I went to the inaugural baseball game at Philadelphia’s Citizen’s Bank Park. It was an exhibition between the Phillies and the Cleveland Indians. Then mayor, John Street, got the worst booing I have ever seen anyone get in any setting. It was loud, it was prolonged, it was unanimous, and it was humiliating. And John Street was a Democrat.
Philadelphia sports fans are the most notoriously ill-mannered sports fans in the nation. Way back in, I think, the 1960’s, Philly fans booed an appearance by Santa Claus. You don’t go to a Philadelphia sporting event expecting love from the audience if you know what you are doing. And that goes double for a Republican. Philadelphia is the most Democratic city in the country. I wouldn’t expect Barack Obama to get a positive reception at a Utah Jazz basketball game and I definitely would not expect Sarah Palin to get a positive reception at a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game.
I honestly have no idea why Sarah Palin has spent so much time in Philadelphia. She visited one of my old haunts in Philly, two weeks ago, and got this reception (which was totally predictable):
She also got her ass kicked when she went to a South Philly cheesesteak joint and screwed up McCain’s policy vis-a-vis Pakistan.
So it should not have been any surprise that the Philly audience booed the hell out of Sarah Palin tonight at the Flyers game:
I think John McCain is angry with his running mate and is sending her out to get abused. The idea that Palin would sell well in Philadelphia is so stupid that this must be an intentional strategy to humiliate his running mate.
Speaking as a lifelong Philadelphian, what the fuck?
I don’t think he’s trying to humiliate her, although that would be funny.
No, it’s that they really are on the ropes and Pennsylvania is one of the only Kerry states they haven’t totally written off.
This is just desperation, nothing else.
i seem to remember seeing a headline somewhere that he was in iowa again or was going there again soon and i thought, why the hell is he doing that?
worst presidential campaign strategy in ages.
i actually feel a bit sorry for her about this today, personally speaking. hate her politics. but what the hey, & her handlers should know better.
man they are getting crushed in the polls. isn’t it wonderful!
But they pulled out of Michigan??? It’s the strangest strategy.
The repub party in Michigan have a petition going to get palin to come back to Michigan. To counteract that, the MDP is trying to get Tina Fey to make an appearance. I can’t wait till it’s over.
How can anyone feel sorry for someone so ambitious, unethical, vicious and blatantly racist? She deserves the opprobrium.
Maybe I need a new sound card or something. All I could hear was music and what sounded vaguely like cheering in the background. Was that booing? I guess it must have been, but that’s not what it sounded like.
Jed has video with unedited sound. The boos are deafening.
http://www.jedreport.com/2008/10/fox-news-edits-out-palin-hocke.html
Bless the folks who brought the Obama-Biden signs.
.
After the Democratic Convention, Barack Obama and Joe Biden opened to a gap of 7.1%. Today it’s their biggest lead on National Avereage at RealClearPolitics.
Pennsylvania – Obama +13.8%
Virginia – Obama +6.3%
Florida – Obama +3.8%
Ohio – Obama +2.7%
Missouri – McCain +0.4%
That’s about it for swing states, I believe his relapse did a lot of damage due to his age: “My fellow prisoners …”
≈ Cross-posted from my diary — Devastating Poll in Newsweek ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Philly fans know how to treat a Bozo!
She should have known better than to drag that poor little girl through that. It is really sickening the way she is using her children, and exposing them to so much just to promote her own career.
It must have been a terrifying experience for the two girls…
It could be that McCain is being Nixonian where Palin is sent to a predominately Democratic group to get booed in order to get sympathy for the campaign. I will guarantee you that the Republicans will make this the outrage du jour.
Could be.
“Look; you call our crowds abusive – yours is much worse!”
except a hockey match isn’t a party campaign rally – unless all of Phily now counts as an Obama campaign rally
I guess Obama doesn’t have trouble with white working class voters after all…
Nah, it’s just more bad advice from his handlers.
Why she’s been in Philadelphia so much lately? It has a lot to do with Ed Snider, CEO of the Flyers. And it represents a fairly unusual intersection of politics and sports that goes pretty deep.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10102008/sports/rangers/palins_puck_drop_shameful_132939.htm
That Philadelphia bar she showed up in a few weeks ago? She was with Ed Snider …
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/29834319.html
Hey, I just found this out, but it’s more than relevant:
In 1985, Leonard Peikoff (Rand’s designated philosophical heir) and Ed Snider founded the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), the first organization devoted to the study and advocacy of Objectivism since the closure of [the Nathaniel Branden Institute] in 1968.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivist_movement
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=index
Yes, this IS the same Ed Snider.
There is much difference of opinion among Objectivists (i.e. Ayn Randians), and Palin is by no means universally admired by them. For a window into Objectivist opinions on Palin, try this:
http://aynrandcontrahumannature.blogspot.com/2008/09/objectivism-history-part-9.html
Ed Snider is also major financial supporter of Freedom’s Watch, an astroturf front, described by Right Web as “a well-funded pro-Iraq war advocacy group… Supported by a number of major Republican Party figures, including supermarket magnate Melvin Sembler, Las Vegas Sands owner Sheldon Adelson, and former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer…”
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/4512.html
(Snider is mentioned in the next to the last paragraph.)
Is this not enough to explain Palin’s otherwise puzzling attraction to Philadelphia?
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/06/8690_natl_journal_ro.html
Stone says not to be fooled by Rove’s hesitance to be identified with John McCain publicly.
…away from the spotlight, Rove has been busy pitching in by giving informal advice to McCain’s team and spending a considerable amount of time as an outside adviser to Freedom’s Watch, the conservative political group that is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars to help elect House GOP candidates. William Weidner, a Freedom’s Watch board member, recently told National Journal that Rove has offered strategic advice to both the group and its major financial backer, Las Vegas casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson. Weidner, president of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., which Adelson chairs, called Rove “an invaluable asset” to the group….
While the top of McCain’s campaign won’t admit to extensive conversations with Rove, fearing that Rove is too closely associated with the Bush Administration and its worst scandals, some folks are willing to spill the beans off the record.
“Generally speaking, Rove’s advice is action-oriented and useful,” said another senior consultant to the McCain camp. “It’s always well received.” This McCain adviser noted that Rove talks periodically to Black and a few other top campaign aides on several key matters. “It can be policy ideas, messaging ideas, fundraising prospects, or people who need calls from someone in the campaign.” Rove is “part of the information network that the campaign has,” this adviser said, adding that Rove talks fairly regularly to such key people as Wayne Berman, a major fundraiser for McCain; Nicolle Wallace, a communications adviser; and Steve Schmidt, a senior aide.
And Rove is even more deeply involved with Freedom’s Watch, the internally troubled right wing group that seeks to make trouble for Democrats throughout the campaign season.
[William] Weidner [a Freedom’s Watch board member] stressed that Rove has been “very generous with his time and ideas. He gives up his time for those things he believes in.”
Two GOP strategists said they have heard that Rove has worked out a private consulting deal with Adelson; this arrangement, one strategist reported, pays Rove in the mid-six figures for giving speeches and providing assistance to Freedom’s Watch on labor union issues, a top priority of the group.
the Brits are hilarious.
I think it is intentional, but not for the purpose of humiliation. It’s being used by the McCain campaign to portray urbanites, dems and libs as the real nasty ugly bigots, and to deflect some of the criticism of Palin’s own brownshirt rallies.
So I’m sure Palin was told to take her little kids out there with her. Nothing Rove and Fox News likes more than video of rapid liberals booing small kids, right? The fact that Philadelphia fans boo everyone on principle (and while drunk to the gills) just makes it easier for them to get the visuals they want.
Before the hockey game, Palin had a fund-raiser, and outside were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people, apparently none of them part of her fan club: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmITa1wsJXA.
No, I don’t understand why the McCain campaign thinks keeping Palin in South Philly is a good idea.
I bet Sarah thought she could use her children as a shield and not get booed.