Posted on 08/03/2008 7:00:03 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
(dpa) - Senator John McCain, 71, heads to the unlikely town of Sturgis, South Dakota, on Monday to rub elbows with the rowdy tattooed rebels of the American roads at a campground rock concert.
With a population of 780,000, South Dakota on the Great Plains is hardly an election-day prize for either McCain's Republican Party or rival Democrats.
But the state doubles in population during the annual August motorcycle rally in Sturgis, at the foot of the Black Hills, that draws an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 out-of-state "wild hogs" who roar cross country to celebrate their bike culture.
McCain plans to maximize on the crowds by providing the opening act at an annual concert that honours American military veterans at the Buffalo Chip campground, his campaign said Sunday.
McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will warm up the crowd for performances by American Idol country music singer Kelly Pickler and the mercurial Kid Rock, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper online.
The annual motorcycle rally - from August 4-10 this year - is one of the country's largest, with a reputation for notorious and outrageous behaviour.
A novelty draw to the Buffalo Chip campground this year will be a firing range for cyclists to try out automatic rifles, including vintage World War I machine guns, camp owner Rod Woodruff told the Argus Leader.
It was not known if McCain would take a turn at the firing range - or if he would draw a crowd as large as the 200,000 who flocked to hear Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama in Berlin recently.
Nope. That one's mine!
So is this one.
You owe me a keyboard, thanks for the laugh. I do enjoy a witty reply. LOL.
Noon Miller Lite Party Deck - Open mic.
3:30 p.m. Black Parrot - Karaoke.
5:30 p.m. Black Parrot - Preliminary Miss Buffalo Chip beauty pageant with bikinis.
6:45 p.m. Field of Remembrance - Tribute to America’s veterans.
7:30 p.m. Wolfman Jack stage - Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain honors veterans and servicemen and women.
8:15 p.m. Wolfman Jack stage - Preliminary Miss Buffalo Chip beauty pageant with biker attire and Hawaiian Tropic models.
9 p.m. and 10 p.m. Various locations - Illumination Fire Troupe dancers.
10:15 p.m. Wolfman Jack stage - Preliminary Miss Buffalo Chip beauty pageant with lingerie and Hawaiian Tropic models.
11 p.m. Various locations - Illumination Fire Troupe dancers.
Please give us an after action report on the event at 10:15 p.m. With photos.
:)
Courtesy of the North Vietnamese... After his arms had been broken in the ejection and landing, they tied his arms up behind his back. I've also heard that he was hung that way as well, but I don't know all the details of his torture. The real stuff. Not what Dickie Durbin accused our military of.
Mark
Hey, it's a V Twin, though I prefer mine as a 90 degree "L Twin."
Yes, I know that photo's a MotoGuzzi. I've got a Duck, and we prefer the term "Pasta-Burner."
:-)
I've been on LOTS of happy charity rides, where there are hundreds or thousands of Harleys and a Duck! Always a great time. The ride is what's important!
Mark
That’s cool!
Thanks!
My eldest son just called me from the “Buffalo Chip”. Said McCain was well-received, but he sounded “old and tired”. Good crowd, but there always is at the “Chip”. My son is a big Ron Paul supporter, so I sense that his reaction reflected his personal biases.
I am impressed, clamper1797. Yours is one beautiful hog!
Glad I could be of service!
Ok, so you got a duck AND a goose? Get another duck and you can play “duck, duck, goose”.
John McCain thanked the military veterans in the crowd and repeated his call for Congress to return from vacation to help solve the energy crisis. He also joked that hed encouraged his wife to enter the bawdy beauty contest.
STURGIS, S.D. — One woman wore little but a deep tan. Tattoos reigned, as did black leather. The emcee praised America for its “beautiful roads, beautiful bikes and ice-cold beer.”
Motorcycle engines revved in deafening approval when a rock guitarist played the national anthem at earsplitting volume and with a soaring solo, a la Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.
Suffice it to say that few political rallies can match John McCain’s brief appearance on an outdoor stage Monday night before several thousand bikers at the 68th annual Sturgis Rally, America’s largest biker convention and arguably its most colorful national gathering.
Rather than applause, McCain was greeted again and again by the full-throated roar of scores of gleaming Harley-Davidsons of every shape and color. The stench of burning gasoline and rowdy shouts filled the prairie night air.
Taking the stage at Buffalo Chip, the main festival site, McCain again ridiculed the presumptive Democratic nominee for drawing “hundreds of thousands” of people to an outdoor speech in Berlin.
“I’ll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day.”
As dozens of engines revved again, he grinned. “I recognize that sound. It’s the sound of freedom.”
The Arizona senator introduced his wife, Cindy, who wore the equivalent of a nun’s habit here: black jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. She praised her husband as “the only man who can keep us free.”
McCain joked that he had encouraged his wife to enter the annual Sturgis beauty contest, one in which nudity is not uncommon. The engines roared again.
“I told her with a little luck she could be the only lady to serve as first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip,” he said with a broad grin.
http://www.losangelestimes.com
Bitter folks clinging to their black leather, Harleys and bare skin?
AH, see, here's yet another American failing -- Obamessiah knows that Europeans are superior b/c they like their beer warm like piss........
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