Kerry in da-parish
John Kerry, the Democrat Party hopeful for President, visited southern Louisiana on Wednesday, April 22 and included a stop at Shell Beach. As can be expected, the national media (TV, press, radio) all covered the event as well as our own local media.
Who had the most thorough coverage? The
New York Times.
Their coverage on the stop on their
Campaign Trails section of their website had the best tidbits on the mechanics of the actual visit and not just a recap of Kerry's election platform.
The best was Kerry's
spontaneous stop at Sebastien Roy Elementary School. Just how much planning was involved in this "unplanned$quot;? According to the
article by Times reporter David M. Halbfinger, the Kerry campaign relied on the wife of Johnny Nunez (Kerry rode his boat from Lake Front Airport to Shell Beach) who is a teacher at Sebastien Roy and St. Bernard Deputy Mitchell Roussell, who is the father of Sebastien Roy student of the year, Allison Roussell. The two both informed the principal that the Kerry campaign would be passing in front of the school.
So it was just a coincidence that the school was in the middle of a fire drill when the convoy passed by, offering the cameras a shot of school kids cheering for Kerry when he made his impromptu stop.
One student, doing what kids do best, asked the best question of one of the blond-haired women travelling with Kerry. When asked if she was Kerry's wife, she had to laugh when she replied, no she wasn't. She was our own
Senator Mary Landrieu.
St. Bernard residents should all give Harv Adams a hearty thumbs up. Stationing himself on the second deck of a building behind where Kerry was giving his stumping speech, he stood there in his President George W. Bush baseball cap, he held up a small hand-made sign that read "Defend freedom; Vote Bush".
This quote from the
article says it all:
While one reporter was talking to Mr. Adams, a woman approached him and asked him to lower the sign. "They" wanted him to, she said. Who is "They?" Mr. Adams politely asked. The woman refused to say. Mr. Adams refused to lower the sign.
It did take
USAToday to give us a quote from Parish President Junior Rodriguez:
That kind of talk sells well at the state's southern edges. Combined with the war issue, local politicians say Bush shouldn't take Louisiana for granted. "I think the guy's got problems," said Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, the Saint Bernard Parish President, who described himself as an independent. "It's the war. How bad is it gonna get? How are we gonna get out of it?"
Other links to the Kerry visit
Baton Rouge Advocate/WBRZAssociated Press (reprinted in the Times-Picayune)Times-Picayune Local CoverageBe good to yourself,
Westley Annis
westley@da-parish.com
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posted by Westley at 4/22/2004 09:45:24 PM
