The lead paragraph from the Manitowoc Herald-Times: Sen. Barack Obama ended his Green Bay visit Friday night with onion rings and a perch plate at Kroll's East.
See, there's Kroll's East and there's Kroll's West. Different branches of the family. Kroll's West is the one by Lambeau Field. They're the ones who send Jon Gruden his bratwurst fix. Kroll's East is the one my grandparents would take me to. Their specialties are their butter burgers and their chili.
Wisconsin, especially northern Wisconsin, is like one very large small town.
Friday's rally in Green Bay got off to a rough start, although Oshkosh's was slightly worse.
"Now, it is hard for a Packer to support a Bears fan," Obama started.Then Obama introduced the Packer linebacker Brady Poppinga. Now, Poppinga is this huge young Mormon guy from Wyoming -- the last name is Dutch; Doug asked me that once and I just knew it, I don't know how -- BYU grad, did missionary work in Uruguay; and of the current Packer roster I would have put him rather near the bottom of the list of potential Obama supporters.A few boos.
"But you would not want some guy to come up here and say he was a Packers fan when he was a Bears fan, would you?"
Shouts of "No!"
"Of course not. You've got to stick with your team even when they don't break .500. Even when they don't make the playoffs. Even when they make you tear your hair out. You've got to stick with your team."
My people surprise me. I like that.
He's brilliant, handling it that way.
Of course, it helps that the Bears didn't do so well this year, even though they beat the Packers. The unfortunate thing is, there are people who would seriously consider not voting for him because he backs the Bears.
Posted by: Carrie | February 18, 2008 at 03:51 AM