Portland protest and bush supporters
Taking a cue from Bill O'Reilley -- SHUT UP!! Man, bush people can't take it can they? This is from the August 17, 2004, edition of the Portland Tribune. Bush was there; protests ensued.
An unidentified supporter of President Bush tries to silence protester Kendra Lloyd-Knox (right) outside Southridge High School in Beaverton. Elsewhere in Portland, supporters of Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., rallied on the waterfront.
Bush, Kerry stir up Stumptown
Presidential campaigns turning up the heat on Oregon voters
By DON HAMILTON Issue date: Tue, Aug 17, 2004
The Tribune
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry look ready to go to war over Oregon this year.
The presidential contenders brought their A game to the state last week. Both generated tremendous excitement among supporters, both pulled all the political levers they could, and both saw how far the other will go in trying to win Oregon in the 11 weeks remaining in the campaign.
President Bush brought the promise of jobs in the $15 million he pledged for deepening the Columbia River channel, a signal that he’s willing to spread around some federal money, especially when it spurs private investment, a classic tactic available only to the incumbent.
Kerry, meanwhile, attracted 50,000 people to the Portland waterfront in what may well have been the largest political rally ever in Oregon. The crowd’s size and enthusiasm signaled an unusually deep commitment for a Democratic Party that’s often divided.
Both candidates are concentrating on states expected to be close. That means Oregon, narrowly won by the Democrats in 2000, should expect both of them back, a rare level of attention for a state that offers a paltry seven electoral votes. President Bush has been here four times since taking office and Kerry three since May.
That may pale compared to the 20-plus visits to big electoral states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, but it’s still more attention than Oregon’s used to.
Their visits in the weeks ahead will offer a barometer on what the polls are saying. If Kerry’s narrow lead in the polls shrinks, expect more campaign appearances, said Jim Moore, an independent political analyst and assistant professor of political science at Pacific University. But if the candidates stop showing up, it may mean one or the other has a lead so wide that the two hopefuls ignore Oregon and turn their attention to more competitive states.
“We’ll know which states are close by which states they visit,” Moore said.
The intensity of their competition spilled over into a fight for the attention of live local television. Local stations found themselves jumping from one to the other and using split screens during the 16 minutes that both Kerry and Bush were speaking.
Bush started speaking at 12:30 p.m. in front of 2,300 wildly cheering supporters at Southridge High School in Beaverton, his remarks carried live on local television. At that point, Kerry hadn’t yet arrived at his downtown Portland rally. At 1:05 p.m., when Kerry finally took the stage along the river, Bush was still talking.
Kerry, though, waited. He shook hands, waved to the crowd and pumped his fist in the air as the television continued to show the president, who by this point was answering questions from the crowd.
Then the Kerry introductory speeches got under way. First it was Andre Heinz, the candidate’s stepson. Then came the candidate’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who spoke for 20 minutes, and then Jim Rassmann of Florence, who served with Kerry in Vietnam.
At 1:39 p.m., when Kerry started speaking, Bush was still answering questions in Beaverton and the local TV stations had to decide what to do: Switch to the start of Kerry’s speech or stay with the president.
KATU (2) showed both on a split screen with the Bush audio signal but soon switched to the Kerry audio, reasoning that the president had already been on for well over an hour, said Roberta Alstadt, executive producer of KATU’s news department. Other than switching back briefly to the president for his wrap-up, KATU broadcast the rest of Kerry’s speech.
KOIN (6) also used a split screen and switched to the Kerry audio signal when he started speaking. KPTV (12) and KGW (8) also employed split screens and also went live to the start of Kerry’s speech.
“From a news guy’s perspective, it was kind of fun,” said Patrick McCreery, KPTV’s news director.
The president finished up his talk at 1:53 p.m., after one hour, 23 minutes, while Kerry finished at 2:09 p.m., a 30-minute speech. They overlapped for 16 minutes.
“It was a little nerve-racking,” Alstadt said. “We would have liked it if they hadn’t slopped over. It looked like the president was trying to stretch his remarks to butt into John Kerry’s time. We tried to make it as fair as possible.”
The Kerry campaign said Kerry didn’t delay his start waiting for Bush to finish, and the Bush campaign said the president didn’t delay his finish to distract TV coverage from Kerry.
“It was,” Alstadt said, “an exciting day to be in television news in Portland.”
An unidentified supporter of President Bush tries to silence protester Kendra Lloyd-Knox (right) outside Southridge High School in Beaverton. Elsewhere in Portland, supporters of Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., rallied on the waterfront.
Bush, Kerry stir up Stumptown
Presidential campaigns turning up the heat on Oregon voters
By DON HAMILTON Issue date: Tue, Aug 17, 2004
The Tribune
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry look ready to go to war over Oregon this year.
The presidential contenders brought their A game to the state last week. Both generated tremendous excitement among supporters, both pulled all the political levers they could, and both saw how far the other will go in trying to win Oregon in the 11 weeks remaining in the campaign.
President Bush brought the promise of jobs in the $15 million he pledged for deepening the Columbia River channel, a signal that he’s willing to spread around some federal money, especially when it spurs private investment, a classic tactic available only to the incumbent.
Kerry, meanwhile, attracted 50,000 people to the Portland waterfront in what may well have been the largest political rally ever in Oregon. The crowd’s size and enthusiasm signaled an unusually deep commitment for a Democratic Party that’s often divided.
Both candidates are concentrating on states expected to be close. That means Oregon, narrowly won by the Democrats in 2000, should expect both of them back, a rare level of attention for a state that offers a paltry seven electoral votes. President Bush has been here four times since taking office and Kerry three since May.
That may pale compared to the 20-plus visits to big electoral states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, but it’s still more attention than Oregon’s used to.
Their visits in the weeks ahead will offer a barometer on what the polls are saying. If Kerry’s narrow lead in the polls shrinks, expect more campaign appearances, said Jim Moore, an independent political analyst and assistant professor of political science at Pacific University. But if the candidates stop showing up, it may mean one or the other has a lead so wide that the two hopefuls ignore Oregon and turn their attention to more competitive states.
“We’ll know which states are close by which states they visit,” Moore said.
The intensity of their competition spilled over into a fight for the attention of live local television. Local stations found themselves jumping from one to the other and using split screens during the 16 minutes that both Kerry and Bush were speaking.
Bush started speaking at 12:30 p.m. in front of 2,300 wildly cheering supporters at Southridge High School in Beaverton, his remarks carried live on local television. At that point, Kerry hadn’t yet arrived at his downtown Portland rally. At 1:05 p.m., when Kerry finally took the stage along the river, Bush was still talking.
Kerry, though, waited. He shook hands, waved to the crowd and pumped his fist in the air as the television continued to show the president, who by this point was answering questions from the crowd.
Then the Kerry introductory speeches got under way. First it was Andre Heinz, the candidate’s stepson. Then came the candidate’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who spoke for 20 minutes, and then Jim Rassmann of Florence, who served with Kerry in Vietnam.
At 1:39 p.m., when Kerry started speaking, Bush was still answering questions in Beaverton and the local TV stations had to decide what to do: Switch to the start of Kerry’s speech or stay with the president.
KATU (2) showed both on a split screen with the Bush audio signal but soon switched to the Kerry audio, reasoning that the president had already been on for well over an hour, said Roberta Alstadt, executive producer of KATU’s news department. Other than switching back briefly to the president for his wrap-up, KATU broadcast the rest of Kerry’s speech.
KOIN (6) also used a split screen and switched to the Kerry audio signal when he started speaking. KPTV (12) and KGW (8) also employed split screens and also went live to the start of Kerry’s speech.
“From a news guy’s perspective, it was kind of fun,” said Patrick McCreery, KPTV’s news director.
The president finished up his talk at 1:53 p.m., after one hour, 23 minutes, while Kerry finished at 2:09 p.m., a 30-minute speech. They overlapped for 16 minutes.
“It was a little nerve-racking,” Alstadt said. “We would have liked it if they hadn’t slopped over. It looked like the president was trying to stretch his remarks to butt into John Kerry’s time. We tried to make it as fair as possible.”
The Kerry campaign said Kerry didn’t delay his start waiting for Bush to finish, and the Bush campaign said the president didn’t delay his finish to distract TV coverage from Kerry.
“It was,” Alstadt said, “an exciting day to be in television news in Portland.”
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