You just have to love Philly fans...

I referred to this prior to the weekend, and now there's video. Ed Snider, the right-wing owner of the Philadelphia Flyers, thought it would be a good idea to have Sarah Palin drop the puck for his team's home opener. Let's just say that it didn't exactly go as planned. I hear quite a few boos in this video, and numerous reports from the game, including one by the NY Times, described the boos as "almost deafening" and "resounding."

What's worse, her strategy of bringing her daughter as a human shield to insulate against booing backfired, too:

A carpet was laid down and Palin, dressed in a beige trench, walked on to the ice joined by her daughters Willow and Piper. The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee said at an earlier fundraiser that she would stop some of the booing from the rowdy Philadelphia fans by putting her seven year old daughter, Piper, in a Flyers jersey. She said, "How dare they boo Piper!"

I think the proper observation would be, "How dare a parent put her daughter in that position?" I'm not a parent, and I'm normally loathe to criticize a parent for decisions they make, but it's a safe bet to say that this was a bad parenting decision, to say the least.


The best part was yet to come, though - our official State TV, Faux News, offered up its predictable spin...

Of course, Faux News was virtually obligated to try and spin Palin's bomb on the ice, so edit the tape they did. Draw your own conclusions. But, Fox is getting so bad, I'm really beginning to think that people who actually have the temerity to think the "network" is Fair and Balanced seriously have something wrong with them. For that matter, people who take at face value anything they hear on any of the corporate news channels in America are doing themselves an incredible disservice, at best.

Ed Snider more than deserves scorn for introducing politics into a sporting event. (By the way, drop Snider a line Here with your comment about his decision to inject his politics into hockey.) I've said it before, and I'll say it again - when I watch sports, I want to forget about politics and enjoy myself. NBC's decision to have Keith Olbermann on its Football Night in America, as well as ESPN's decision to hire Rush Limbaugh, were both mistakes. I write this even though I agree in most instances with Olbermann's political opinions, I don't think it's appropriate to put him on a football show.

I also found it funny that Snider would have the stupidity to feature Palin for a pregame show in a heavily Democratic city in a building named after a bank in the middle of a financial crisis precipitated in a number of ways by irresponsible banking.

Well played, Snider.

And bad parenting choice, Hockey Mom.

(By the way, pretty funny that the Flyers introduced her as a "hockey mom" and not the GOP vice presidential nominee.)