to the larger gathering on the Mall, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.

"He's proud of what they represent, and they've become an important part of our Memorial Day remembrances," Mr. Duffy said.

[kabar]

C-SPAN won't be covering the event this year, but now we know why. Hopefully, there will be national press coverage. I am fairly certain there will be plenty of anti-Kerry signs.

[Tijeras_Slim]

MHP

[SLB]

Biker bump

[samtheman]

The press will try to ignore this as much as possible. We'll see how much ignorance is possible.

[kabar]

Rolling Thunder is endorsing Bush for re-election, the first time they have endorsed a candidate.

[kabar]

It is hard to ignore over 200,000 riders and another 200,000 spectators, but I am sure they will try hard to downplay it.

[ladyjane]

Will anyone be covering it?

[ChadGore]

As a native of Milwaukee WI, Harley Davidsons home, I can tell you all that this Rolling Thunder group is a class act. They've been doing all kinds of differant rides to support the troops, and honor those who havr served.

I can tell you this, Rolling Thunder would never *ever* endorse this dork:

[CasearianDaoist]

They should try a national road tour. That will be impossible to ignore. IT would work too. They do not have to take the whole 200,000 of them on the road - they must have local or regional chapters that would do the trick. It would sure help in the industrial Midwest. Maybe CA too (probably not but one can hope.)

[alpha-8-25-02]

well here we go,real america sitting down with a real president,you will only see this on fr.
now what i would like to see is johnie on his euro trash bike,and spandex riding with these bikers telling them he was a nam vet.
yes i would pay good money to see that.

[rrrod]

I met some at a support our troops rally in Fayetteville, NC. Great bunch of guys!....Im seriously thinking of getting a bike and joining them...hows that for an old guy!

[heckler]

This threads needs pics.

[AnAmericanMother]

hey, Chad, isn't that a GoldWing?

(I'm not very knowledgeable about bikes, but I did start at the top - I learned to ride on a friend's big brother's Hog.) But our mechanic rides one of these:

[bannie]

Y'know, Kerry looks like a dork on that bike. He looks like a dork in everything he does.

[Right_in_Virginia]

C-SPAN won't be covering the event this year

Are you serious?!

[spectre]

He wouldn't MESS up his hair to ride on a Harley.

sw

[prov1813man]

We put over half a million men on the mall for "Stand in the Gap", a rally of Christian men. The press found 6 "oppressed women" to cover. There is no limit to the "ignorance factor" of the domestic enemies in the national media.

[leadpenny]

Muller was scheduled to be on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this A.M. but canceled at the last minute.

I'm a Nam vet and have participated in Rolling Thunder a couple of times. It would seem to me that the organizers of RT could have made alternate plans this year. We got the Vietnam Memorial before both the Korean and WWII Memorials. In effect, the memorials have come in reverse order. Riding through DC with 200,000 motorcycles, drowning out the weekend dedication of the overdue WWII Memorial is not my idea of winning the hearts and minds of the American people.

For me, I plan to be in the midst the WWII vets, who are leaving us much to quickly, thanking them for their service.

[risk]

Rolling Thunder

[toomanygrasshoppers]

"...Kerry looks like a dork..."


That's because he IS a dork. I bet the kids picked on him at school. I'd love to hear from some of his elementary school (probably private school) classmates. heh heh heh.