Palin booed at Flyers game

Philadelphia fans played to type, raising the question -- again -- of why the McCain camp thought it would be a good idea for Sarah Palin to drop the ceremonial puck.

Published October 12, 2008 4:40PM (EDT)

Yes, as predicted, Philadelphia fans in the arena to see Sarah Palin drop the puck at a game between the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers booed her. "She was greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos," Lynn Zinser writes at the New York Times' hockey blog.

From now on, you may refer to me as Carnac.

It really was hard to see this coming -- unless you've spent, oh, about five minutes in Philadelphia. Anyone who has set foot there should have known exactly what was going to happen. Philly sports fans booed Santa Claus. So why the McCain campaign thought this would go smoothly, I still don't know.

As you'll see in the video below, Palin did get a smattering of cheers. She had a plan to protect herself from the worst that Flyers fans could muster, and it looks like it may have worked, at least to an extent. At a fundraiser on Saturday afternoon, she explained, "I've been warned that Flyers fans, they get so enthused that they boo everybody at the drop of the puck. But what I thought I'd do is I'd put Piper in a Flyers jersey, bring her out with me. How dare they boo Piper!"


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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