Senator Kerry steps in it again:

"I just came here from Bowling Green," Kerry told the crowd to subdued applause. "I was smart enough not to pick a choice between the Falcons and the, well, you know, all those other teams out there. I just go for Buckeye football, that's where I'm coming from."

At that point, before all the boos began raining down upon him, Kerry seemed to realize his error. In an attempt to silent the angry crowd of University of Michigan supporters, Kerry said, "But that was while I was in Ohio. I know I'm in the state of Michigan and you got a great big M and a powerhouse of a team." Then his face, presumably, the Botox permitting, turned Big Blue.

If it's Monday, it must be wolverine country.

"So, let me reiterate, I support the team of whatever county/state I'm in. Unwaveringly."

Let's just hope he never winds up in a foreign country....

That's just B-E-A-yootiful.

He was for the Buckeyes before he was against them.

The guy has dozens to hundres of campaign staff and advisors. You'd think that at least one of them would be familiar with the quaint customs and traditions of an exotic locale like Michigan, right?

What these little gaffes show is that the guy has surrounded himself with incompetence, and is either unable to recognize it, or is unable or unwilling to do anything to improve the situation. It's what we can look forward to in a Kerry Administration

Someone needs to ask him who he's rooting for in the World Cup.

Michael, that's hilarious! I bet watching him bowl would be too.

Somebody should ask him if he likes the local Quidditch team.

If he hadn't portrayed himself as smarter than Bush, then he would get more sympathy when he makes these kind of inevitable mistakes.

This is so funny...not least because Bowling Green State U. in Ohio is my own alma mater (and the Alumni Committee won't let me forget it). While it's all very commendable that Mr. Kerry knows the name of BGSU's football team (or had that information supplied by some staffer whose business it is to find and supply these things for the fill-in-the-blank sections of the stump speech), I'm not sure I would have particularly cared even during the four years I was there. Football is far away from anything I'm much interested in, and contrived pandering references don't exactly push this voter's buttons.

On the other hand, the best use of Bowling Green local references that I've ever heard of was at a performance by a nationally well-known '50s-tribute band called Sha Na Na, which opened the show with a cry by the member known as Bowser to the effect of, "All right, you f*ck!ng Falcons, let's rock and roll!"

Maybe the terminally soporific Mr. Kerry would do better to borrow from Bowser's book and do his local references in that spirit?

--Dwight

Many political rituals confuse me because they don't seem to have any payoff. I suspect that they're planned by folks who don't have any contact with people.

Take Kerry's attempt at "your home team is my favorite team". With fewer exceptions than one might suspect, they're based on regional connections. So if Kerry doesn't come up with a connection to Ann Arbor, the only folks who care know he's a phony.

If Kerry wanted Mich fans to like/respect him, he should have claimed to ba a BC fan and made some "not quite in your league" comment. Note that he can use it elsewhere. (Yes, BC fans are likely to be enraged, but they're all voting for him anyway.)