President George W. Bush at the Heartland Events Center in Grand Island, Sunday afternoon Nov 5th.
Pete Ricketts, outside before the fun, looking for love...
The new scoreboard just arrived last week. Just in time for use at the event.
About an hour before his arrival. Warming up the crowd...
After the speech, we were out of the lot in about 15 minutes. the drive home was less than 5. We settled down in front of the TV to see how the football games were going and caught a live report from the airport that AirForce 1 was taking off. It occurred to us that the direction it was leaving would place it pretty close to our house in a few moments. This final shot was taken from my back deck.
The waiting wasn't so bad. the arena opened at 11am for the 3:10 scheduled start. My wife and I made a decision to not leave the house till around 1-ish, just so not to blow the WHOLE day over there. We figured that staying home an extra hour or two would cost us at the worst, maybe 50-60 feet, since we knew it would be a center stage. We knew we'd get in, because we had tickets (free!) in hand. The seats facing the podium were all taken by the time we got there and, as you can see by the pics, wher we ended up wasn't half bad.
The preliminary speeches were pretty blah. "How 'bout them Troops?!" "How 'bout them Huskers?!" Some pep rally talks, then entertainment by GI Senior High's band, Hastings St Cecilia Middle School show choir and then a local oldies band filled up the rest of the time.
Bush's talk started out as more Republican Love Fest stuff, then he settled down and explained his points about Iraq, terrorism, etc, plus had a few words about Saddam's guilty verdict from this morning. I'm not a fan of his, but I think he handled himself quite well. It wasn't so short. He started speaking at about 3:45 and didn't finish till a little after 4:35.
It was LOUD in there. he was introduced with "Sirius", better known around these parts as the Tunnel Walk Song. Hal Daub, Fortenberry, Chuck Hagel and others were introduced first, then Ricketts and Adrian Smith came out. The music switched to "Hail Varsity" and Bush came out shaking hands as he went. I've got video of the entrance. I'll see about getting that posted too.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
I have to say the following quote was my favorite from our President in quite a while:
"Now, it seems to me if you're sending someone from this country to Washington, you better have someone who understands what it means to be a farmer and rancher," Bush said.
Why do I like that one? Well, it just happens to perfectly describe Democratic candidate Scott Kleeb, and not Republican Real Estate agent Adrian Smith. Oh well... I find humor where I can.
1a. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. b. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning. c. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect. See synonyms at wit. 2a. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: “Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated” (Richard Kain). b. An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity. See Usage Note at ironic. 3. Dramatic irony. 4. Socratic irony.
I saw a bit of coverage on the news and was surprised to see Bush supporting Ricketts when in the sentance before he said to vote for discerning Democrats and Independants. That sounds like Ben Nelson to me. Maybe I misunderstood him.
