We Weren't The Only Ones

At the Minnesota State Fair this last few days, we were astounded by the numbers.

Not just the numbers of people - in fact, our little corner of the fair, on Judson by the International Bazaar, was actually kind of a calm backwater, compared to the Midway or Dan Patch Avenue.

But the numbers we noticed were the buttons, T-shirts, caps and bags with logos for the various presidential campaigns.

Our poll was completely unscientific, of course - but we saw at least five or six pieces of Bush/Cheney paraphernalia for each piece of Kerry/Edwards swag.

Is that because we were at the Patriot booth? Maybe to some extent; certainly the audience that gathered around the Patriot studio was largely there because they agreed with our message.

But we were counting people walking by at random on Judson, too - and there's no reason to think they were skewed toward one party or another. They were random passers-by...

...and they were overwhelmingly wearing Bush/Cheney gear.

I'm not the only one noticing, of course. Lori Sturdevant writes (emphasis mine):

"The DFL booth has the best crowds I've seen in a lot of years," [U of M Poli Sci prof and everyone's local political expert D. J.] Leary said as moms pulling kids in wagons and elderly people pushing walkers entered from several sides. "There have been years when this booth might have been surrounded by crime scene tape, for all the interest it drew.

"I tell my DFL friends, that's the good news. The bad news is, the crowd at the Republican booth is just as big."

On Carnes Avenue, people were filing into the small, narrow GOP booth as steadily as if it were a cheese curd stand, and leaving with lots of Bush/ Cheney buttons on their shirts and in their hands.

A few streets away, a smaller crowd cooled off -- or, depending on their predilection, heated up -- by watching anti-John Kerry attack ads in the Republican National Committee's 18-wheeler, Reggie the Registration Rig.

If one counts the pro-Bush display at the Minnesota Taxpayers League's Grandstand table, the president's reelection effort is a State Fair triple threat. The polls might still show Kerry with a small lead in this state. But by my fair reckoning, he has some catching up to do.

So it's not just me.

Both booths were crowded, indeed. And here I'm going to swerve into my own observations; while the DFL booth was busy both times I walked through, the people seemed to be regulars; I didn't get the impression that there were lots of new faces in the booth. Besides me.

The GOP booth felt like it had an energy about it; people had a spring in their step, an optimism in the air that seemed (to my admittedly-biased ears) lacking in the DFL booth.

Speaking of things that I wasn't the only one to notice - it was fascinating to see Safire arrive at this conclusion (again, I'm adding the emphasis):

The Labor Day Bush trend (which could, by the nature of swing voting, be reversible) has Democratic politicians between dismay and panic. As usual, they are crying foul at a veterans group's answer to Kerry's blunder of running on his Vietnam war and anti-war record. As insiders shake up the staff, outsiders pre-emptively lay the basis for post-election excuses, positioning themselves for embittered told-you-so's.

Posted by Mitch at September 6, 2004 03:54 AM | TrackBack