Posted on 10/30/2004 3:35:08 PM PDT by pissant
President Bush spoke at the Target Center in Minneapolis today. He drew a crowd of 23,000; I didn't think the building could hold that many. Mike Tice, the coach of the Minnesota Vikings, introduced Bush, giving him both a Vikings jersey and a ringing endorsement: "When it's the fourth quarter and the game is on the line, you want somebody with a cool head calling the plays."
The Associated Press admits the crowd was enthusiastic, but does what it can to diminish the story's impact, devoting three paragraphs to "several dozen" Kerry supporters who protested across the street--a pathetic turnout--and noting that John Kerry drew an alleged 30,000 partisans to a rally in Minneapolis a week ago. We wrote about the Kerry rally here; it was a dispirited affair which several thousand Kerry supporters left before he had finished speaking.
We'll await word from our readers to get a fairer assessment of the afternoon. In the meantime, here is a picture of the Target Center rally; the enthusiasm is apparent:
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
Go Mike Tice! From an Eagles fan, I think he's a good coach and obviously a good American!
Go Vikings!
I drove by the Target Center while Bush was inside (I already saw Bush a couple years ago, shook his hand). The crowd outside was pretty pathetic for ultra-liberal Minneapolis. I guess the libs know what we know.
PURPLE PRIDE!!!
local radio idots were giving Tice crap because he said he didn't know who he was voting for yet, and he volunteered to attend this event with President Bush. I don't think it matters who he's voting for because as he said, "Come on, it's a chance to meet the President!".
Boy, Kerry's crowds are SOOOOO small compared to Bush's crowds. Bush no doubt will win this election, I guarantee it 100%.
And when Bush actually wins by a landslide, each freeper will send Pissant a six pack of beer. Cheers
Purple pride: I guess that means he's supported by both RED states and BLUE states. Go W!
It is a bright and shining day. God Bless Minnesotans! I know you'll do the right thing.
W IS GOING TO WIN .
BELIEVE!!!
NordP (www.pledgewear.com) – I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE.
Mike Tice, the coach of the Minnesota Vikings, introduced Bush, giving him both a Vikings jersey and a ringing endorsement: "When it's the fourth quarter and the game is on the line, you want somebody with a cool head calling the plays."
The Lambert Effect
David Damiani
http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18287/article_detail.asp
It's no revelation that image and likability can sway close political races. Much has been made of the contrast between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon's appearances in their first televised 1960 debate, Michael Dukakis' awkward photo-op in a tank when the 1988 race was still close, and George W. Bush and Al Gore's relative projections of humanity in 2000. From a sports fan's perspective, the apparent down-to-the-wire status of the 2004 race presents a potential case study: How much do certain crucial swing voters consider a candidate's status as a sports fan when evaluating candidates' personalities, and can that seemingly infinitesimal construct actually sway an election?
It may be nothing more than coincidence, but the losing candidate in three consecutive elections at some point suffered a sports-related embarrassment, while the winner in some way made political hay of his sports fan credentials. In 1992, the first George Bush awkwardly bounced the opening pitch at a midseason baseball game as Democrats were hammering him as out of touch with ordinary Americans' interests and concerns. In 1996, other than his falling off a stage, Bob Dole's most noticed campaign moment was his reference to current major leaguer Hideo Nomo as a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a statement that absolutely crystallized similar "out of touch" charges. The winner of both races, Bill Clinton, cheerfully and effectively played the role of sports fan-in-chief; in particular, his credentials as a University of Arkansas fan were, well, unimpeachable.
During the 2000 campaign, evidence that is more than apocryphal suggests that a number of swing voters chose Bush over Gore simply because they liked him better. Gore gained a reputation not as out of touch, but certainly quirky, and perhaps one contributing factor was his politically tone-deaf approach to sports. Most famously, Gore referred to Michael Jordan as Michael Jackson. Meanwhile, Bush's obvious interest in sports, including his former part ownership of the Texas Rangers, probably helped to cultivate a man-of-the-people persona--something the President has often relied on when he has slipped in the polls, well chronicled in David Frum's The Right Man. And Gore may have blown an opportunity to enhance his personal appeal during the debates when, as Newsweek reported, he declined to use a scripted and effective joke about Bush's Rangers' having traded Sammy Sosa. Indeed, that may well have determined the election's outcome.
In 2004, sports fan status has gained even greater media prominence as John Kerry has made a number of sports-related gaffes. Kerry has referred to a man who never played for the Red Sox as his all-time favorite player for that team, and also remarked on the exploits of "Manny Ortez" (the Sox's two best hitters are Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz). He has been pilloried for engaging in the blue-blood activity of windsurfing and for cursing in reference to a Secret Service agent who collided with him while snowboarding. He has used amusingly stilted language in trying to refer to blue-collar predilections. (Time recently criticized Kerry for using the sentence, "Who among us doesn't love Nascar?") Kerry was roundly booed in Michigan for calling himself a fan of the Buckeyes (of Ohio State, the University of Michigan's fierce rival), and subjected himself to the most snickers of all for calling the Green Bay Packers' hallowed, historic Lambeau Field home "Lambert Field." Several serious pundits have actually suggested that Kerry will lose Wisconsin, a Gore state in 2000, for that remark alone.
It was the Lambeau comment that inspired the creation of a satirical 527 group that has gained a surprising amount of publicity. Football Fans For Truth, the creation of two D.C. lawyers who oppose Kerry, has chronicled all of the above moments, displays awkward-looking photos of Kerry grimacing while catching a football, and mocks the candidate for bouncing the ceremonial first pitch of a Red Sox game during the Democratic Convention when he threw from in front of the pitcher's mound. No strangers to the role sports play in a personality gap, the Republicans inserted in the President's introductory convention video a recount of how beloved Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter convinced him to throw a 2001 World Series first pitch from the mound, and that a protective vest was no impediment to his throwing a strike.
That a candidate's credibility as a sports fan could decide an election seems bizarre at best, but in vast swaths of the American psyche there's a strong and enduring linkage between that status and masculine fortitude. If a scenario occurs whereby Bush wins because of a combination involving his picking up Wisconsin, or by close margins attributable to likability in several crucial states, it will be a testimony to the prominence of sports competition in American thought--and the "Lambert Field" reference may rank alongside Gerald Ford's reference to Eastern Europe as free of Soviet domination as one of the most infamously decisive comments in electoral history.
Sports aficionado David Damiani works as a tax accountant for Witt Mares Eggleston Smith in Newport News, Virginia.
Coors beer, the beer that launched the Reagan revolution.
The MSM is still at it. They are giving garbage polls that are stacked against W. I do believe W will win in a landslide.
I'm not as much religious as I am spiritual. Those words came to me, when I was troubled about a week ago. Since then, I've been calm and sure that President George W. Bush will win re-election.
Watch this great video, too. It's wonderful...
www.letfreedomring.com/innerstrength.asp
BELIEVE!
Matthew 8:13- "And Jesus said to the centurion, Go thy way, and as you have believed, so be it done unto you."
As one of the many folks who were there at the Target Center in Minneapolis... I can personally attest to the feeling of guarded optimism regarding Minnesota's chances next Tuesday.
As I noted to my friend at the rally - 72 hours away from the election and a Republican President is at a full blown rally in Minneapolis. Hubert H. Humphrey is rolling over and over in his grave today.
Tice was a class act. His introduction of Bush didn't split hairs. He is 110% behind Bush. God bless him for standing up to the whining of the dems about Tice's appearance today.
Humphrey would be rolling in his grave if he saw today's anti american military hating demonrats.
Tice is a good guy who played at Maryland, so he apparently transcended his College Park liberal professors.
As for Minnesota, you get the sense that it hasn't been the same there for Democrats since the Wellstone funeral jamboree.
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