A 25-foot-tall inflatable President Bush figure in a “Mission Accomplished” flight suit. People were chucking shoes at it.

The shoe hurling, sponsored by several anti-Bush, pro-peace groups, was inspired by Iraqi journalist Muntather Zaidi, who threw his shoes at Bush last month during a Baghdad news conference.

The shoes bounced off the midsection of the giant Bush, forcing a local television cameraman to duck as they sailed past his head.

On the stage nearby — behind a neat line of boots, loafers and sneakers — Gael Murphy, co-founder of the antiwar group Code Pink, called Zaidi courageous and thanked “everyone who has stood up and spoken truth to power in their own way.”

“Hold onto your shoes,” Murphy said to the crowd of about 100 protesters. “The struggle is not over.”
The shoe hurlers planned to march later to the White House, where a few were going to toss their ammunition over the fence.

This year’s protests are expected to be notably mild compared, for example, with 1973’s raucous anti-Vietnam War demonstrations aimed at President Nixon or the angry shouts of “Hail to the thief!” in 2001 after George W. Bush’s disputed victory over Al Gore. A handful of anti-Obama protests — most centered around the abortion issue — were planned for Inauguration Day.