Bush and Kerry on CSPAN

[masonfl]

It was a little weird. Being a West-coaster, I missed most of the live broadcast of JKF's rally in Cleveland but did see the aftermath. There were hundreds or thousands of people crowding around to shake his hand (those in the campaign business call it the "clutch and drool..."). It was strange to come in at that point, after the speech, and see him wading through the crowd. He seemed to do so for a long time - maybe 20 minutes - before heading off.

Then I watched the whole GW rally in "Big D." The mood was very different from the beginning. Toby Keith was actually pretty good but when he handed it off to Sessions it immediately become very...lame. When Sessions introduced Laura Bush she gave a brief intro and sat down. GW's speech was...pretty good. Ok. But far from inspiring. He did his usual thing and wrapped it up, shook some hands and was gone. All in all it seemed very flat. It almost seemed like he was feeling melancholy or something. Like it was his last hurrah. But maybe I'm just hopeful.

Then CSPAN re-ran Kerry's rally and I saw it from the beginning. Bruce was awesome. The whole feeling was electric, at least to me. The people seemed much more real. There were...black people in the audience. Bruce's songs had a folky feel that made me feel patriotic about America. I thought about what a great country this is where a folk/rocker can introduce the next president of the United States. I mentioned to my wife (who is...shall we say...slightly less enthusiastic about politics) that I can't see the same thing happening anywhere else. She begrudgingly agreed.

Kerry came out to speak and seemed real. He seemed like a real human being who I could relate to. He seemed tired but very hopeful and energized. The overall feeling was quite different than the GW rally and I hope it bodes well for election day tomorrow.

I'll end my ramble by saying that I even thought GW's rally was pretty cool in an American kind of way. I'm no big fan of Toby Keith (sp?) but the fact that a country western singer can come out and sing his songs before introducing the president of the US is pretty cool. May the best man (JFK) win.