“If I had half a mind, I would be a Republican!”

[babylonsister]

‘Button Bob’ Draws a Crowd in Des Moines

By Christine Hauser

DES MOINES – Trade was brisk around Button Bob’s table outside of the auditorium where John Edwards was holding a rally for his supporters.

“Three dollars each!” Robert M. Levine, also known as Button Bob, told the Edwards supporters clustered around his political buttons featuring Mr. Edwards, his wife Elizabeth and a couple of anti-Republican buttons. “Two for five!” he said.

There were few lapels to be seen, because most of his potential customers wore “John Edwards ‘08” T-shirts, so they fingered their collars and assessed the technicalities of slipping the button pins through the thin cotton.

Mr. Levine makes and buys wholesale the political buttons, and he said he has been doing it since 1964. “I walked into L.B.J’s headquarters and I asked them what they wanted me to do, and they said ‘sell buttons.’ Ever since then I have been selling buttons.”

Hundreds of supporters gathered in the Polk convention center here to hold a rally and then escort Mr. Edwards to the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner. There, it would be an all-out joust of the supporters and their political signs, with placards for Edwards clashing with those of other Democratic candidates.

So supporters adorned their bodies, boosting his name power, lining up their loyalty with a parade of buttons pinned to their chests and hats.

“If I had half a mind, I would be a Republican,” read one button.

more...

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/button-bob-draws-a-crowd-in-des-moines/#more-2987

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. while I wile away the hours. . . .

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. Half full or half empty?

I would say half full of liquefied hate might make me feel Republican. I'm an optimist.