Booing Bush: the count from Denver
When thousands of delegates and even more journalists gather for a political convention, you can expect to hear a lot of trash talking about the other side.
But last night the Democrats hardly mentioned President Bush, whose approval ratings have been stuck in the 30% zone for months.
As a public service, Countdown to Crawford has searched all 44 speeches from last night's podium and found only 14 mentions of Bush's name. If you had watched from the afternoon to the evening, you might have heard his name about once every half hour. It usually brought a boo.
Maybe the measured use of Bush's name had something to do with the theme of the evening -- a showcase of Obama family values. Or maybe Dems just want to move on.
Either way, the big mentions went like this: two from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, two from investor Andrew Tobias, and three from Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk).
By the way, that head count that doesn't include the one mention his father got.
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: Stephan Savoia/Associated Press
