Last night-first time seeing Kerry speak

[submerged99]

As I have stated before, I have never voted but intend to vote for Kerry against Bush this year.

I am one of those "anyone but bush" people and I had never heard Kerry speak before last night. I've seen him characterized as "dour," "lifeless," "unenergetic," "dull," "boring" etc. I tuned in expecting to see a boring speech, with stumbles, awkward pauses, misreads of the prompter, and an uninspiring performance. I was prepared to accept this "dour" Kerry at any rate.

Imagine my surprise when those notions were dispelled. I was really impressed with John Kerry's speech and straight ahead approach. I sat there, relishing the idea of a Kerry/ Chimp debate because the Kerry I saw would level Chimp.

I was actually inspired by Kerry's speech and came away with the impression that he can easily win the elections in a head to head with Chimp. I know this has probably been discussed at lenght but I wanted to add my 2 cents as someone who had never seen Kerry speak before.

[prodigal_green]

1. welcome to DU! n/t

[bahrbearian]

5. He's been here longer than you.

[NMDemDist2]

2. welcome to DU and to the Democratic Party

we are a good bunch :bounce:

[Catch22Dem]

3. Your 2 cents sound good to me

Don't hesitate to throw your opinion in. With this particular subject, the more posts, the better.

And welcome to DU by the way!

[Booster]

4. Your 2 cents are worth a $1 and welcome.

I realized that I had never really heard Kerry speak also, and, like you was expecting to hear a really boring speech, but, Lordy, Lordy, the man delivered one of the best speeches I have ever heard and I am truly inspired by both Kerry and Edwards. Great team.

[Jokinomx]

6. Ditto...

It was the first time I saw Kerry give a full speech and I was so impressed I signed up to volunteer for his campaign...

Welcome to the DU ... :-)

[calimary]

14. Welcome to BOTH of you, for that matter! I, too, had never seen

a whole speech from John Kerry. I was almost scared to watch, for fear all the mutterings and crap about him might be true. I was even concerned that I might somehow jinx it. (Go figure...) But he REALLY came through. He was the talk of the town all day, wherever I happened to be. ALL favorable. The parking lot attendant in my doctor's office, early this morning, asked about my Kerry bumper sticker that's taped to the inside of my back window. He wanted one. I gave him mine (I have a couple of extras at home - this isn't the first time such a thing has happened to me). EVERYBODY I came into contact with was talking about him. Doctor, her staffers (by the way, my doctor proudly showed me her stack of voter registration forms that she makes available to patients. She says she's given out about THIRTY of them), a couple of photographer friends, you name it.

Glad you are here! Our Army of Good Guys expands.

[donco6]

7. That's the speech I saw, too.

Inspiring - nothing less. Can't wait for the debates.

Welcome to DU, submerged99.

[submerged99]

8. Thanks. The repugs really overplayed their hand, imo

I was thinking that the repugs had really shot themselves in the foot by characterizing Kerry as "boring" BEFORE most people had a chance to see him. If most people are like me, they tuned in with very low expectations and were really surprised, and inspired, by Kerry's performance.

I watched Edwards the night before and was pleased but not really surprised because most media accounts had portrayed him as charismatic and forceful. He delivered and lived up to my expectations.

Getting back to Kerry, I don't understand why any repugs would have taken the angle that he lacks energy, strength or can inspire. In light of last night's performance, whichever repug came up with that "smear" should start looking for a new job as that image has already been destroyed.

The bar was set so low for Kerry that he can't do anything but raise whenever he goes out and especially if the Chimp agrees to meet him in a debate. After last night, the chimp would be wise to avoid any face to face debate with Kerry.

[jimshoes]

10. That's because they invent a reality

and then try to make it so. They do it all the time.

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. Low expectations

Funny you should mention that. I heard some repug strategist saying that expectation of Kerry's speech were low and he met them. Who lowered the bar? Better yet, when was the bar lowered? An even better question, who was the orginal low expectations guy?

[seabeyond]

9. i dont need flare and such to listen to words. i too hear these discripti

yet i say, i listen to what the man says. and if he is allowed to speak fully, which some say boring, he informs. he uses words and he puts them together

so everytime i hear someone say lifeless boring, that he doesnt say what he is going to do or who he is, i say

you dont listen to him.

be it media, fellow duers repugs whatever. cause i have listened to his long speeches

when hiring an employee to do books, i dont interview person on looks, i personally go for knowledge, ability. the least i can do for president

[zuzu98]

11. ABB -> Kerry/Edwards

I changed my Avatar from "Anybody but Bush 2004" to one w/ Kerry. My vote will be the same, but the motivation is different. Much more positive now.

[Jokinomx]

12. Awesome...

I felt alot like you... Anybody but... However... Kerry's is the REAL DEAL....

[Jokinomx]

13. Awesome

I felt alot like you... Anybody but... However... Kerry's is the REAL DEAL.... and I changed my avatar also... thanks for the idea...


oooops... I pressed reply instead of edit...LOL... I was wondering why I had to copy and paste.... :-)

[wrate]

15. 5 minutes into Kerry's speech I was sure he was going to be the next

POTUS. Everyone was taken over it from what I saw. On C-SPAN Republicans from Texas, Florida, etc were calling to say they would either not vote come November or vote Kerry. It was an amazing 50 minutes. On MSNBC Buchanan was so impressed that someone else asked him if he planned to put a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker in his car. :)

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. You would never know that

if you just listened to the talking airheads. Besides, they have to cut away for another update on the Laci trial.

[matt2050]

16. Isn't it funny

...how repukes have been using the one thing that got the chimp elected in the first place, (the incredible low expectations going into the debate), against Kerry. Why would you lower the expectations on someone that they themselves admit America didn't know. They practically dared the undecided to watch the convention. I saw that, all told, the overnight numbers combined were close to 25 million. Thanks Rove and company, you did more for John Kerry than the dems every could! You'd have thought that they would have recognized this. Good thing they didn't.

[newyawker99]

17. Hi matt2050!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Robbien]

19. They sometimes get too confident of their hold on the media

And then blow it because something such as unfiltered speech comes along. Heaven will need to help them if even one network station stops carrying their water.

[Zynx]

20. I also think that Kerry gave an inspiring speech on Thursday night.

I also felt that with that speech he may have already won the election.