[QUOTE=Merijeek]
So, was he invited to the function because he’s the POTUS or “The Number One Baseball Superfan”?
-Joe
[/QUOTE]
If you want to keep politics out of baseball, then don’t feature politicians as part of the presentation of a baseball game.
[QUOTE=Algher]
It comes from Molly Ivins (RIP) I believe, who also coined him “Shrub.”
[/QUOTE]
I thought it was Ann Richards, but I just saw a Time article that credited it to Jim Hightower, who was speaking of Bush pere.
I disagree. He was throwing out the first pitch because it’s a Presidential tradition. He’s was not there as a fan, like he was just sitting in the stands or even in the broadcast booth.
ETA: Forgot to give my view. Booing Bush at the game might be a little tacky, but if I’d been there, I probably would have booed or mumbled (or shouted) something obscene.
[QUOTE=Blalron]
It’s things like this that make me wish we had a separate head of state apart from our head of government. That way, people who hate the way government is run could still rally behind the leader (head of state) without feeling conflicted.
[/QUOTE]
We don’t need a leader to rally behind. We’re grownups.
What we need are public servants who do their jobs and whom we can make clear our displeasure when they’re doing their jobs in a way we don’t like.
I didn’t intend that anyone was to think I coined the phrase “born on third base and thought he hit a triple”! I ought to have put quotation marks around it, I guess. I always thought it was brilliant but I confess I didn’t know who came up with it.
And while it is particularly apt to Mr. Bush, I’m sure we all know a few other people it could apply to.
I would have booed, too. Loud and long. With the odd obscenity tossed in for variety. As a Canadian, I feel that he was about as ill-mannered a man as I ever saw, in the days right after 9/11. The** least** of his crimes, perhaps, but not forgotten.
[QUOTE=Terrifel]
Bush would surely have gotten a warmer reception if only the stadium had thought to offer each adult fan a free bottle of beer.
[/QUOTE]
On a related note, the reception Bush got at the ballpark Sunday night was downright polite when compared to Herbert Hoover’s in 1932. Hoover not only got flack from people angry about his failure to successfully combat the Depression but also from beer-thirsty fans opposed to his unwaivering support for Prohibition. All during Hoover’s stay at the game, loud jeers alternated with chants of “We want beer!” until he made an early departure.
[QUOTE=begbert2]
They boo’d him? So what? I wouldn’t care if somebody’d shot him. (So long as it was an american who did it, that is. Anybody else and there’d be trouble asa result of it.)
[/QUOTE]
I’ll probably get a few years in purgatory for agreeing with that. With the addendum that they shoot Cheney too.
[QUOTE=dalej42]
Should people boo the president at these types of events? He is actually in his role of Chief of State.
[/QUOTE]
Really?
I don’t see ‘participating in photo ops at baseball games’ listed as one of the duties of the President in Article II, section 2-3 of our Constitution.
[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net]
Really?
I don’t see ‘participating in photo ops at baseball games’ listed as one of the duties of the President in Article II, section 2-3 of our Constitution.
[/QUOTE]
It’s all in the penumbra.
[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net]
Really?
I don’t see ‘participating in photo ops at baseball games’ listed as one of the duties of the President in Article II, section 2-3 of our Constitution.
[/QUOTE]
Well, if they can tell me that I’m really never off duty, then the same should go for Bush.
If I make a poor decision that gets one person killed for no good reason I can be assured that they’ll throw the book at me. I’ll be held accountable and you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll pay for it. Bush has managed to kill several thousand Americans and a huge number of Iraqis for no good reason. If getting booed is the most awful thing done to him for it he’s lucky.
[QUOTE=Evil Captor]
C’mon guys, it was wrong of the crowd to boo Bush at the opener.
At the very LEAST tar and feathers should have been in use.
[/QUOTE]
Boo him? Absolutely. The pity is that it wasn’t “Bring A Basket Of Rotten Fruit to The Game” day at the park.
Of, course, the Secret Service may have had a problem with that.
[QUOTE=John Mace]
I say keep politics out of baseball. Boo him all you want in any political situation
[/QUOTE]
Well, then, you agree that it’s ultimately Bush’s fault for maintaining a dissent-free bubble around his public political functions.
(I originally put a question mark there, but I edited it to a period upon realizing that no other answer is supportable.)
I personally wouldn’t have booed the man, but I don’t blame the ones who did. Then again, I also stopped yelling at the umpires by the time I was 10.
[QUOTE=asterion]
I personally wouldn’t have booed the man, but I don’t blame the ones who did. Then again, I also stopped yelling at the umpires by the time I was 10.
[/QUOTE]
Why yell “kill the umpire”? The umpire’s never killed anybody.
[QUOTE=Algher]
It comes with the territory in a nation that believes in free speech, and where we have no kings (though we might have a few political dynasties).
[/QUOTE]
Okay, as the citizen of a constitutional monarchy, I take issue with this. We don’t boo the Queen because, as well as being our figurehead, she has devoted her life to serving our country immaculately for over 50 years and has earned our respect. If she’d behaved with half the stupidity and arrogance of Bush, I’d be right at the front throwing rotten tomatoes at her. Let’s not start inferring that only a country with a US-style model of democracy has the right to abuse their head of state.
And while I’m on the subject, does anyone agree that this is one of the inherent problems with having the offices of Head of State tied up with Head of Government? You vote for your Head of Government, so should feel entitled to hold him to account, and yet feel the need to doff your cap to him because he’s Head of State.
They shouldn’t have booed him. It was a ballgame. They should have heckled him.
“Hey Bush! Yeah, you! You SUCK, Bush! Go back ta the minors! Go back to ya bush league state goverment, ya lousy bum!”
“Hey Bush, won any wars lately? To bad ya don’t fight wars like ya clear brush!”
“We want a President, not a twenny percent of the time Crawford resident!”
[QUOTE=SanVito]
And while I’m on the subject, does anyone agree that this is one of the inherent problems with having the offices of Head of State tied up with Head of Government? You vote for your Head of Government, so should feel entitled to hold him to account, and yet feel the need to doff your cap to him because he’s Head of State.
[/QUOTE]
Why would you feel the need to “doff your cap” to the head of state ? Or show them any respect at all, unless they’ve earned it ?
[QUOTE=SanVito]
Okay, as the citizen of a constitutional monarchy, I take issue with this. We don’t boo the Queen because, as well as being our figurehead, she has devoted her life to serving our country immaculately for over 50 years and has earned our respect. If she’d behaved with half the stupidity and arrogance of Bush, I’d be right at the front throwing rotten tomatoes at her. Let’s not start inferring that only a country with a US-style model of democracy has the right to abuse their head of state.
[/QUOTE]
You don’t boo the Queen, but I assume you’d boo the PM? Outside of Parliament, that is.
Here’s proof.
For years, civil libertarians on this board have pointed out that Bush and Cheney have been systematically protected from contact with, or even proximity to, protesters. Conservatives called us paranoid foilhatters, and other skeptics hollered for proof. Here it is. The ACLU used the Freedom Of Information Act to obtain the Presidential Advance Manual from October 2002. It has been standard policy to round up dissenters, and corral them far enough away to make it seem that everyone agreed with the administration.
[QUOTE=ACLU website]
The ACLU filed today’s lawsuit, Rank v. Jenkins, after obtaining a heavily redacted version of the Presidential Advance Manual from the Justice Department. This manual is the Bush administration’s guide for planning presidential events around the country, and it repeatedly instructs organizers about “the best method for preventing demonstrators,” “deterring potential protestors from attending events,” “designat[ing] a protest area . . . preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route,” and the like.
[/QUOTE]
We weren’t fibbing. The opening night ball game was a rare opportunity to publicly confront GWB with dissent. If I had been there, I would have booed him. I would not have thrown things, because that disrepects the game. I would not have cussed him, because there are always children in the crowd. I would have yelled loud enough for him to hear my anger from the top row. Go home, ya bum, ya!
So booing a president in a public forum is inappropriate? Gee, the next thing to happen might be taking his picture at a public forum will land in trouble, eh?
Oops!