ANNUAL FETE: Gloria Berman, left, and Suzanne Bergen, members of the Raging Grannies group, entertain attendees of the Fighting Bob Fest in Baraboo, Wis. The fair is named after Robert La Follette, who helped found the state's progressive movement.
THE NATION; 'Progressive and proud'; Each year, more of the curious and eager gather at a Wisconsin fairgrounds to celebrate some old- fashioned liberalism.
[HOME EDITION]
Los Angeles Times - Los Angeles, Calif.
Author: P.J. Huffstutter
Date: Sep 11, 2007
Start Page: A.12
Section: Main News; Part A; National Desk
Text Word Count: 1050 Abstract (Document Summary)
Inside the fair's pole barn, hawkers sold hundreds of neon- orange "Impeach Bush!" T-shirts and "Say No to War!" buttons. Grandmothers in floppy flower-print hats gabbed about universal healthcare coverage. Aging hippies, gathering petition signatures to pull troops from Iraq, stood side by side with volunteers for presidential candidates registering voters and handing out bumper stickers.
"Still, if any state were going to host one [like this], it makes sense that it'd be Wisconsin," [Larry Sabato] said. "It's a very purple state: It was so close in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections that the Democrats barely took the state by the rind of its cheese."
"That's right!" shouted Arnold Williamson, 64, a dairy farmer clad in a T-shirt that read "Hubert Humphrey in '68."
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