Kerry’s VP pick first reported on aviation message board
July 7, 2004 · · Comment
The first report that Sen. John Kerry picked Sen. John Edwards as his running mate came Monday night at 9:44 p.m. (the night before the announcement) on an aviation message board. A poster wrote, “John Kerry’s 757 was in hgr 4 pit tonight John Edwards vp decals were being put on engine cowlings and upper fuselage.”
Few except those on the board noticed, however. Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire was the first to report this detail, the next morning.
UPDATE (7/8): The poster who reported seeing the stickers on the plane was Bryan Smith, a 39-year-old airplane mechanic from Moon Township, Pa. Since then, he’s been making the media rounds, appearing on NPR and in the L.A. Times. He told the Times he had no idea what a big scoop he had. “I get a kick out of it,” he said. “I didn’t really think it was that big of a deal.” USAviation.com’s traffic, meanwhile, increased tenfold since Tuesday.
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