And then you see him... and measure the war?

It's fitting that finally, at this late date, I saw this President we've heard so much about. The War on Terror came to Hudson, Wisconsin, and I posted up at Second and Locust, just outside the security perimeter. At least there weren't any of those 'free speech zones' today. Rather, Bush and Kerry partisans circulated freely. I was more agitated than usual because this was an infringement on my home turf.

The roads were blocked off by city dump trucks to block car bombs. Did that mean they weren't just dump trucks, but Dump Trucks in the War on Terror?

Three large Bush-Cheney buses came up from Exit 1 and I basically grimaced there. In 10 minutes they had gone up another block and turned down towards the river. Peering from my spot on Second Street down to the "HUDSON, WIS." archway at the end of the dike where they built the stage, the buses pulled up in tandem and for a blazing moment George W. Bush, in a blue shirt, worked the crowd lined up on the other side.

A whole crush of people were all around us, standing on railings around a pit reaching the basement windows of this corner building. I turned because Jon Lyons couldn't see a damn thing, so I crouched down and made a bridge with my hands, and Jon saw Bush ascend onto the stage and out of sight behind the buses. That was the end of our contact with the Officeholder.

In an interesting side story, my sister and some friends apparently sneaked most of the way through the security zone, in a sense proving that the war on terror is smaller than Lakefront Park. I will have to follow up on this exciting story.

Posted by HongPong at August 19, 2004 02:02 AM
Listed under Campaign 2004 , Minnesota .