[Obama proves he’s just a poltician after all,glad-handing with South Side dream killers the Rays]
You can add the Sox to Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, and Tony Rezco as part of a distasteful past Obama wants to put behind him. With the Sox out of contention, and Florida only leaning toward Obama in most polls, the South Sider hopes to close the deal on Election Day by backing the Rays and the Phillies in this year’s Classic. Obama let it be known he’s a Rays fan, just after he embraced the Phillies while campaigning in Pennsylvania. It’s smart politically, since Massachusetts, Illinois, and Pennsylvania are Obama-silly at this point. No news yet if Obama will be throwing out the Opening Day pitch at Cellular in a mohawk. The Politico‘s Kenneth P. Vogel and Carrie Budoff Brown report it here.
Barack Obama, campaigning in the key swing state of Florida, is seeking to capitalize on the excitement over the World Series-bound Tampa Bay Rays, telling a Tampa crowd he was œshowing some love for the Rays, several members of which joined him onstage.
Only problem?
Obama, a self-avowed Chicago White Sox fan, declared his allegiance earlier this month for the Rays™ National League opponent in baseball™s championship, the Philadelphia Phillies.
On Oct. 11, Obama told a crowd in the City of Brotherly Love ” the biggest city on the key swing state of Pennsylvania: œMy White Sox are gone, so I™ll go ahead and root for the Phillies now.
Yet in Tampa on Monday afternoon, where he was introduced by Rays players Fernando Perez and David Price, Obama also seemed to express support for the Rays, telling the crowd that he had just met with several members of the team backstage.
“I have said from the beginning that I’m a unity candidate, bringing people together. So when you see a White Sox fan showing some love for the Rays and the Rays showing some love back, you know we’re onto something here, Obama said.
He added that he considered cutting his hair in a Mohawk to show solidarity with the team™s players, but œMy political advisers said they weren’t sure how that would play with swing voters.