Posted on 10/28/2004 9:58:30 PM PDT by Santana
Kerry rally in Madison makes history - and music By ALAN J. BORSUK aborsuk@journalsentinel.com Posted: Oct. 28, 2004 Madison - Boosted by the star power of Bruce Springsteen, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Thursday told what may well have been the largest crowd for a political rally in Wisconsin history that many of the most urgent issues facing the nation are on the ballot with him Tuesday.
Election 2004
Photo/Tom Lynn A massive crowd - estimated at 80,000 people - gathers Thursday in Madison to hear presidential candidate John Kerry speak and rocker Bruce Springsteen perform.
Photo/Tom Lynn Sen. John Kerry and Bruce Springsteen turn to a crowd estimated at 80,000 on Thursday in Madison. The event may have been the largest of its kind in the state.
Related Coverage
Poll: Wisconsin a tossup for Bush, Kerry Kerry: Rally in Madison makes history - and music Madison: Presence of Boss rocks fans, supporters at Kerry event Slideshow: Kerry's rally in Madison Ballots: GOP fails to get 5,619 names removed from voting lists Schofield: Vice president assails Kerry on issue of missing explosives Donations: Ozaukee, Washington prefer GOP giving Bush: President gets more reflective about self, sharpens jabs at foe Milwaukee: FBI questions official in Milwaukee County jailhouse voter drive Racine: Voter application fraud alleged in Racine, Kenosha Meg Ryan: Lends her celebrity to environmental cause, unseating Bush Vote: Dispute might be tied to Electoral College again Giving: Political contributions of $1 million or more increase under new law Terror: Authorities alert for election threat Video: TMJ4: Presidential visit overview and Milwaukee election news
Wisconsin Battleground
Scheduled Wisconsin campaign stops by Bush, Kerry
Presidential Issues Series
The Journal Sentinel offers a series of 11 articles exploring where George W. Bush and John Kerry stand on key issues. GO TO SERIES More Coverage
Section: Race for the White House Section: Wisconsin Congressional, legislative and other races
Advertisement
Kerry rattled off a list that included racial equality, education, health care, jobs and America's relations with the world, saying of each one, "That's on the ballot five days from now."
"I will restore America's reputation in the world, and we will put America back on track for jobs," Kerry said. "The choice in this race is between a fresh start and new credibility or more of the same."
Responding for the re-election campaign of President Bush, former Rep. Scott Klug of Madison said in a statement, "It is interesting that John Kerry feels the need to visit Madison to shore up his base so close to the election. This is because he knows that he is losing Wisconsin."
Gov. Jim Doyle said from a stage at the bottom of the W. Washington Ave. hill that 80,000 or more people stood between him and the statehouse, an estimate backed by Carl B. Saxe, Madison's assistant fire chief of operations, who was supervising the scene.
Saxe said the crowd was greater than the capacity of Camp Randall Stadium, about a mile away and home to the University of Wisconsin football team.
Political aficionados generally have held that a 1992 Madison rally for then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton drew the largest crowd ever for such an event in the state, estimated by some at up to 50,000.
How many at Thursday's rally were there to hear Kerry or Springsteen couldn't be known, but even Kerry said, "I may be running for president of the United States, but we all know who the real boss is," a reference to the music legend's nickname.
Springsteen sang two songs - "Promised Land" and "No Surrender" - solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. And he told the throng why he had taken the step of endorsing Kerry.
He said he had written songs for 30 years about working people and their needs, including living wages, health care, the environment, "a sane and responsible foreign policy" and "civil rights and the protection and safeguarding of our precious democracy at home."
"These essential ideas of American identity are what's at stake on November 2," Springsteen said. "That's why 'united we stand,' that's why 'one nation indivisible' aren't just slogans, but they need to remain guiding principles of our public policy."
Springsteen went on with Kerry from Madison to Columbus, Ohio, for a rally later Thursday.
Kerry's message Kerry's Madison appearance was his third in Wisconsin this week , with at least two more to go before the campaign ends Tuesday.
He broke no new ground in his half-hour stump speech.
"Madison, Wisconsin, my fellow Americans, you're here today because we all of us have a conviction in our hearts and in our guts and in our heads that we know we can do a better job, that we can take this country in a better direction," Kerry said. "When I'm president, I will bring new credibility and a fresh start to Iraq. . . . We'll get our troops home with honor. . . . I'll lead a more effective war on terror than George Bush."
Klug, speaking in support of the Bush re-election campaign, said, "Voters here know we have a clear choice on Tuesday between a president willing to do whatever it takes to win the war on terror and a candidate willing to do anything for political gain. Wisconsinites have seen enough of John Kerry over the past few months to realize there is nothing he won't say if he thinks it will help his campaign, and his 'ripped from the headlines' attacks will not make our state's families any safer."
Kerry brought up the current hot subject on the campaign, reports of potent weapons missing in Iraq, saying, "they speak to the continuing misjudgment all along the way of this president."
He added, "And now George Bush's shifting explanations (of the weapons situation), an effort to blame everybody except themselves, is evidence that he believes the buck stops anywhere except with the president, and we need a president who understands and takes responsibility for what being commander in chief is all about."
He renewed attacks on Bush's record on jobs and the economy, health care, energy policy and tax cuts. He said reversing tax cuts enacted under Bush for people with incomes more than $200,000 a year would pay for his plans to expand health care and increase education funding.
"If you liked the economy we had in the 1990s, you're going to like what John Kerry and John Edwards do for America," Kerry said, referring to his running mate.
One purpose the rally served for the Kerry campaign was to make a pitch to the thousands who were there to do volunteer work in the final days of the race. Thousands of cards asking people to call and urge others to vote for Kerry were passed out. The cards included a script that people could read, and the crowd was asked to make the rally "the biggest phone bank in political history." But not many people appeared to be making calls.
People also were urged to go from the rally to the nearby Madison city clerk's office to vote early. However, no major surge of people appeared to be doing that. Early and absentee voting has been brisk in Madison and elsewhere in the state. The clerk's office said it would stay open until 8 p.m. Thursday to accommodate voters.
Kerry and Bush are campaigning in the Green Bay/Fox Valley area Saturday and Milwaukee on Monday as the intense campaign for Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes comes to a boiling finish.
From the Oct. 29, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Get the Journal Sentinel delivered to your home. Subscribe now.
Still not proud of Wisconsin-Won't be until it turns red for Bush.
How many of that exaggerated number did they have to bribe or bus in???
80,000?
This from the same news source that significantly underestimated the gatherings of those of us who protested the anti-war protestors awhile back.
Hey Bruce you are not the BOSS!
Your noise wont get me to vote for Communist Kerry!
In fact I am glad I never bought any of your cd's!
True. In Madison, they probably bribed the students with pot.
Shouldn't the headline read as follows?
80,000 AND KERRY APPEAR
AT SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT
Looks like Kerry is putting John Glenn to sleep.
Retired Sen. John Glenn, D-OH, and his wife Anni Glenn listen with Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti as Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), D-Mass., speak at a campaign rally at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Yeh sure, give me a few dozen more corporate scandals please and a bubble economy.
It was a damn big crowd, but 80,000 is pretty implausible. And at least 80% of them were there for a free Springsteen concert.
Right! He's not the boss of me! And even though he was "Born in the USA", that means nothing. So were American Taliban John Walker Lindh and traitor Benedict Arnold and BIG traitor....John Kerry himself.
But they walked them from the concert to the Capital to register to vote. Even though many of those same Dems students had already registered at their schools, etc, I'm sure.
Don't worry. Here's some of the things about the event the urinal/sentinal won't tell you.
1. It wasn't anywhere near 80,000
2. The WEAC conference (teachers) is being held in madison this week. It's one of the the largest if not the largest conventions there. Built in audience.
3. They brought in bus loads of people from iowa and minnesota too. Most likely others were brought in (union members) from other parts of the state.
4. Look at the crowds on instapundit. Not fired up at all. A lot of college kids (madison is a big college town) that came to see the free music.
5. After all of this, the clerk's office they left open for voters wasn't busy at all.
6. Madison is the berkeley of the midwest. It's 5 days before the election. Why is kerry struggling to motivate what should be one of his biggest base areas, while GWB is campaigning in reagan democrat areas?
Bruce Springsteen watches as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) reacts to the crowd after being introduced at a rally Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) is joined by singer Bruce Springsteen (R) at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin October 28, 2004. There is less than one week to go until Kerry faces President George W. Bush (news - web sites) in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
"I will restore America's reputation in the world," What is this Bullshiite muslim. What WAS our reputation when klinton was in office? Oh yeah, attack us and we will run away!
Never really cared for Bruce much. Think even less of him now.
To quote another celeb,Curt Schilling, from this same day, "Vote Bush!"
Bruce Who ?
Bruce is gonna have to give tickets away to his next tour after this fiasco.
Glory days yeah goin backI've disliked Bruce Springsteen ever since he cheated on his wife with his bandmate and she had to find out about it from the tabloids.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.