'Hockey Mom' Palin Booed -- At Hockey Game

From the Sports Desk: You never know where you are gonna find a political scoop, but Lynn Zinser at her NYT hockey "Slapshot" blog just posted that Sarah Palin, in her much-ballyhooed appearance dropping the puck at the Philly Flyers' opener, was greeted by "resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd."  Of course, Fox Sports was kinder,  observing on its site, "The crowd reacted with a mixture of cheers and boos at her appearance."  The AP was even kinder: The Alaska governor heard a few boos when she walked onto the ice Saturday night. But that soon turned to polite applause as she walked out to center ice."  And Politico excused it this way: "The world's most famous 'Hockey Mom' was greeted, like most any politician likely would be at a Philly sporting event, with more boos than cheers." See video below.

Fox also revealed: "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!'"   So much for that theory.

But Zinser's post at the NYT had a lot more in mind:  "I would object to this sideshow whichever political party it involved. Having vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin drop the ceremonial first puck at the Flyers’ opener Saturday night was problematic not because it was Palin — Flyers owner Ed Snider’s decision under the flimsy excuse of 'honoring' hockey moms — but because it is injecting politics in a place it should not be."  More:

The biggest problem: when Palin came out to onto the Wachovia Center ice Saturday night — greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd — the the two hockey players who had no choice but to appear with her in that photo op were turned into props in a political campaign. If Rangers center Scott Gomez or Flyers center Mike Richards wanted to make some sort of political statement, that would be fine, but in this case, they were thrust into a situation not of their choosing. Snider put them there with his ill-advised mixing of politics and sports.

The level of discomfort has been palpable for the Rangers’ two Alaska natives, Gomez and Brandon Dubinsky, as they have been asked questions about Palin and the election in recent weeks. Dubinsky, a 22-year-old who has shied away from nothing since he broke in with the Rangers last year, looks petrified when the topic gets brought up. I think both would rather play goalie in a shootout than weigh in on the presidential election.  -- Greg Mitchell

Comments

[richard]

Resounding boos, LAMO! Good job Flyers fans!!

[Tip]

What's a disgrace is that Ed Snider, the multi-millionaire Flyers and Comcast chairman,who has contributed millions to both Bush and McCain, would politicize the Flyers home opener under the mask that Sarah Palin is a hockey mom. He was made aware of the anger of many of the season ticket holders not to bring his BS politics to the game. They tried to pump up the music to drowned out the boos but it was obvious what the fans thought of his stunt.

[jim stein]

Shame on the Philly fans for not being able to get a "cunt" chant going.

[John]

A political stunt - if she's so into being `the nation's hockey mom` why didn't she do this in say Utah?

[Len]

as Olbermann pointed out the arena, built with some public funds, should have been out-of-bounds.

Phil is and has long been very D. She didn't know that?

[ek]

Love the Obama/Biden signs behind Palin.

[TK]

I couldn't tell they were booing. Guess I need a computer with better sound.

[judyc]

I'm so proud of the fans here in Philly--best sports fans on earth, Never afraid to let their feelings be known!

[TK]

I couldn't tell they were booing. Guess I need a computer with better sound.

[Alex]

Since sports fans are some of the stupidest people on the planet and they have been told by the Obama-controlled media to hate her, they reacted in knee-jerk fashion as good little sheeple.

[TK]

I couldn't tell they were booing. Guess I need a computer with better sound.

[TK]

I couldn't tell they were booing. Guess I need a computer with better sound.

[erod]

she's not only guilty but a liar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLhngVqL-g4&feature=related

[susan]

To bad she didn't slip an break her neck.

[PJBravo]

She's gone beyond "folksy"
into "idiotic" territory.

http://thetruthburns.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/maybe-i-aint-no-genius-but-is-sure-is-smartern-her/

[b kenneth mcgee]

Sarah.....the gimmick didn't work...more bad press.....youv'e been pucked!

[susan]

To bad she didn't slip an break her neck.

[bette streep]

Palin has once more proved she is a DISGRACE!

Imagine dragging her young daughters out to witness that!

She USED her daughters for political purposes and in an attempt to lower the volume of the boos!

I'm sure many in the audience were going to boo - but restrained themselves when they saw the 2 girls there.

i'm actually surprised she didn't drag out the newborn as well.

I never thought I'd see the day that there was someone WORSE than George W Bush!

Kathleen Parker was right - she should have resigned for the sake of the party, the country and her family!

And who'd have thought she would be guilty of ethical abuses DURING a campaign???

America - have a good look at yourselves! She is a racist and a terrorist!

[Bobby]

I have always had enormous respect for Ed Snider,he has always been a gentlemen and great competitor both on and off the tennis court, however, having Sarah Palin drop the first puck at the Flyers opener was a bad decision on his part.

[jcrush]

She should consider herself lucky that her political road led her to the Wachovia Center and not the Mellon Arena (aka Civic Arena) here in Pittsburgh. She woulda got a taste of Black-n-Gold love served up Steel City Style, dontcha know. Yep, you betcha those Penguins fans woulda told 'er just how they felt, dawgonnit, Bless their hearts, yes indeedy, God Bless 'em, also.

[LesserFool]

This is shameless.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I was electioneering for Democrats at a football game in 2000.

Sports is like business. Just stick to the subject and leave politics out of it.

There are very few places left where Americans can enjoy each other's company without having it tarnished with the ugliness of modern politics.

[Laurie]

Gotta love that Tip. And yes - Palin most certainly used her daughter as body armour to tone down the negative reception...after all, who wants to 'boo' a poor kid? Palin's a sleazebag. I keep expecting Austin Powers to appear out of nowhere and rip off her wig - "That's not a woman - that's a MAN, man!"

[Pongo]

Slide

Agree with you about AP, but then again it is owned almost entirely by 5 major corporations. They often don't even try to hide their Republican bias, like sending a former McCain speech writer as an "independent" journalist to cover the Repub convention. The sucking up was nauseating.

[dkan71]

You rock for posting video of this right away! I'm glad she got booed. It's just unfortunate she brought her kids along for the experience.

I think she was hoping people would show some restraint out of respect for the children, which may explain why the obvious booing at the outset turned into more of a mixture at the end.

But it was just kind of a dumb idea to have her drop the puck in one of the most reliably liberal Democratic cities in the country against another team representing a reliably Democratic state. But that's Team McPalin for ya, always thinking one step behind.

[al40]

Palin's absolutely using her children as a political shield. Today she even had her littlest one strapped to her chest (a first?) as she went about PA, probably to deflect questions on the Alaska Legislature finding. Children shouldn't be used like this, not even spinning Bristol into the poster-child for anti-abortion.