LAGSTAFF, Ariz., Aug. 8 - Senator John Edwards pulled his dried-out contact lenses from his eyes. "Eighteen-hour days will do it," he said.Posted on 08/08/2004 11:09:38 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
LAGSTAFF, Ariz., Aug. 8 - Senator John Edwards pulled his dried-out contact lenses from his eyes. "Eighteen-hour days will do it," he said.
A mariachi band had greeted Senator John Kerry's chartered train as it inched into Albuquerque at 11:57 p.m. on Saturday.
A few feet away, the candidate's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, was also showing the effects of the grueling cross-country trip. Nevertheless, Mrs. Heinz Kerry started swaying and shaking to the beat. Then, as her husband worked a rope line, carefully scrawling his intricate signature and posing for pictures, she started to dance a ranchera with a 22-year-old law student and Democratic activist named Javier Martinez.
The couple slowly twirled, cheered on by several women, under the bright spotlights set up on the railroad platform by Kerry aides so the local media could capture the candidates' arrival in New Mexico, where every little bit of attention can help: a margin of a tenth of one percent gave Al Gore the state's five electoral votes in 2000.
The prospect of that kind of attention from local television stations is what motivated the Kerry campaign to arrange this two-week post-convention tour of the swing states by road, rail, water and air.
When Mr. Kerry finished his last autograph in Albuquerque and saw his wife in another man's arms, he walked over and stood by, amiably watching. Bowing deeply, Mr. Martinez quickly offered up Mrs. Heinz Kerry to her husband. Mr. Kerry demurred, motioning to the young man to continue. Mr. Martinez insisted.
So Mr. Kerry took his wife in his arms, pressed her close, and tried a few steps. They didn't go well. Mrs. Heinz Kerry quickly lost a shoe - so her husband knelt and did the next best thing to sweeping her off her feet: he replaced her slipper-style heel as if she were Cinderella.
Campaign advance workers can see to many contingencies, but chance and the peculiar chemistry of moonlight and hot desert nights can always intervene - as they seemed to when the band struck up the mariachi classic "El Rey," which may have had some resonance for the candidate or his wife:
With or without money,
I always have what I want
and my word is law.
I have no throne or queen,
nor anyone who understands me,
but I'm still the king.
Travelin' Man
Where are Mr. Kerry's millions in contributions going? Aides could not or would not give cost figures for the campaign's 3,300-mile cross-country trip. But the 17- to 25-vehicle convoy of buses, vans and escort cars gave way in St. Louis to a 15-car chartered train pulled by three locomotives.
Much of the train is devoted to about 90 journalists. But there are also eight members of the Kerry and Edwards families aboard, 69 guests and 43 campaign staff members, in addition to 10 stewards and a seven-person railroad crew.
The Bounce Is in the Step
The polls may not show much of a post-convention bounce for Mr. Kerry, but his crowds tell a different story. Before the convention, he only rarely drew more than a few thousand people to a rally. Since setting off from the convention in Boston, though, his events have consistently been mob scenes, with or without his running mate - and with or without Ben Affleck, who accompanied him for the first two days of the trip.
In Harrisburg, Pa., on July 30, more than 15,000 people mobbed the Capitol plaza. In Grand Rapids, Mich., home of the Republican former president Gerald R. Ford, Mr. Kerry drew close to 10,000 people near where President Bush had attracted just 4,500 a few days before.
Mr. Kerry has taken note of the crowds and seems energized by them. "I can talk through a storm," he said in Dubuque, Iowa, in a gym crammed with 5,000 as it rained outside. "I can talk up a storm!"
A Moth at the Right Moment
Near the end of Mr. Kerry's stump speech in Harrisburg, an oversized moth landed in his wife's hand, and she tossed it back into the air. The moth flew right into Mr. Kerry's hand, as he was talking up his health care plan.
"That's all right, he's very nice," he said. "That's what we want to preserve. We like those guys."
He held out his hand and let the moth fly off into the night.
"That's another question we should be asking," he said, seamlessly shifting gears. "As a hunter, as a fisherman, we need to preserve the habitat. We need to pass it on to our children in better shape than it was given to us by our parents."
How About Those Buckeyes
Much is made of Mr. Kerry's difficulty connecting to audiences.
His safest territory appears to be promoting local restaurants. So in Wheeling, W.Va., he was happy to be in "the home of DiCarlo's Pizza - and I know that you can't leave here without a tray of pizza and an extra bag of cheese!"
In Jefferson City, Mo., he knew many of the gathered would be "going to get a banana split at the Central Dairy, am I right?"
But plugging the hometown sports team, crossing state lines and fatigue do not mix well for Mr. Kerry. After a rally in Bowling Green, Ohio, he showed up late on July 31 in Taylor, Mich., for a nighttime softball game, and made the mistake of picking up a microphone.
"We just came from Bowling Green," he said. "And I was smart enough not to pick a choice between the Falcons and all the other teams out there. I just go for Buckeye football, that's where I'm coming out."
When some in the crowd began to boo, he tried to recover. "That was while I was in Ohio. Now - I know - I'm in the state of Michigan. You got a great big M and a powerhouse of a team."
Worse, as aides squirmed, he seemed to keep trying to redeem himself. What were supposed to be three-minute remarks went on for 30.
Redemption came at last for Mr. Kerry with a softball bat. He reached base twice, on a hit and a fielder's choice, scored both times, and made three putouts at second base.
The Hecklers' Lullaby
Mr. Edwards is plenty crowd-pleasing, to tell from the squeals of teenage girls in Lamar, Colo., Saturday morning - and of fortysomething mothers in La Junta, Colo., Saturday afternoon, and Las Vegas, N.M., Saturday evening.
But he is not averse to using his cherubic children, Jack, 4, and Emma Claire, 6, to help gain an edge with an audience, friendly or hostile. In Wheeling, W.Va., he told a late-afternoon crowd of several thousand at a rally that his children were back on the bus watching a video. "They'd love to see you, but right now Scooby Doo's winning," he said.
A few nights later, in Sedalia, Mo., he vainly tried to defuse a noisy confrontation with scores of hecklers. First he asked them nicely: "Will you let us speak, please?" he said. "We are here because we all love America."
Next, he tried showing them up. "This is not about what we're against, it's about what we're for," he said. "We would never shout down our opponents when they're speaking."
Then he tried mocking them, after they booed him as he promised to stop jobs from being shipped overseas. "Are you guys really booing the outsourcing of millions of American jobs and doing something about it?" he said, chuckling. "That's amazing."
Finally, he resorted to Jack and Emma Claire. "I just want to say to those folks who don't want to hear from us: my children are on this train," he said. "Show them some good Missouri manners, if you don't mind."
The hecklers promptly hushed.
Take your wife please...no, take my wife please...No take her damit.
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Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), D-Mass, dances with Javier Martinez after arriving at the train station early in Sunday morning in Albuquerque on Sunday, Aug. 8, 2004. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch) |
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Well, I can hear the whistle from a mile away.
It sounds so good but I must stay away.
That train is a beauty makin' everybody stare,
But its only destination is the middle of nowhere.
But you know there's victory in the Lord, I say.
Victory in the Lord.
Cling to the Father and his Holy name,
And don't go ridin' on that long black train.
I said cling to the Father and his Holy name,
And don't go ridin' on that long black train.
Yeah, watch out brother for that long black train.
That devil's drivin' that long black train.
Oh that is truly a sad and demented woman...I think her meds need to be adjusted
But the comment may not mean anything...What type of event did Bush hold? Perhaps it was onlt intended for that nukmber...Moreover it is summertime and all the union thugs have August off so they are showing up where ever their punk leaders tell them to go...in fact they are bussed in to many places...Don't worry just get out and vote
This article tried to be very positive, but it sounds as though sKerry is his own worste enemy--and even the media cannot hide that.
Imagining old footage of a flower child of the 60's, high on "life" and listening to Hendrix. {snip}
When Mr. Kerry finished his last autograph in Albuquerque and saw his wife in another man's arms, he walked over and stood by, amiably watching. Bowing deeply, Mr. Martinez quickly offered up Mrs. Heinz Kerry to her husband. Mr. Kerry demurred, motioning to the young man to continue. Mr. Martinez insisted.
The visuals of this are almost like a silent movie, with Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Marie Dressler.
So Mr. Kerry took his wife in his arms, pressed her close, and tried a few steps. They didn't go well. Mrs. Heinz Kerry quickly lost a shoe - so her husband knelt and did the next best thing to sweeping her off her feet: he replaced her slipper-style heel as if she were Cinderella.
Ok, official barf time. Now we're supposed to envision the handsome prince, deftly putting the shoe on her foot and sweeping her off to an undisclosed castle. John Kerry sings: Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you, if you vote for meeeeeee.
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