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October 12, 2008 9:00 AM

The McCain campaign thought it would be a good idea for VP candidate Sarah Palin to drop the puck at last night's Flyers-Rangers game. They thought wrong. Palin was welcomed with "resounding (almost deafening)" boos. Fox News, of course, says the crowd's reaction was "mixed." Listen for yourself here.
posted by Reggie452 (41 comments total)

I'd say mixed. She is lucky her kids were there.
posted by rotifer at 9:05 AM on October 12, 2008

Remember though, Philly is the city that booed Santa Claus. Not exactly a heartwarming crowd.
posted by Mach5 at 9:06 AM on October 12, 2008

Booed? We threw batteries at his jolly red ass.
posted by Ludi at 9:07 AM on October 12, 2008 [4 favorites]

They probably shouldn't visit the Upper West Side, either.
posted by empath at 9:07 AM on October 12, 2008

For the uninitiated, what is the point of the Palinuckdrop..? It just seems like a quick scam to get a glamorous face on the ticket.

Um.. "the ice".
posted by NinjaTadpole at 9:07 AM on October 12, 2008

Also, I feel sorry for the kids.

The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee said at an earlier fundraiser that she would stop some of the booing from the rowdy Philadelphia fans by putting her seven year old daughter, Piper in a Flyers jersey. She said, "How dare they boo Piper!"
posted by empath at 9:10 AM on October 12, 2008

Does "some people were sporadically clapping amongst an entire stadium of people booing continuously for five minutes" really count as "mixed"? Here's a video from the stands which has a better view of the crowd's reaction... "mixed" wouldn't be my adjective, that's for sure!

Note that the "heartwarming crowd" cheered for the other hockey mom -- they only started booing when Palin was up.
posted by vorfeed at 9:12 AM on October 12, 2008 [4 favorites]

People who use their children as props are the lowest form of life. (Hence an appropriate standard-bearer for the zombified Republican Party.) That applies double when your family is a freaking after-school special waiting to happen.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 9:13 AM on October 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

GYOB
posted by MarshallPoe at 9:14 AM on October 12, 2008

For the uninitiated, what is the point of the Palinuckdrop..? It just seems like a quick scam to get a glamorous face on the ticket.

Same as a ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game. In this case, totally about promoting McCain/Palin in Pennsylvania, given the Flyers' owner's longstanding GOP loyalties.
posted by hangashore at 9:15 AM on October 12, 2008

GYOB

Get Your Own Broadstreetbullies?
posted by hangashore at 9:16 AM on October 12, 2008 [3 favorites]

Also, it's worth noting that they turned the music up in the stadium (at about 0:45-0:50 on the video I posted) in order to try and drown out the crowd's "mixed" reaction...
posted by vorfeed at 9:17 AM on October 12, 2008

She said, "How dare they boo Piper!"

How dare you exploit your children like that? Very "Joe Sixpack" of you -_-
posted by Donnie VandenBos at 9:18 AM on October 12, 2008

Here's a video from the stands...

Two more videos from the stands - 1, 2.
posted by ericb at 9:21 AM on October 12, 2008

Also, here some video of comedian Bill Burr giving a Philly audience a good trashing for booing during his set. Really NSFW and bad audio, but still funny.
posted by Mach5 at 9:21 AM on October 12, 2008

So a hockey club whose storied past includes the Broad Street Bullies (multiple early-70s Stanley Cup winners and one of the most notoriously violent teams in NHL history) and Ron Hextall (80s-era Flyer mainstay, a spectacularly unhinged goalie who once two-handed a guy across the back of his legs) just can't abide the dirty tricks of the lipsticked pitbull.

Looks about right from this side of 49. Good on ya, Philly.
posted by gompa at 9:22 AM on October 12, 2008

The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee said at an earlier fundraiser that she would stop some of the booing from the rowdy Philadelphia fans by putting her seven year old daughter, Piper in a Flyers jersey.

The egregious way that Sarah Palin uses her children as political props is disgusting.
posted by grouse at 9:23 AM on October 12, 2008 [6 favorites]

Philly hasn't demonstrated any unwillingness to boo little girls in the past, so I'm not sure why they thought bringing the daughters along would help any. Maybe it kept the batteries at bay.
posted by shadow vector at 9:24 AM on October 12, 2008

"Why do I have a feeling that poor Piper will be discussing being booed by thousands with a therapist in about 10 years?"
posted by ericb at 9:24 AM on October 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Hey, it's the Rangers. Did anyone really expect a welcoming committee?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:24 AM on October 12, 2008

Two things I like:

1. In the FPP video, the one dude in the stand clapping like a metronome, while people over to his left give thumbs down (at least that's what it looks like, but it's pretty blurry).

2. In vorfeed's video, the YT comments, particularly one by a "skittlehappymatt" which says "lol
i still have no clue who this SARAH PALIN bitch is but this was mad funny"

Really, YouTube kid? You don't know who SARAH PALIN is? That's a real shocker, there.
posted by Caduceus at 9:24 AM on October 12, 2008

Save your fucking boos for the voting booth. Morons.

BTW - at first I thought the motion in the audience was clapping, then I realized it is actually people giving the double thumbs down.
posted by SSinVan at 9:27 AM on October 12, 2008

That is just like East Coast city folk to take Palin's incessant implication that they are lesser Americans personally. They're always looking backwards, and remembering things which just happened.
posted by Your Time Machine Sucks at 9:27 AM on October 12, 2008 [8 favorites]

I'd like to hear what she had for breakfast...

She had a plate of beans.
posted by ericb at 9:27 AM on October 12, 2008

I'd like to hear what she had for breakfast, and whether the cereal booed her.

she had rice krispies - we say it "snap, crackle and pops" but SHE says it "applauds"
posted by pyramid termite at 9:28 AM on October 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Y'know, I love a good Palin bashing as much as anyone, but isn't this taking things a bit too far? I mean, you could have gone with this nice Salon article documenting her batshit insane links to the AIP, or... um... well, nothing else comes to mind as we've practically covered everything about her at this stage. Repeatedly. Sure, it's nice to see her booed at a sterotypically conservative sports event, but when it comes after a couple of days of honest to God substantial attacks on her, it comes off as manically gloating.

On preview: Yeah, using her kids to deflect boos is kind of a dickish move.
posted by Pope Gustafson I at 9:28 AM on October 12, 2008

Who won the game?
posted by sexymofo at 9:29 AM on October 12, 2008

The American people?
posted by lumensimus at 9:33 AM on October 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Who won the game?

The team with two Alaskans in the lineup.
posted by hangashore at 9:34 AM on October 12, 2008

People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids? It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice....Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out.
posted by stbalbach at 9:35 AM on October 12, 2008

“Shoot Pucks, Not Moose.”
posted by nickyskye at 9:35 AM on October 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Any reports of "Kill her!" or "Traitor!" or any other offensive things being yelled at her? No? Then I'd have to say that the hockey fans were a lot more polite than the folks who go to Palin speeches.
posted by leftcoastbob at 9:38 AM on October 12, 2008 [17 favorites]

I think Palin's monumental failure to be popular with 2/3rds of America would be of very intense interest to Republicans interested in winning any future elections. But maybe they'd rather be ideological than in power.

God, how I wish that the past eight years hadn't proved beyond a doubt that these are not mutually exclusive options.
posted by AdamCSnider at 9:49 AM on October 12, 2008

I think Palin's monumental failure to be popular with 2/3rds of America would be of very intense interest to Republicans interested in winning any future elections. But maybe they'd rather be ideological than in power.

Sounds like the Republicans and I finally have something in common. I too would rather have the Republicans be ideological than in power.
posted by grouse at 9:49 AM on October 12, 2008 [5 favorites]

How do we know the boos weren't actually for hated former Flyer Brian Propp who accompanied the beloved Palin?
posted by I Foody at 9:52 AM on October 12, 2008

I wish that Krrrlson hadn't tacked on that last sentence to his comment, because he makes a good point: This is petty. This is just gloating over Palin's unpopularity.

I don't like Palin, and I don't want her running the country, but not every detail of the campaign is worthy of discussion.
posted by JDHarper at 9:52 AM on October 12, 2008

Just wanna make sure I've got my talking points straight... we're supposed to pretend that this is equivalent to shouting "Kill him!", right?
posted by Flunkie at 9:53 AM on October 12, 2008

For the uninitiated, what is the point of the Palinuckdrop..?

They had to find something that she was qualified for.
posted by Flunkie at 9:54 AM on October 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Lame boos from a half capacity venue. BFD.
Consider the response Obama would have received, along with the morass of debris that would have been hitting the ice...
posted by buzzman at 9:57 AM on October 12, 2008

This is just gloating over Palin's unpopularity.

Well, it's been a long time since we Democrats have had a chance to gloat over a Republican's unpopularity. Indulge us a bit.

(Is anyone else imagining McCain sitting around somewhere going 'What the hell was I thinking?')
posted by jonmc at 9:58 AM on October 12, 2008

I wish that Krrrlson hadn't tacked on that last sentence to his comment, because he makes a good point: This is petty. This is just gloating over Palin's unpopularity.

I don't like Palin, and I don't want her running the country, but not every detail of the campaign is worthy of discussion.

Oh, give it a rest. A bit of schadenfreude makes for good stress relief, and I'd say we all heartily deserve it after the abominable campaign McCain and Palin have been running. Not to mention after the last eight years of being driven into the dirt by the Republican machine.
posted by Caduceus at 9:59 AM on October 12, 2008 [2 favorites]