Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 12:59:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Shawn P. Wilbur" <swilbur-AT-wcnet.org>
Subject: presidentus interruptus


Well, Ol' Dubya blazed through our fair city Saturday, tracing some of the
steps of the Kerry campaign, but at much higher speeds. I think i caught a
glimpse of the commander in chief, waving behind tinted glass in one of
the group of buses that roared through town at about 50 mph. The state
troopers ahead of him, a couple of dozen of them in ones and twos and
threes at random intervals, must have been doing 70 or more. The buses
were followed by the black 4xs with the black suited SWAT-types and then a
little fleet of minivans and the local cops and sheriffs tagging along.

They were running a little late, so folks had been standing along Main
Street for a couple of hours - mostly pro-Bush folks, though surprisingly
few of them, given how Kerry packed 'em in in this Republican town, with
some protestors, almost all young, in front of one of the coffee shops. A
buddy of mine, at my mostly-facetious suggestion, held up a sign that just
said "THE KING IS A FINK." So we stood around, or sat on the curb, until
the cops told us to get up on the sidewalk, and then a minivan pace car
blew through, and then the scattered staties, and then it was simply all
over in a minute or two - leaving us all a little uncertain whether we had
seen the president or not...

Among the antis there was a lot of spontaneous laughter, and a bit of
"George, wait a little so i can come too" joking. Believe it or not, there
were also excited cell phone calls around us, with the college republican
faithful calling their friends about how cool it was to see "Him." I'm
still not sure if i did...

Anyway, it was kind of kewl, like a Nascar event where everyone was
sponsored by the same corporation, or like those scenes in action cartoons
where the ranks of paramilitary vehicles race towards the crisis.

It just wasn't very real - and it made the smarmy, hawkish, faux
downhomeisms of the Kerry/Edwards visit seem surprisingly earnest.

Politics, 2004: the War President races through smalltown America in a
spectacle that simultaneously reminded me of GI Joe and a Shriners'
parade.

Ten minutes later the cones are all picked up, and the cops are off to
collect their overtime.

-shawn