GRAND ISLAND — The choir showed up mostly donning red, as though a football game might suddenly break out — picture Adrian Smith and Pete Ricketts running fly patterns in hopes of last-minute touchdowns.
Red pom poms. Red shirts. Red Thunderstix. Red state Nebraska — as good a place as any to throw a Republican pep rally two days before an election.
President Bush thought so. Even left his Texas ranch and his anniversary cake Sunday in an attempt to swing a Nebraska 3rd District congressional race that might be tinted blue for the first time in 48 years.
A 31-year-old Democrat named Scott Kleeb has boyish looks and even more eye-catching poll numbers. Republican Adrian Smith, 35, needed a boost.
Air Force One to the rescue? That was the hope if you prefer elephants to donkeys.
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And so Bush walked through the doors of Grand Island’s Heartland Events Center at 3:48 in the afternoon, ready to assure 6,000 admirers that his guy Smith was the one they should toss a vote.
Bush came as one of them, an everyman — right down to the undone top button on his blue dress shirt and stylishly rolled up sleeves.
He got the microphone at 3:58 and often spoke in shouts. His first line:
“So Laura says, ‘What do you think we ought to do on our 29th wedding anniversary? (Applause.) I said, ‘Why don’t I go to Grand Island, Nebraska — (louder applause) — because there are some people I want to thank in advance of what you’re going to do on November 7th.” (Uproarious applause and thunderstix beating together.)
Toddlers sat on the shoulders of fathers. Cameras clicked and women wearing sweater prints of the country’s flag bobbed heads in agreement as words spilled out.
It was kind of like being in church. Most everyone in the building was certain the words were true.
Of course, most churches don’t play Nebraska’s “Hail Varsity” five times, come with hay bales and corn stalks on stage and have an emcee leading the people in chants of “B-U-S-H … Who are we here to see? … Where are we from?… U-S-A. U-S-A. U-S-A…”
But that’s politics.
Recent senate candidate David Kramer led the chants, and most every notable Republican face got a moment at the rostrum: Senator Chuck Hagel, congressmen Jeff Fortenberry and Lee Terry, senate hopeful Pete Ricketts, Governor Dave Heineman.
Most opened with a line about how great those Huskers were and then about how great the guy next to them was. And the crowd assured them through applause those comments were accurate.
But no one with a ticket was told anything they probably didn’t already believe. It was all just buildup to see the man with the seal.
At 3:20, the anticipation reached its peak. Word was given of Air Force One’s touchdown in Nebraska. Flags began to wave rapidly and noise seemed to grow out of the floor. People started looking at doorways for the face they always see on the news.
The crowd even broke into the wave five minutes before the presidential seal was slapped on the podium.
That’s about when 61-year-old rancher Jim Choquette started to get emotional.
“It’s inspiring,” he said, having driven 75 miles from Upland to see Bush. “If there’s a negative to this thing, it’s that we’re preaching to the choir. But it also gets people enthused.”
That can’t be argued.
“I was awed by his presence,” said 63-year-old Sarah Jane Graham.
What’d she like best about his speech?
“When he said (of Republicans), ‘We’re not quitters. We fight ‘til the bitter end.’”
In the case of Smith, the primary man Bush came to help, there can’t be anything but a fight to the bell.
Graham lives in Miller, 80 miles west of Grand Island, and she admits she sees a lot of Kleeb signs on the highway she often travels.
“Some people who have been grassroots (Republicans) seem to be swayed,” she said.
If things look bleak to Republicans — and some prognosticators are saying the Democrats are likely to steal back both the House and the Senate on Tuesday — Bush reminded the faithful that those same experts had him counted out in 2004.
He then spoke of Iraq, not mentioning the Hussein verdict until 23 minutes into his speech. It would be a serious mistake if the troops left early, as some Democrats are suggesting, he said.
“I’m not saying these folks are unpatriotic,” Bush said of his opposition. “I’m saying they’re wrong.”
Grand applause followed.
Down the street, there was a dissenting point of view. One man carried a sign: “Red, Right & Screwed.”
The exiting crowd was sure he was silly.
They’d have to wait until Tuesday to see who has more friends.
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
