The worse heckling I’ve ever witnessed occurred during an exhibition game between the Cleveland Indians and the Philadelphia Phillies the day before they officially opened Citizen’s Bank Park in April 2004. Then-mayor John Street, who is black, was on hand to preside over the pregame ceremonies, and the booing he took from the mostly white suburban audience was something to behold. It went on and on and on, and there was a real rage about it. I lived in Philly at the time and I wasn’t a supporter of Mayor Street, but I almost wanted to race out onto the field and shield him from the abuse.
I doubt I would have had the same impulse if I had been at the Monmouth, New Jersey racetrack yesterday.
OCEANPORT — It was one long happy celebration at Monmouth Park for the great American Pharoah’s latest victory. At least, that is, until Gov. Chris Christie stepped into the Winner’s Circle to present the trophy.
And then, the record crowd of 60,983 booed.
Long.
Loud.
Sustained.
I remember when Chris Christie was popular in the Garden State. He was very popular.
That’s over.
It’s gonna be tough to punch 60,983 people in the face.
Bahahahahahahah!
Just had to say that.
I also somehow think the average racehorse fan is/was/should be right in Christie’s wheelhouse.
Also probably has something to do with property taxes still out of control (mine just went up a bunch again and my whole town is furious) after Christie was elected on a cut taxes/blame the teachers platform.
Now that he’s punched every teacher he could find and robbed their pensions he still can’t do what he promised.
Bad optics for Christie, but the booing was more about horse racing fans confronting the guy that dump a bazillion dollars into casinos while horse racing venues have languished.
If so they can join the club. Hollywood Park in California closed down two years ago. One of the two racetracks in metro Detroit had to give up racing Thoroughbreds last year. Meanwhile, the casinos in Michigan appear to be thriving.
Probably to the delight of animal rights groups.
Horse racing is just not as popular anymore now that so many other forms of gambling venues are available.
Bullies tend to forget that at some point, the people they’ve bullied will push back. It will happen to Trump, too. Treating people badly leads to payback, and there are no more deserving galoots than Christie and Trump.
Yeah, but it took six years for this moment to happen to Fat Bastard. Trump may be out of the primaries by the time it happens to him.
… or at the end of his first term.
Good lord, that’s a frightening thought.
The crowd cheered the horse.
They booed the horse’s ass!
Too be fair, American Pharoah’s ass and Chris Christie’s mouth have a lot in common.
Wrong. American Pharoah is a winner, front to rear. Christie is a loser.
The mayor of Monmouth ought to monitor traffic on any bridges within the town.
He seems to be working on the Scott Walker tactic of demonizing the unions, and the teachers’ union in particular. Can this be successful? Walker’s approach was to go for “government unions” or “civil service unions”. Teachers’ unions in particular seems like targeting a specific, and at times popular, labor sector.
Oh, demonizing teachers’ unions is definitely a winner. Even here in Massachusetts, supposedly so purely blue, we have our share of Obummer-hating troglodytes who lap up that stuff. I had an encounter with one a while back who responded to something reasoned I said with “So what are you, a teacher?” and the last word was loaded with loathing and contempt. The right wing has made great inroads in turning a once-honored profession into just another hated haunt of those damned liberals turning our children away from what’s right and holy.
Probably most of them hated school. They seem to have an aversion to thinking.
In Jersey property taxes are the issue and property taxes are driven most by school budgets which pay a lot of teachers.
To the average Joe, waste in Trenton matters much less to their wallet than what they see as waste in the schools.
But school funding is a very complicated f’d up mess in this state that no governor has ever been able to solve. Christie didn’t have a chance of success either no matter how much he blamed the teachers.
Great comment in response to the linked story:
“Christie was in Jersey? Was he lost?”
Or in search of a school teacher to punch in the face.
That was a special moment this weekend, wasn’t it? He immediately responded to the interviewer’s question re. who he would like to punch. Another recent golden moment was his awful browbeating of a New Hampshire town hall attendee who questioned his record on unlimited gun rights.
While thoroughly reprehensible, at least when he rhetorically punched teachers he was attacking organized working people who teach children inconvenient facts sometimes, aka THE ENEMY!!! Turning his considerable temper on a Real American at the town hall shows his lack of discipline, a personal trait which was destined to bite him in the ass, even though much of what he said in his response had factual merit.
Maybe they we afraid he would eat the horse.
Awwww, poor baby! Maybe this is what happens when you express the desire to do bodily harm to people. I am the teachers’ union and you want to punch me? Make the first one count because I’ve got a 2×4 with your name on it.