Sarah Palin Overwhelmingly Booed at Philadephia Flyers Game

by Jonathan Singer [courtesy of MyDD]

Ouch.

The New York Times writes that Palin was "greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd." The Associated Press report, which will likely be seen in newspapers around the country, reads as follows:

Palin was booed when she first stepped on the ice before the Flyers' home opener against the New York Rangers to drop the ceremonial first puck. Palin, the Alaska governor and self-described "hockey mom," is trying to turn Pennsylvania into a red state.

Forbes, no bastion of liberalism, is even harsher in its writeup:

Palin Gets Booed in Philly!  This is sure to be the headline splashed across television and newspapers Sunday morning, the day after the Republican Vice Presidential candidate and hockey mom from Alaska drops the puck at the ceremonial face-off for the Philadelphia Flyers' home opener on Saturday night at the soon-to-need-a-name-change Wachovia Center. What will be missing from the news: the jeers were deserved.

Even Fox News was forced to admit "There were audible boos over the very loud music and some in the crowd had their thumbs down."

Just to step back and think about the optics of this for a moment, perhaps it will be the case that Philadelphians respect Palin for going in front of a hostile crowd. Then again, it's never a good thing for a candidate to earn headlines describing the nature and intensity of booing -- particularly when the stories don't come in the traditional news section of the paper or television report, which draws politics junkies unlikely to be swayed in one direction or the other, but rather in the sports section, read by more casual voters whose impressions of the candidate would more likely be shaped by this coverage. At the least, this moment in time should undercut the notion that Palin will bring a disproportionate number of hockey fans to the Republican ticket this fall.