Tracking Cindy on the Map

Cindy Sheehan travels...a lot. There are nine states on the map in which Senator John Kerry won four counties or less. Sheehan has never taken her roadshow there. She tends to show up in blue counties, with the exception of her camping trips to Crawford, Texas. One might wonder why she would concentrate on locations where she is "preaching to the choir" instead of speaking to the infidels and trying to win their hearts and minds. There are three valid answers.

First, Sheehan's message is not persuasive. What she does is performance art. It is an emotional freak show. People show up. They pay money. Cindy comes on stage, enunciates her hatred for America, President Bush and Capitalism, and then turns on the waterworks. Through her, the small bands of disaffected and disgruntled boobs can vicariously vent their anger and frustration and then enjoy the cathartic release of watching a grown woman degenerate into tears. Perhaps she will eventually spice up the act by biting the head off a snake or a chicken. These performances do not persuade. Emotion evokes empathy, reason persuades.

The second reason Sheehan doesn't travel much to the red counties is that most people there won't pay to hear her sermons. Her standard fee is $2,500 per appearance. When normal people want a sermon, they go to their church or synagogue. Her motto is simple...no pay, no play.

Finally, there are practical reasons for her itinerary. She is focused on coalition-building and publicity. The crowds she draws are small, usually 500 people or less. She needs to perform in communities where there is an established, active community of moonbats, with radio stations, websites and newspapers to spread word of upcoming events. There have to be "host" organizations in place to guarantee her fees and expenses and send out their minions to beat the drum for her. Everything is carefully organized and planned in advance. Sheehan's organization, Gold Star Families for Peace, really is nothing more than Cindy and her sister Dede Miller (it saves them the indignity of having to say "Just make the check payable to 'Cindy Sheehan'"), so they have to depend on local wingnuts to do the advance work.

A quick glance at the map shows why Sheehan doesn't travel much by car. Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben And Jerry's ice cream, not only foots the bill for Cindy's PR firm (SF-based Fenton communications), he and convicted felon George Soros pay for much of Sheehan's airline bills. Sheehan is notoriously up front about her emotions, you just can't shut her up. But when it comes to the subject of her finances, she has nothing to say. Alaska Airlines or United Airlines. JetBlue or Quantas. Air travel is expensive and someone's got to pay. And it won't be Cindy. Even when she flew to Caracas, Venezuela, it was Chavez' government that paid the bill. Her monthly trips to New York city (she didn't go in March) are an on-going expense that certainly adds to her overhead.