The Globe’s description of what happened in Dennis today is comedy gold. Remember, this was supposed to be a joint appearance by Perry and Baker to rally the troops for the Republican ticket! Woohoo!
Perry, under fire for his role as a Wareham police sergeant in the early 1990s, when an officer under his command illegally strip-searched two teenage girls, shook hands and chatted with supporters but did not address the crowd.
That’s right, folks. Jeff Perry didn’t speak at his own rally.
Baker, who had faced questions about appearing with Perry, spoke for all of two minutes…. After initially gathering in a bandstand, they moved to a plainer podium, a wooden block that was further from the roughly 10 protestors who chanted “Shame on you” as Baker raced through his speech. Protesters held signs saying “Apologize Jeff” and “Got Coverup?”
It gets better.
As they mingled with supporters, the two men seemed to keep their interactions to a minimum. Baker’s speech began at 3:20 and concluded at 3:21. By 3:22, Perry was on his way out of the rally, climbing into a car parked by the cemetery bordering the green.
Wow, a 60-second stump speech. That’s got to be some kind of record. And it’s funny – practically every other time Baker goes to a rally, the Bakerbots are posting pictures all over Twitter showing modest crowds of supporters. Not today – I didn’t see a single post from him or any of his staff about today’s event.
It’s fair to describe today’s embarrassment as the wages of cowardice. Charlie Baker had a chance to take a stand for decency in a way that transcended party by withdrawing his support for Jeff Perry and not showing up today at all. Failing that, he should have gone all-in today, striding up on stage and shaking Jeff Perry’s hand, as he did with Bill Hudak a while back, and explaining to the crowd once again that Perry’s the “right guy for the job.” That, at least, would have made Perry’s shrinking but rabid enthusiastic base of supporters happy, and might have bought Baker a few extra votes.
He didn’t even have the guts to do that. Instead, he showed up but obviously didn’t want to be seen with Perry, and obviously wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as he could. He thus gets the worst of both worlds: people who don’t like Perry know he was there; people who do are miffed that he obviously didn’t want to be. Lose-lose.
Baker got stuck in traffic on the Bourne Bridge, now down to one lane for bridge work (They did the Sagamore last fall, now it’s the Bourne). That was the reason for the late start and truncated speech – they had to boot it out of there for ANOTHER event up Cape.
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p>But they DID have free food!
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p>About 250-300 people, traffic stopped on Rt. 6A. 15-20 counter protesters huddled on a traffic island. Video can follow when the Cape GOP YouTube gets updated.
No politician has ever been late to two rallies, right? If you’re late to the first one, you absolutely have to give a one minute speech and then bolt, that’s politics 101 in your book, right PP? What a crock…
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p>Your answer reminds me of a scene from The Further Adventures of Nick Danger:
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The rally was held on the green in Dennis – anyone who drives to the cape knows that you don’t use the Bourne Bridge to get to Dennis. While it’s feasible that you’d cross the Bourne and then head north to route 6, it makes no sense to do so. Going directly to the Sagamore affords you two lanes of traffic all the way, and with the rotary gone, the traffic flows much more freely. There’s absolutely no reason to use the Bourne Bridge, unless you’re trying to be late.
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p>On top of that, Boston.com published Baker’s schedule for the day – the rally in Dennis was the last item on the list:
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p>Source: http://boston.com/community/bl…
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p>Your talking point is toast, PP – nice try, though!
But you’d know that if you bothered to read my post. They likely came down 495, but that doesn’t matter. If you’re on 495 you get off the highway well before the Bourne Bridge at exit 3, and you take the two lane highway north to the Sagamore along the canal. I’ve been driving to the cape for the past 30 years, and the only time I’d use the Bourne Bridge is if I’m going to Falmouth.
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p>Not only that, but the repaving has been publicized for the past several weeks – anyone choosing to use the Bourne Bridge today wanted to be late.
Bourne bridge is not out of the realm of possibility.
…had been forecast for the past two weeks, due to the scheduled repaving? You’d only go that route if you’re an ignorant fool, or you want to be late.
that might be a toss up.
But PP has yet to explain away any of the other discrepancies I pointed out:
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p>Why couldn’t Charlie be late to two events? I’ve been to a lot of political events where one candidate or another had been delayed at a prior event.
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p>Why was the other event up cape not listed on Baker’s schedule?
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p>Unasked above, but asking now: Where was this other event held? Will there be video of it as well? A little proof that it truly happened would be nice…
I make the drive from 495 to Dennis often, and the only time to go over the Bourne Bridge is when I know Rt.6 along the canal is jammed. And even then, I still go up the east side of the canal and back to Rt. 6 to get to Dennis.
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p>Google, oddly enough, sends you from Brockton down Rt. 27 to Rt. 3 and over the Sagamore: http://bit.ly/9iGp4U.
That swings my vote.
In addition to the fine points made upthread, the fact is that, according to the Globe, they got there at 3 and milled about until 3:20, when Baker did hi now-famous 60-second stump speech. If they had wanted to give real speeches, there was more than enough time for both of them to do so. I stand by my post.
It’s complete BS, anyone with half a brain can see that. Kindly answer the questions I asked above:
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p>Also, why would they use the Bourne Bridge, when the repaving had been announced in advance, and it’s so easy to go to the Sagamore? Anyone with any sense would go to the Sagamore anyhow when heading to Dennis, using the Bourne Bridge to get to Dennis is just plain dumb.
Are you saying that the Globe got the timeframe wrong? If so, explain what it actually was. Otherwise, if they arrived at 3 pm, and Baker spoke from 3:20 to 3:21, that’s 20 minutes that could have been used by him and Perry to speak to the crowd. Whether you were there or not has exactly zero bearing on the arrow of time, PP.
Mihos thoughts on why Baker was in Dennis today. Charlie Baker is one class act.
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who knows what the handlers want. Yet, Jeff does have a first rate organization that works hard. We also have great candidates for the State Legislature who were in attendance. Charlie will need these Senators and Reps to get his agenda done. Time to finish with everything we have.