Projo Politics Blog

Former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee traveled to at least four states to stump for President-elect Barack Obama in the campaign's final weeks.

But Chafee said Tuesday that he would not travel to Washington, D.C., in January for Obama's inauguration.

"I'm not considering going down," Chafee said in a phone interview from his office at Brown University. "It's just so crowded."

Indeed, 250,000 tickets will be distributed, but organizers expect more than 1 million people to attend the Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony in front of the Capitol building.

Chafee, a former Republican turned independent, could have secured a ticket, but says he almost never attends inaugurations.

He noted one exception: the 2004 inauguration of George W. Bush. As a sitting U.S. senator, Chafee sat with other members of Congress behind the podium.

It wasn't a wonderful experience, Chafee recalled. (It should be noted that Chafee refused to vote for Bush; he wrote in the elder Bush on his presidential ballot.) It was a cold, rainy day and the senators were given plastic ponchos, which had unusually pointed hoods, he said.

In early September, Chafee campaigned in Florida as part of "Republicans and independents for Obama." In mid-October, he traveled throughout Ohio and Michigan. And at another point, he drove to New Hampshire to provide a counterpoint to a pro-McCain news conference by Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent.

 Tags  inauguration Lincoln Chafee Obama

Comments

Southern View said:

It is hardly newsworthy what this poor excuse for a human being does. If it wasn't for his father's name and money, Linc Chafee would be doing what he used to do, shoe horses.

Linc was always a RINO and contributed nothing to the Party he said he was a member of. He never had the balls to officially join the Democatic Party, but his wacky political ideas were clearly not Republican.

Link | November 26, 2008 7:08 PM
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Todd West said:

I have inside information that Chafee, having been told he is not getting EPA, is now moving much closer to running for Governor as an Independent. This is solid and credible info.

Link | November 28, 2008 9:11 AM
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Judy said:

The best that this state can hope for is that Linc will go away. He has nothing to offer in the way of policy. He cannot complete a sentence without stammering. As an independent, he will have no clout nor fed money to throw behind his campaign. And frankly despite the wackiness of most Rhode Islanders, I think he's just too weird even for them.

Link | December 3, 2008 10:03 AM
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