George Bush or John Kerry?

Where is none of the above?

In terms of legislation, I figure it is a toss up.
In terms of experience and background, definitely Kerry. Kerry rides. Early in his campaign he did an appearance on the Tonight Show and rode a Harley right onto the stage.
Never seen Bush on any kind of motorcycle.

Rolling Thunder, a veterans group, tours Oval Office
By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press | May 31, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Members of the Rolling Thunder motorcycling group revved their engines on the White House driveway yesterday during a visit with President Bush, who took about 10 bikers in jeans and leather jackets for an Oval Office tour.

The roar from bikers on the Mall could be heard on the South Lawn as eight motorcycles, headlights illuminated and American flags jutting off the rear seats, rolled up the driveway to the South Portico, where Bush was waiting to greet them.

[...]

Later, Bush addressed, via a telephone hookup, a Rolling Thunder rally at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in the capital.

The president noted the letter of endorsement he received from the group last week. ''Artie, I thought you were going to offer me riding lessons," Bush joked, thanking Rolling Thunder for backing his campaign. ''Ride safe," he told them.

Self edit.....I wXXXd tXXXk it wXXXd be the CXXXXXXXXXXe. LXXXXXXs uXXXXly wXXt to iXXXXXXr in our dXXXy lXXXs wXX too mXXX.

WXXXXXr or not I wXXr a hXXXXt is nXXe of the PXXXXXXXt's bXXXXXss.


PS. Faith, Its good to see your smiling face on the boards again!!!

PSS. I didn't notice the thread about keeping it clean and politcal free until after I made this post. I do agree with thread by the way so edited my post myself. :-)

Sounds like someone briefed GWB so that he could "talk the talk," but Kerry is a long-time rider. I understand that he prefers a Ducati, but he did indeed ride onto the Tonight Show on a Harley.

Ratty

You go Girl!

Good to see you posting again

Spence

Thanks guys. I'm here daily to read the posts. I just haven't said much lately because I have used up my monthly word allotment in school! But maybe it doesn’t all count since half of it has been in Spanish!
I’ve been enjoying the posts about KY Lake and would love to get to the Gathering in Missouri but that would be a 16 hour ride for me! My longest ride to date was just last weekend when I went to fill Surak up with gasoline and I thought, heck, I’m this far (10 miles away) I may as well go on out to Ohio! :D So, I did!
I got a parking permit for the bike though and on Tuesdays and Thursdays when my book-bag isn’t too heavy, I sling it on and ride to school. I’m the only English major sitting in Davis Hall in leathers! I do believe I’ll get an A in the class to which I wore my chaps the first day…because I write so well!
I’m still waiting for the pictures from Kentucky Lake! Someone did promise me a copy of them! I really wish that I could have been there, but it was nice to be included to the extent to which I was…via phone calls and reports. Jaremy, as always, gave a wonderfully detailed report which I greatly enjoyed reading.
Ah, I’d better hit the books here. I sneak away to this site when my eyes start to roll back in my head from picking apart predicates and prepositional phrases, so I’m actually here quite often!
Take care, y’all! Ride safe.

As an educated man would say, What does this have to do with anything anyway? lol

I'd have to say Bush because more often than not, Republicans don't over legislate people's lives and tell them that the government knows better than you what's good for you. I think it has very little to do with whether or not he rides. It's his core belief system on how he sees the government's role in how it serves the people. Bigger government = less freedom and self determination.
Now that I've said that, this is a no-flame zone, right?

Spence - bringing in a political question, one as non-theatning as this one could be a slippery slope on how heated a discussion might get if someone starts to get too "aggressive" in their views. Unfortunately I don't think I've ever seen a political discussion - even if it was about something as small as the rights of ferrets - stay civil for long. Just my 2 cents....

Bush. I don't believe you have to be a rider to agree or support the issues. Just like I don't have to be a firefighter to support firefighters. Bigger government = less freedom and self determination.

DING DING WE HAVE A WINNER!

Spence

Me? What did I win?

:)

Sounds like someone briefed GWB so that he could "talk the talk," but Kerry is a long-time rider. I understand that he prefers a Ducati, but he did indeed ride onto the Tonight Show on a Harley.

Ratty
One would think that, but John Kerry doesn't own a Ducati (anymore). He had one for years and loved it... He had it shipped all over the world and put a butt-load of miles on it. It was his favorite bike... Until he started thinking about running for president. Then he got rid of his beloved well-ridden Ducati and purchased a brand new Harley Davidson, because that is what the adverage American voter rides. He never rides the new HD but his handlers told him that it would not be good for his image to be considered a Ducati riding elitest.

PUKE!!! One as rich as he is, he can afford to have a Jay Leno garage with one of everything in it... But, instead he is now "riding" a Harley and I guess that means that I must vote for the smuck!!! NOT!!!

Any members of ABATE of MA here??? In John Kerry's 20 years in the Senate, has he ever done anything positive for the motorcycle community???

Hi Bulldog,

I thought this was about which motorcycle candidate would be more motorcycle friendly, not who you would vote for. Seems to me a person who puts a "butt load of miles" on his bike might be prone to look at motorcycle issues more like other riders than would any non-rider. Just seems logical to me.

However, I don't think that I'll cast my vote for president based on which candidiate would be more motorcycle friendly, but it's your vote BD, so use any criteria you like. <G>

Ratty

Bush. I don't believe you have to be a rider to agree or support the issues. Just like I don't have to be a firefighter to support firefighters. Bigger government = less freedom and self determination.
I don't mean to stir the pot here, but I wasn't aware that either candidate would be likely to "shrink" the government. Shoot, with all of the new commissions, departments, committees etc. being created in the past few years, I would say the gov't just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger (note the deficit). Personally, I don't think any of that is going to affect bikers in the long term.

What will affect bikers? Emissions. The average bike produces more harmful emissions than cars and SUV's (so I'm told). While we get great gas mileage (bad for Bush?), we are stinky creatures (as a general rule) (bad for Kerry?). As the number of bikers grow, we should expect the manufacturers to start trying to create low-emissions bikes. It's already happening in Japan and the EPA here is hot on the trail. In the end, I think it is a good thing though. Big government or not, I'd like to leave the world a decent place for my posterity.

Bush for certain. Off the subject of bikes but, if you noticed my avatar you probably realize that I like to hunt also. I know for a fact that Bush is pro-gun and Kerry is anit-gun that is enough for me to make my decision. I know alot of bikers are into guns also, so I really hope that they check out Kerry's record before they vote their gun rights away. I will now get off my soap box.


P.S. "You can have my gun when you pry it out of my cold dead hand!!!!"

To answer the question here, I will turn it over to a few quotes I received from a member of the MMA. That is Mass. Motorcyclist Assoc, which is the state that Sen. Kerry is currently representing in the Senate.

This dialog was in response to this thread where I asked the Legislative Director of the MMA what his view of John Kerry is.

Here is what I received... These are taken from a few emails during our conversation that night. The rest of the emails are just us bitching about how nobody in the motorcycle community seems to care about their rights. You know, common ABATE related bitching... hehehehe!!!

"Bulldog - Thanks for writing the MMA. Your e-mail was forwarded to me as the MMA's Director of Government Relations. John Kerry, as our Senator, has been 'neutral' on all our issues. We've invited him to most of our events over the past 4-5 years, always get a call back thanking us but declining due to schedule conflicts. He takes no position on 'state-level' issues. On federal issues related to motorcycles we've asked for his help, he takes no leadership initiative."

"Need to tell you a funny story.
When the primaries were still active, there was a picture of him in one of our Boston papers, riding his HD without a helmet in Ohio or Iowa.
I copied that picture, and wrote him inviting him to ride down with us to PA's celebration - first weekend of choice, since it was OBVIOUS he enjoyed riding without a helmet . . . OR - to meet us in Harrisburg and I'd introduce him to other ABATE of PA members.
I copied in our 200 legislators, the invite letter and picture of him without a helmet.
His office contacted me, . . . again, thanking me for the invite but 'schedule conflicts.' A bunch of us rode down (it was this weekend last year) and had a GREAT TIME.
A few weeks later, while at the state house, a lobbyist (former State Rep whose son is a State Rep now) who works for the Motorcycle Industry Council, pulled me aside and say, "What the f . . . did you do?" I asked what he was talking about. He said he got a call from Kerry's people asking, . . . 'Who the hell is this (name deleted by BD) and why is he implying John supports choice? Did you know he sent that picture to everyone? We're getting calls from lots of democratic supporters asking why he wasn't wearing a helmet." I replied something to the affect, "Well, he supports HIS choice, why not OURS?"
A few weeks later he rode onto Jay Leno's stage, WITH A HELMET. Go figure. Personally, the guy is a air-head, and as you said, a pretender."


So, when I state my opion that John Kerry has never taken a position of real leadership as a member of the Senate and that he has been worthless to bikers, I'm not just expressing my opinion, but rather the opinion of the Bikers that John Kerry claims to represent...

Bulldog,

Your post says it all if you read between the lines about which candidate you can rely on to follow a course of action and makes no bones about what he believes in and stands firm in his convictions (whether or not you agree with it) or one you can't rely on to be consistent on anything and tells you what you want to hear. The former is called Leadership.