Hundreds Watch 'Fahrenheit 9/11' in Bush Hometown By David Morgan
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Hundreds of people gathered in a rural parking lot near President Bush (news - web sites)'s Texas ranch on Wednesday to watch Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," although the filmmaker canceled plans to attend.
Sitting before a giant inflatable movie screen, filmgoers from across Texas booed and cheered as Moore's record-setting antiwar film satirically recounted Bush's controversial 2000 election and lambasted the president's response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and his reasons for going to war in Iraq (news - web sites).
Moore had pledged to come to the screening and even invited Bush to attend. But the bespectacled leftist gadfly abruptly pulled out on Wednesday, telling organizers he wanted his movie, not his differences with the Republican president, to be the evening's subject.
"But we're all here tonight," said John Wolf, leader of a Texas network of peace activists that organized the screening and asked for an $8 donation as admission to benefit a local activist center called the "Crawford Peace House."
Half a mile away, scores of Bush supporters gathered for a rally to show their support for the president. Some were business owners from the Lone Star Parkway, Crawford's main street, which features several presidential souvenir shops.
Bush is vacationing this week at his 1,600-acre ranch during the Democratic National Convention in Boston that nominated John Kerry (news - web sites) on Wednesday for president. Moore has been in Boston during the convention where he has attracted enormous media coverage. Some at the screening booed and catcalled when Moore appeared in the film with his signature baseball hat and blue jeans.
Organizers said they wanted to bring "Fahrenheit 9/11" to Crawford, located about 7 miles from Bush's Prairie Chapel ranch, so local people would have the chance to see it. But only a handful of moviegoers from the tiny hamlet of Crawford were in attendance. There appeared to be twice as many foreign exchange students from Belgium as locals.
The pro-Bush rally in Crawford, a traditionally Democratic town with a population of 705, also attracted many from outlying areas, including ranchers.
"There aren't many people in Crawford. So whenever you have a large crowd, most people will be from someplace else," said Crawford police chief Donnie Tidmore.
The two camps confronted each other briefly near the entrance to the outdoor theater near the Crawford High School football field, where a middle-aged Moore supporter encounteredseveral young anti-Moore protesters holding a cloth sign that read: "Fahrenheit 9/11: Moore Liberal B.S."
"Name the lies in Michael Moore's film. None of you can," the Moore supporter, Dallas musician Rick Charles, scolded the youths.
"Fahrenheit 9/11," which has earned more than $100 million in just over a month to become the most successful documentary ever, has been seen by more than 6 million people.
Moore has said he hopes the film will help oust the president from office in the Nov. 2 election.
The film opened at a nearby cinema in Waco, Texas, last Friday.