Really nice article about Kerry's town hall meeting at Fitchburg State College last night

[beachmom]

http://www.fitchburgpride.com/news/2008/1205/your_city/003.html

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) admits that Americans face a tough year ahead, and that the unemployment rate will probably increase, but eventually the American economy will rebound.

"I am very optimistic about the long-term future," said Kerry, speaking at Fitchburg State College Tuesday night.

Transforming the economy to stay up-to-date with globalization and the latest advances in technology is what John Kerry considers the golden ticket to stimulating the American economy.

"The key is to have the tools to move into the new economy. The future is in producing these new technologies that people want," said Kerry.

About 150 FSC students and local residents attended the town hall meeting at Kent Recital Hall this week. Kerry held the "On Your Corner" listening tours, in which he visited communities in the state during election season.

Kerry pointed out that although he is not up for re-election for another six years, he is continuing with the community meetings. The night before, he held a similar meeting in Cambridge.

"I like doing these because it makes me a better advocate. I go down to Washington with a clearer sense of your priorities," said Kerry.

I really, really liked that he said this, repeating a theme he has spoken of in the past:

He told the audience that the most important work in America right now is being a citizen, and he encouraged audience members to speak their mind, and ask him any questions they had.

MORE at the link. I sure do wish I was in Mass. and could attend one of these town hall meetings. They sound great.

[TayTay]

1. That was a great event.

There was a nice crowd there who asked some really good questions.

There are now 6 YouTube videos of the Town Hall Meetings in Cambridge and Fitchburg. (Sorry about the lighting in the Fitchburg event. The video is kind of dark but the audio is excellent.)

Cambridge: High speed Rail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0GSPmIG86g

Cambridge: Tax Policy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5ZlrbkdBNk

Cambridge: Climate Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy3gTZyvoQQ

Cambridge: Health Insurance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz-mp3m_lMs

Cambridge: Afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0GSPmIG86g

Fitchburg: Immigration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWPvcWGJHOU

Fitchburg: Crisis in Mumbai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc3ya6GjrRQ

I think there is one more still to go up about what this article talked about: long term economic status of the US.

These were great forums.

Questions anyone?

[Mass]

2. I had to laugh at that. Jeez, MA is far from having a nationalized healthcare...

Where does this reporter come from? If anything, healthcare is very much private, as seen by the difficulty of finding doctors who accept the state health insurance in some part of MA (When my son aged out of SCHIP, I had to find a new insurance to bridge the gap until he started college and could use college health care insurance. Quite interesting. None of our doctors nor most of the doctors around took it. We actually got our doctor to take him as a favor, but only because it was only for a couple months).

Unlike in Massachusetts, where health care was made mandatory last year, Obama's plan would not nationalize health care

Here is a good article from the Worcester Telegram.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20081203/NEWS/812030367/1003/NEWS03

Kerry assures students US will rebound from crisis

By Paula J. Owen CORRESPONDENT

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FITCHBURG— U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry told attendees in the packed auditorium at Fitchburg State College last night that the state of the economy will change, and asked them to believe in the future.

Mr. Kerry said cycles of tough economic times are not new and Americans have been through this before. He spoke at a forum on “America’s Economic Future” in the Kent Recital Hall.

“This is not new for us,” he said. “We have done this several times in our history … every developed society experiences it.”

City and state officials and the college’s faculty and staff attended the event. About one-third of the audience was Fitchburg State College students.

Fitchburg Mayor Lisa A. Wong introduced the senator as a “great man” with a wide range of knowledge and experience, who hadn’t forgotten the importance of being “right here at the local level.”

Mr. Kerry started by saying that one of the things that dragged him down during the election season, after representing the state for 24 years, was the amount of cynicism and comments from people saying that campaigns are the only time they see him.

...