As reported today in the
Baltimore Sun, George Bush spoke in Baltimore briefly today, at M&T Stadium, where tickets for the hot dogs and pizza lunch were either $125 or $500. Event coordinators claimed 800 tickets were sold, yet claimed that they made $500,000 in ticket sales before expnditures.
If all 800 tickets were sold at the $500 price (which includes VIP section seating), that would be only $400,000. So either an extra 200 people showed up, but in such as case Steele's people would have rounded the number to 1000 for maximum spin. Or an extra $100,000 of unaccounted money has turned up. Or 200 people paid, but didn't want to waste their time seeing the President.
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800 people is pretty pathetic, but the Bush folks are trying to spin it into a success. However, in the same venue, Mayor Martin O'Malley had previously drawn much larger crowds on two occasions, one time bringing in $2 Million in fundraising.
There are also some stinging words for the President.
Asked about ticket sales for the president's visit, Derek Davis, spokesman for the Maryland Democratic Party, said, "I wouldn't even think they've broken even on the negative cost of having an unpopular, out-of-touch president come to the state."
Of course the irony spewing from Bush's mouth is unfathomable. Bush said "You see, people in this country want there to be honest government. No matter what party they're from, they want a decent, honorable man to represent them." This remark comes an amazing 24 hours after Bush's fellow Republican Rep. Duke Cunningham resigned due to accepting bribes (and which he vehemently denied accepting only a few months ago).