This last weekend was a big one for Kansas politics. Both Kansas Democrats and Kansas Republicans held events, as they always do the weekend before Kansas Day.
Now, normally, the event that's the bigger deal, the even that brings in the really big crowds and the big money, is the KS GOP state convention- creatively named "Kansas Days."
Kansas is a Republican state, right? That means lots of excited Republicans getting ready for a great year of stomping Democrats, right?
Wrong, it seems. From all the reports, both media and otherwise, this year's Kansas Days was a massive embarrassment for the KS GOP. Fewer than 300 people showed up for the festivities, and eyewitnesses say both Jim Ryun and Lynn Jenkins where lucky to have more than 25 sad souls visiting their receptions. Look, the only person Jim could find in his empty room to talk to was non-constituent Speaker of the House Melvin "Greenhouse Gases are good for you" Neufeld:
Democrats, on the other hand, held the annual Shawnee County Democrats Bean Feed, which was started years ago to point out a fundamental differnce between Democrats and Republicans: while they're having a fancy $50-a-pop sit down dinner, the Democrats charge ya $10 and we have ham & beans and cornbread in a shelter house at Gage Park.
Normally the Bean Feed attaches 100-150 folk (it is just a one county party event, after all), but this year the folks in charge decided to up the energy a bit, and turned it into a pre-caucus blowout. Still $10, and still ham & beans with cornbread, but instead of a shelter house at Gage Park, the ballroom at the Downtown Ramada, and instead of 100 people, 450-500 people, representatives from all the major presidential campaigns and more enthusiasm and excitement than this cynical D could believe.
As we move into the Kansas Caucuses, that same divide is apparent- Kansas Democrats worry we won't know what to do with huge overflow crowds statewide, while Republicans worry about a PR disaster when no one shows up.
It's things like these, folks, that help all of us be that much more sure that Congressman Dennis Moore will be re-elected in 2008, Congresswoman Nancy Boyda will be re-elected in 2008, and Greg Orman will be our new United States Senator in 2008. It'll never be easy to be a Democrat in Kansas, but with Republicans this depressed and Democrats this engaged, it makes things just a little big easier.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Democratic enthusiasm vs. Republican depression
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14 comments:
Funny - because I attended Ryun's reception and it was packed. I had to wait in line for food. Nice try though.
You must have been busy at your "Unity Bean Feed" with your primary democrats calling each other carpet baggers. I guess you can call that enthusiasm. Can you get that knife out of my back now?
Check your polling numbers and post something worthwhile next time. I believe you will find some foreshadowing in those....
I don't know what event you were talking about, buddy, but I was at Ryun's reception, too, and there was NO ONE there....maybe, just maybe, there were 20 people that walked through the whole time.
Kansas GOP- if it doesn't look good for you- LIE.
lynn had more people than jim at least...but 25 compared with 15 ain't much to mention...
I went to both receptions, and if there were more than 20 people in there (including campaign staff/family) they must've been hiding under the tables. Then again, I wouldn't want anyone to see me if I were supporting these two either.
What a bunch of crap. There is no way that your numbers are accurate. Even saw some Democratic legislators enjoying the receptions. Heck the KRA dinner had several hundred people alone.
I was at the Friday night receptions and the place was full ..... as a matter of fact the parking lots at both the Maner Conference Center and Capital Plaza were full ..... I had to park in the Expocentre parking lot.
I don't know about the Saturday receptions .... but the Friday night receptions had lots of people .... Jenkins had a reception Friday night also.
Hard to count numbers for a two-day event when receptions are spread across Capitol Plaza and Maner Conference Center. I can tell you that there were far more than 300 there on Friday night.
the parking lot at the Capital Plaza fills up for the Silver Lake High School Prom.
Everything I hear says Kansas Days was about to that level of importance and class.
Well nothing says class like an event at the musty Ramada.
at least the Democrats had people at their event...and i don't think ham & beans are supposed to lend themselves to class. That's actually the point, isn't it, that Democrats are regular, and Republicans are rich, self-centered pricks?
That's another fallacy .... that Democrats represent the common man.
Democrats represent the average worker in the united states...or are you saying a corporate hack like Mitt Romney knows more about being a steelworker than someone like John Edwards?
John Edwards is a mega rich trial lawyer...how does he know what it's like to be poor?
Just because he may have more guilt about being rich (or tries to portray that to advance his own ambitions) doesn't mean he represents the "average" American.
Get real!
Let me see .... John Edwards last job was working for a trillion dollars hedge fund comapany that was involved heavily in subprime lending ..... he should know average people .... they are the one's losing their home because of the practices of the company he worked for.
And let's not forget how Hillary sat on the board of directors for Walmart and didn't stand up while Walmart was crushing attempts by Walmart workers to unionize.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/10/AR2007051002277.html
Judging by the desperation of the republican comments here, things must be going VERY badly for them right now. You know that things are at rock-bottom when you have to lie about what other people's records--especially when your own party does those very same things. Whenever a republican attacks someone for something, you can rest assured that the accuser is himself guilty of that very deed.
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