Thursday, September 16, 2004
And Now Let's Give a Big Daily Aneurysm Welcome to The Mrs., With a Report on the Kerry Rally in Madison Yesterday, Sitting in for Her Husband the Blogger, Missing and Presumed Still in Oklahoma
The speech is over, the confetti swept up, the press has filed their stories and the booming PA has been turned off. The Kerry Rally (featuring Sheryl Crow) went off without a hitch yesterday. A reported 10,000 people caused traffic jams all around the Alliant Energy Exhibition Hall that didn't break up until we had all gone home (it just changed directions after a while).
My job as a volunteer was as a "ticket splitter". No, you didn't need a ticket to get in, but if you had a red or blue ticket, you got to be in the VIP area, right in front of the stage. If you had any other ticket, or no ticket at all, you had "general admission" access, toward the back of the hall.
The "VIPs" included many area union members (laborers, teaching as in matching shirts. The volunteers, when done with their jobs, also had VIP access.
Of course to get to the VIP area, you had to go thru the gauntlet of airport-style security and metal detectors, with Secret Service manning the lines. They had the sensativity level set to maximum, such that a very small pair of gold earrings in my pocket set it off. Everyone had to remove all their buttons and pins, too, which for some people was a 10 minute exercise.
Senator Kerry spoke on all the things that he's been talking about during the campaign: W stands for Wrong, Dubya has made wrong decisions; Medicare & prescription drug/health care costs; loss of jobs & jobs moving overseas; fighting terror in a "smarter" way; tax cuts should be limted to the people who are really hurting, not for the upper class.
A few of his proposals: To allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for lower prescription drug costs for seniors; a $4000 per year tax credit for people paying college tution; every child under 18 covered by basic health care coverage and to close the tax loophole for companies to move jobs overseas and give the tax advatage to those companies that keep their jobs right here in the US.
Some final random thoughts:
Kerry is a very good speaker. He's no Bill Clinton, but he can string multiple thoughts together in a cohesive manner [Nice zinger--I'm so proud. Ed.] that gets the crowd jumping, cheering and making lots of noise.
There were people of all age groups, but I was surprised at how "white" the audience was. I don't know why, but it bothered me. We need all the "minority" votes to get Kerry into the White House. What can we do to attract those voters?
How close is the vote in Wisconsin? The local "Victory Wisconsin" campaign headquarters did some canvassing in the suburb of Sun Prairie last Sunday. The results:
102 for Kerry
6 leaning toward Kerry
10 undecided
8 leaning toward Dubya
102 for Dubya
In my opinion, that's too close for comfort. [Actually, given that the Madison burbs tend to be pretty Republican, that's probably not so bad. Heard about the latest Wisconsin poll on NPR this morning though that shows Bush ahead by eight points now, after the race had been dead even all summer. Ed.]
The speech is over, the confetti swept up, the press has filed their stories and the booming PA has been turned off. The Kerry Rally (featuring Sheryl Crow) went off without a hitch yesterday. A reported 10,000 people caused traffic jams all around the Alliant Energy Exhibition Hall that didn't break up until we had all gone home (it just changed directions after a while).
My job as a volunteer was as a "ticket splitter". No, you didn't need a ticket to get in, but if you had a red or blue ticket, you got to be in the VIP area, right in front of the stage. If you had any other ticket, or no ticket at all, you had "general admission" access, toward the back of the hall.
The "VIPs" included many area union members (laborers, teaching as in matching shirts. The volunteers, when done with their jobs, also had VIP access.
Of course to get to the VIP area, you had to go thru the gauntlet of airport-style security and metal detectors, with Secret Service manning the lines. They had the sensativity level set to maximum, such that a very small pair of gold earrings in my pocket set it off. Everyone had to remove all their buttons and pins, too, which for some people was a 10 minute exercise.
Senator Kerry spoke on all the things that he's been talking about during the campaign: W stands for Wrong, Dubya has made wrong decisions; Medicare & prescription drug/health care costs; loss of jobs & jobs moving overseas; fighting terror in a "smarter" way; tax cuts should be limted to the people who are really hurting, not for the upper class.
A few of his proposals: To allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for lower prescription drug costs for seniors; a $4000 per year tax credit for people paying college tution; every child under 18 covered by basic health care coverage and to close the tax loophole for companies to move jobs overseas and give the tax advatage to those companies that keep their jobs right here in the US.
Some final random thoughts:
Kerry is a very good speaker. He's no Bill Clinton, but he can string multiple thoughts together in a cohesive manner [Nice zinger--I'm so proud. Ed.] that gets the crowd jumping, cheering and making lots of noise.
There were people of all age groups, but I was surprised at how "white" the audience was. I don't know why, but it bothered me. We need all the "minority" votes to get Kerry into the White House. What can we do to attract those voters?
How close is the vote in Wisconsin? The local "Victory Wisconsin" campaign headquarters did some canvassing in the suburb of Sun Prairie last Sunday. The results:
102 for Kerry
6 leaning toward Kerry
10 undecided
8 leaning toward Dubya
102 for Dubya
In my opinion, that's too close for comfort. [Actually, given that the Madison burbs tend to be pretty Republican, that's probably not so bad. Heard about the latest Wisconsin poll on NPR this morning though that shows Bush ahead by eight points now, after the race had been dead even all summer. Ed.]
