Bush Rocks the Target Center

President Bush spoke at the Target Center in Minneapolis today. He drew a crowd of 23,000; I didn’t think the building could hold that many. Mike Tice, the coach of the Minnesota Vikings, introduced Bush, giving him both a Vikings jersey and a ringing endorsement: “When it’s the fourth quarter and the game is on the line, you want somebody with a cool head calling the plays.”
The Associated Press admits the crowd was enthusiastic, but does what it can to diminish the story’s impact, devoting three paragraphs to “several dozen” Kerry supporters who protested across the street–a pathetic turnout–and noting that John Kerry drew an alleged 30,000 partisans to a rally in Minneapolis a week ago. We wrote about the Kerry rally here; it was a dispirited affair which several thousand Kerry supporters left before he had finished speaking.
We’ll await word from our readers to get a fairer assessment of the afternoon. In the meantime, here is a picture of the Target Center rally; the enthusiasm is apparent:

UPDATE: Yahoo News Photos has some more pictures of the Target Center rally; I liked this one of Miss Minnesota 2004, Jessica Dereschuk: a typical Republican woman.

ONE MORE: Mike Tice presenting President Bush with a Minnesota Vikings jersey: