The Command Post
2004 US Presidential Election
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January 26, 2004
Edwards | Edwards Loses the Bowlers' Vote

This New Hampshire report paints a vivid picture of what happened Saturday night when Senator Edwards showed up at a bowling alley for a press conference.

The original idea was that Sen. Edwards himself would bowl.

…when I arrived at the bowling alley, about 15 minutes before North Carolina’s Sen. Edwards, trouble was brewing. It was like The Perfect Storm, with two powerful opposing forces on a deadly collision course:

On the one hand, you had hundreds of people there to see the candidate, including a large, aggressive press corps that was not wearing appropriate bowling footwear.

On the other hand, you had league bowlers, who were there to bowl, dammit.

Into this festive scene surged Sen. Edwards, whose campaign theme is that he is going to bring America together. He stood on a platform and gave a speech, surrounded by a dense crowd of media and applauding supporters. About 25 feet away, outside the crowd, the bowlers offered their rebuttal. It was a weird kind of stereo: In one ear, I’d hear Sen. Edwards explaining how he would provide economic opportunity to all Americans; in the other ear, I’d hear: “OUR WHOLE NIGHT IS RUINED! YOU DON‘T GIVE A (bad word) ABOUT US!”

What bright campaign manager thought of this fiasco? It reminds me of Clinton’s infamous runway haircut, albeit on a smaller scale.

In another column, Mr. Barry also gives his brief impression of Wesley Clark.

Posted by Admiral Quixote at January 26, 2004 11:05 AM | TrackBack

Comments

FYI, I watched this even on CSPAN from beginning to end, and saw no sign of distress in the crowd. If the bowlers were raising a stink, I sure couldn’t tell.

Posted by: Alan at January 26, 2004 09:29 PM

Thanks for the info. I just did a quick internet search and found some confirmation of Dave’s perspective.

The duty manager at the tenpin bowling centre was furious. The John Edwards campaign had told her a week before that it wanted to hire some lanes for a small, invitation-only get-together with supporters.
That was before the Iowa caucuses and the North Carolina senator’s second-place finish. Four days later in Merrimack, the Edwards crowd swamped the vast hall until there was scarcely room to move.

Meanwhile, the Edwards advance team was outraged that New Hampshire’s hardcore bowlers were refusing to hand over the lanes it had booked for the campaign rally.

Epithets were exchanged among the bowling balls and computerised scoring machines and someone called the police and the fire brigade.

“They said they were just going to have 50 people. Look at this,” the manager, who asked for her name not to be used, complained, pointing to the melee around her.

Interestingly enough, I could not find confirmation in an American paper. Maybe someone reported on it and I just missed it. Or maybe there is a liberal bias in our media after all.

Posted by: Admiral Quixote at January 27, 2004 12:15 AM

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