One note on the Daytona 500. Shrub was there to deliver the ol' "Start your engines" line. But why just say that when he could go a step further, saying, "Laura and I are honored to be here for this fantastic spectacle. We ask God's blessings on the drivers, NASCAR fans and on our great nation. Now it is my honor to start this race. Gentlemen, start your engines." So for the drivers that were in wrecks and didn't finish, does that mean that god doesn't love them? I swear, Shrub can't go 10 minutes without tossing religion into whatever he's talking about. Yet we're afraid of religious extremists in other nations.
Not everyone in the crowd was in awe of Shrubby:
Harry Meeks, 55, an owner of health clubs in Orlando, said he voted for Bush in 2000 but is considering the Democrats for the first time in his life. "Let's face it -- the economy isn't that great, and there was deceit about the war," Meeks said. "He needs to come clean on Iraq and come up with a real program for the economy that benefits people who don't make more than $200,000 a year."
But then you had others like this guy:
"He's like me," said Thomas Hanner, 58, a self-employed contractor from Sarasota, Fla. "His swagger, his confidence -- I can relate to his thinking."
So Thomas Hanner of Sarasota can relate to exaggerating and distoring intelligence, playing on people's fears of terrorism, and exploiting the memory of 9/11 in order to start an illegal war resulting in 1000s of deaths and thousands more injuries? He can relate to rolling back environmental regulations for the short-term profit of campaign contributors at the long-term expense of public health? He can relate to taking a budget surplus and turning it into record deficits, and blaming this on a recession he inhereted, terror attacks, and two wars rather than on his reckless economic policies and tax cuts for the wealthy? He also thinks that Africa is a nation?
Damn, Thomas Hanner. You are one complex NASCAR fan.