Did I imagine it, or were there racist idiots BOOING President Obams at the All-Star Game?

[Ken Burch]

Did the Freepers buy up blocks of tickets just to do that?

Sheesh...We never did that to Reagan or EITHER Bush when they threw out the first pitches!

I know this isn't the single most pressing issue of the day...but damn, it was, if you'll excuse the term, "bush".

[SeattleGirl]

1. I heard some boos, but it could have been because Obama was

wearing a White Sox jacket.

Sports fans are pretty rabid.

[mucifer]

19. no the big rival with St Lous is the Cubs not the Sox. I heard mostly cheers.

[DrToast]

21. Any jacket other than the home team is going to piss off some fans. n/t

[rurallib]

22. anything Chicago is booed in St. Louis.

[Captain Hilts]

35. Sportsfans know this. How Harry Carey made the switch I do not know. nt

[rurallib]

53. he was run out of St.Lou by Busch

ended up on a 500 watt station in Oakland doing the As. For St. Louis fans he was washed up.
He then took his act to the White Sox, which could not draw flies at the time.
When he got to the Cubs about 10 years had intervened and Harry was a senior citizen. Plus the Cubs weren't much of a threat to the Cards.

[Captain Hilts]

54. Interesting history. Thanks! nt

[Arkansas Granny]

70. Rumor had it that Harry Caray was run out of St. Louis because

he was having an affair with the DIL of Auggie Busch. I remember my father listening incredulously the night that Harry announced that he was leaving the Cardinals. It was a very emotional farewell.

[rurallib]

89. I believe that would be more than a rumor.

[dflprincess]

29. Good point

I have to admit, as a Twins fan, I hated to see the Sox jacket.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Keep in mind the part of the country we're talking about...

And who can afford to attend such a game.

[Ken Burch]

6. It could be people who are still bitter about Ashcroft losing...

Imagine the response if Obama had said "Acorn Rules!" as he threw the pitch.

[PVnRT]

59. Obama carried the St. Louis area

Fail.

[MyUserNameIsBroken]

66. The demographics of a ball game crowd

Especially for an "event" game, are in fact going to be skewed. As noted above, Obama carried St. Louis City and County0--handily. But like most ballyards these days, tickets at Busch are geared towards a more affluent crowd, and towards corporate customers in particular.

[Windy]

3. Someone said it was probably because he was wearing a Sox jacket due to the rivallry.

I dunno, seemed like a lot of freepers to me.

[PretzelWarrior]

49. wrong. they hate Cubs fans. White Sox don't do much for them one way or another.

if there were boos...it was a bunch of working class and white Republican assholes.

[bigwillq]

4. I expected some boos.

Couldn't tell if it was for him or because of his jacket. Regardless, the cheers were loud, very loud. :)

[Nedsdag]

5. I heard more cheers than boos.

n/t

[Ken Burch]

8. There were...but there were never ANY boos

When Nixon, Reagan, or EITHER Bush threw out a first pitch.

[charlie and algernon]

11. LOL, are you being sarcastic?

there were TONS of boos whenever dubya threw out a first pitch

[quiller4]

17. That isn't true. Bush was booed and it was quite the topic of

discussion by pundits for days.

[Captain Hilts]

37. When he threw out a ball at a Nationals game. Yes, he was loudly booed. nt

[Captain Hilts]

36. That is just not true. Same when Albright subbed for Bubba after the knee injury.Hillary got boo'ed

at a Cubs game in the early 90s.

[masuki bance]

7. Politicians get booed at sporting events, it's the law.

Most people are there for the game, they hate anyone moving in on it.

Were you serious about the mass ticket buying conspiracy theory?

[Ken Burch]

9. Well, I could picture Blunt, Bond and Ashcroft groupies showing up just for that

It'd be the same as bulk buys of RW books just to artificially get those books into the bestseller lists.

[firedupdem]

10. +1

It's not like they can think much beyond something like that. They definitely have nothing else to do. Idiots

[brendan120678]

76. I'm pretty sure the game was sold out...

well before President Obama committed to throwing out the first pitch.

[bluestateguy]

12. There were maybe 20% boos to 80% cheers

Too few boos to warrant starting a thread about it.

[salguine]

13. Why do you just assume that any booing was automatically racially motivated?

[masuki bance]

14. good question. nt

[Ken Burch]

15. Because of who our president is.

That's half the reason the rw acts like Obama had no right to win, and why they STILL won't let the birth certificate thing go.

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. Do you really believe that they would be less nasty towards Hillary if she had won?

:shrug:

[Captain Hilts]

55. Cubs fans booed her in '94 when she threw out the ball. Made all the news. nt

[Freddie Stubbs]

56. And she wasn't even President then

[Beacool]

63. Yep, they would be.

And I wouldn't be yelling "sexists". ALL presidents get booed by people who don't like them and their policies. It comes with the territory.

:shrug:

[Freddie Stubbs]

68. In Philly, Eagles fans once pelted Santa Claus with snowballs:

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/philadelphia.asp

[Beacool]

73. THAT's a tough crowd!!!

The Eagles are notorious for booing everybody. Jesus Christ himself would get booed by them.

:rofl:

[4lbs]

74. That's because he'd be a fan of the Los Angeles Angels and the New Orleans Saints!

:D

[Beacool]

75. Good point!!!

:7

[salguine]

31. Maybe they were booing because they thought you should be able to be

charged with a crime and found guilty before you're imprisoned forever.

[Ken Burch]

33. I wasn't calling for anyone's arrest. Just expressing an opinion about what happened

n/t.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

88. ...because it was racism when Bush got booed?

Seriously, this is way, way over the line.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

50. Because the vast majority of Obama critics are racist.

As evidenced by them being almost exclusively white.

[Rebubula]

58. Sorry...

...Correlation does not equal causation.

A white man and a black man can have a disagreement without it having anything to do with race.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

72. Individually, sure.

But if there's a vast discrepancy across millions of people, yeah, it's got to do with race.

[lumberjack_jeff]

77. Yup. You can spot a racist a mile away, cuz they're white. n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

78. They'll also use shady logic to defend racism.

[lumberjack_jeff]

83. Or, alternately, good logic to point it out. n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

84. Jeff Sessions arguments are not good logic.

[lumberjack_jeff]

85. Nor is the argument in the post to which I was responding. n/t

[earth mom]

16. Maybe some people don't approve of Obama's policies. It's a free country.

How do you know they are racists?

That's a pretty broad brush there.

Dissent is patriotic.

[Captain Hilts]

38. Watch it - nuance confuses some people! nt

[Ken Burch]

39. Of course dissent is patriotic.

That wasn't what I was saying.

[backscatter712]

18. IIRC, Dubya got booed all to hell at sporting events...

and he fucking deserved it! :evilgrin:

And remember when Sarah Palin got booed dropping the puck at a Philadelphia Flyers game? They had to blast the music to try to drown out the booing - that was epic!

[dflprincess]

24. I was at a Twins playoff game in 2004

and the rumor went around that Bush was going to throw the first pitch out at the game as he was in town that day. There had also been a rally for Kerry that day (though he was not in town) and there were a lot of people at the Dome who were ready with Kerry signs just in case Dimson did show. I never heard if the rumors were just rumors or if he chickened out because even as people were walking into the stadium it was pretty clear that he would not receive a warm welcome.

[Clio the Leo]

23. That would be the "carping and griping" you heard mentioned earlier.....

(video)
http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=1155201977&bctid=29465112001

[rcrush]

25. I'm not sure if everyone who doesnt like Obama is a racist.

That might be a bit of a stretch there.

[kwolf68]

48. Just a bit

If I booed JC Watts would I be racist?

Just because bad shit happens to a black person (Prez or no) doesn't mean it's always racism.

[AllentownJake]

26. Depending on the day and the policy announcement

I might boo him.

I'd boo Tim Geithner

[rcrush]

27. omg racist!

[Beacool]

62. Funny!!

:rofl:

[BeyondGeography]

28. The Cardinal fans are always lionized as super-classy and ultra-polite

And there were more than a few boos. Fuck them and their little red sweaters.

[dflprincess]

30. The All Star game attracts fans from all the teams

I think all the teams get alloted a certain number of tickets, including the home town team.

[amandabeech]

42. If that's the case, then the boos could have been from Cubs fans.

Not much love lost between Cubs fans and Sox fans.

It's not that far from Chicago to St. Louis.

[Jennicut]

32. I bet its more politically motivated then racially motivated

[Captain Hilts]

34. Why would they necessarily be racists? Politicians nearly always get

boo'ed at ballgames.

[kwolf68]

40. Bush was absolutely booed

In the Nationals stadium for opening day (I think)...Obama got a good round of cheers. In a stadium of 40,000 people in Missouri where the tickets to attend are hundres of dollars, Im shocked they didn't storm the field.

The President is fine...

[SemiCharmedQuark]

41. Yahoo says that Bush got the most cheers! If that is true (I didn't watch), then no wonder he got

booed. No bigger split on policies than that.

[kwolf68]

43. Obama got scant boos

Yahoo is full of shit...yea, you could hear a few, but it was not enough to be an issue I didn't think. I thought the reception was positive, especially considering the people in the Stadium most likely are not part of the block who voted for him.

[cboy4]

44. Actually, they were booing Ken because nobody wants to go to a sporting

event and watch a politician.

We can all turn on CSPAN for that.

[BeyondGeography]

46. Shouldn't you be hanging at fuckallpoliticians.com tonight?

[cboy4]

47. Oh, is my lack of admiration and respect for just about all politicians that

noticeable?

Actually, politicians and I would get along much better if they'd stay out of my love of sports.?

There's a reason they all get booed when they're introduced.

[rasputin1952]

45. I can recall bush being booed during his last couple of months at

several functions.

The thing is, the cheers were far louder and when the president jogged to the mound, they got louder...:D

[Princess Turandot]

51. I doubt it had anything to do with race across the board..

I think it's the politician thing to some degree, some people who don't like him for a myriad of possible reasons and showing up in St. Louis at the All Star Game wearing any team logo but the Cardinals' logo. For the locals, they could have viewed that as an insult. (Imagine him showing up in either Boston or New York wearing the 'other' team's jacket; given the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry, that could have started a melee, not generated a few boos. Both of the cities went to Obama vote-wise.) As others have said, a lot of the tickets are distributed in various ways around the country, so it's hard to know who was even in attendance there.

Plus, many baseball fans generally think that booing whomever they want and sometimes, also insulting their mother, is the divine right of holding a ticket stub! And they exercise it.

3 or 4 years ago, Cheney attended a Yankee game at the Stadium. He was just there, not doing anything 'official'. They flashed his pic on the Jumbotron and the place erupted in boos and cat-calls. (They yanked the plug on that in a Cheney mechanical heartbeats.)Now that was booing!

[JimGinPA]

52. Wearing The White Sox Jacket Was A Poor Choice IMHO nt

[AngryAmish]

57. He had to wear some sort of jacket to cover the flak jacket

Or do you think he is naturally chilly and wears jackets all the time, in the summer, in St. Louis.

He had to wear some jacket, so why not wear the colors of your team?

[Captain Hilts]

64. Good point. Even Albright wore an Orioles jacket throwing out the first ball. Cover the flak vest.

A photograph made the cover of Foreign Policy journal.

[rvablue]

86. Not a MLB fan, but this would explain it. Do the cards play against the Sox?

If so, and maybe even if not, it's typical juvenile team rivalry, no biggie!

[AngryAmish]

87. No, they are in different leagues

May play once every three years in interleague play. If he wore a Cubs jacket, sure that is the stuff of rivalry.

[PVnRT]

60. Asinine

You really think other Presidents haven't been booed? Give me a break. There were barely any boos in that statement when he walked out, mostly applause. And further, assuming that their racist...fail again.

Honestly, there's support and then there's hero worship. This thread is evidence of the latter.

[Beacool]

61. Why racists?

Were we racists when we booed Bush or were the Repugs racists when they did the same to Clinton?

He is the president, there will always be a group of people who will disagree with him and his policies.

It's not always about race........

:shrug:

[Khaotic]

65. Cardinal Nation

I've been a Cardinal fan my entire life, but it's sad to say that there are some people in Cardinal Nation that I'm deeply ashamed of.



That MORON is one of them.

When Obama came out there were more cheers than jeers, but don't kid yourselves ... the jeers were meant to be what they were.

I haven't scoured the 'Net yet, but I'm sure there will be (or already are) articles about the booing as pathetic sites like NewsMax and others will tout it.

I remember not so long ago such articles being posted here when Bush was booed at similar events. The difference is that Shrub started an illegal war and fucked up our country so bad that it's going to take decades to get it back to where it was.

I'm a Missouri native (I live in blue Iowa now) and I'm not surprised that there were jeers at Obama from some of the redneck hicks who were there.

I listened pretty close, and there weren't that many people booing, but of those who were they were trying their hardest to be as loud as possible. When the clapping started to naturally subside, those few who were jeering ramped up their efforts a little more.

In response the cheers escalated a little to keep the boos from being noticed too much.

I'm sure Hannity, Limbaugh, and others will play audio clips on their shows and rant and rave about 'drive-by media' glossing right over it.

I'm glad the thread was posted here. I'd like to think that everything is talked about here, negative and positive.

If the rightwingers make a big enough deal about it on their little radio shows today, then I'm sure their ranting will be addressed on Olbermann and/or Maddow tonight.

My own 2 cents in regard to my fellow Cardinal fans booing Obama ... pathetic.

[beachmom]

67. Wow, so anyone who boos the President is automatically a "racist"?

Talk about the worst representation of the Left ever. AND, it belittles real racism.

[Seen the light]

82. I agree

I have faith in the little right-wind munchkins that they would have been booing a President Clinton or President Gore or President Kerry as well.

[Khaotic]

69. Here come the 'articles'

Obama Booed at All-Star Game, Throws Sissy Pitch
http://www.examiner.com/x-2304-DC-Republican-Examiner~y2009m7d15-Obama-Booed-at-AllStar-Game-Throws-Sissy-Pitch

Barack Obama First Pitch: Obama All-Star Game Video, Booed
http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=4298

Obama booed more at All Star game than Manny in New York return
http://www.examiner.com/x-426-Sports-Examiner~y2009m7d14-Obama-booed-more-at-All-Star-game-than-Manny-in-New-York-return

[Rebubula]

71. Nationals

Sheesh...We never did that to Reagan or EITHER Bush when they threw out the first pitches!


I was at the season opener at RFK a couple of years back where Bush threw out the 1st pitch and he was LOUDLY booed. Happens all the time.

But nice job trying to drag race into a political realm where it needs not be. Will this become the fallback argument now - 'Agree with Obama or you are a racist'? Sheeesh indeed....

[Perky]

79. Why do you assume they were booing because they were racist?

They could simply be motivated by politics.

[WI_DEM]

80. Where do you get that Bush or Reagan were never booed?

[spiritual_gunfighter]

81. I just chalk it up to low class Cardinals fans n/t

[Khaotic]

90. Indeed