Another Downturn: Bush Souvenirs In Crawford, Texas

The Wall Street Journal

Another Downturn: Bush Souvenirs In Crawford, Texas
Near President's Ranch,
Gift Shops Are Closing;
Even Protesters Decamp
By JOHN D. MCKINNON
August 20, 2007; Page A1

(snip)

After enjoying a boom in the patriotic fervor of Mr. Bush's first term, the business district in this dusty central Texas town of about 750 is once again facing tough times. Even the Iraq war protesters who descended on Crawford by the thousands two summers ago are almost all gone. Ms. Crow, a Bush supporter who works as a title-insurance executive in Fort Worth, laments the president's decline in popularity and the accompanying downturn in business. "Some people only go with a winner, and won't support the team when they are down and out," says the Crawford native. "When I put my loyalty with someone, it's going to be there."

Another effect of Mr. Bush's presence here -- Crawford's real-estate boom -- continues to leave its mark. Property values have more than doubled in many cases, and continue to hold up, say businesspeople here. The town has turned into something of a bedroom community for Waco, some 20 miles away, and has also attracted weekend ranchers.

(snip)

During his first term, Mr. Bush frequently used his ranch for intimate gatherings with foreign dignitaries such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Government officials and journalists trailed them, joined by ordinary tourists who were curious about the new U.S. president. From $1 million in 2000, the town's retail sales grew to $2.2 million in 2002 and almost $2.7 million in 2004. They fell to about $2.1 million in 2006.

Even after Mr. Bush's popularity began sinking in his second term, there was an upside for Crawford for a while, as demonstrators flocked to the town to protest the Iraq war. Led by Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed while serving in Iraq, thousands protested in the area while the president vacationed at his ranch in August 2005. Although many of the town's merchants resented the attacks on their local hero, they were glad to sell the visitors T-shirts and ice. Now "even that's slowed down," says Marilyn Judy, a teacher who heads the Crawford Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Bush himself has cut back his visits to the ranch. According to Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio White House reporter who has kept an informal record of the president's sojourns to Crawford, Mr. Bush has visited only four times this year. In all of 2004, he came 17 times. A White House spokesman didn't dispute those numbers.

(snip)


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Instead of creating laws to ban them and shooting at them...they would still get people there.

... They're astonished to learn that the hype about them REALLY WAS just hype.

:rofl:




EDIT: Subject typo.

"winner" of a president

otherwise, we might have to call them a bunch of FLIP FLOPPERS!