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.
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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.
I was in Walmart tonight and was looking at all these nice CD's. The rack they displayed were full of patriotic songs and the one song, "Proud to be an American" by Lee Greenwood, and other songs, like "America the Beautiful". I almost picked this CD up (it was on sale) and my eye caught the song, "Born in the USA!" YES, by.... The BOSS! Good ole' Bruce Springsteen. I couldn't believe they put THAT song in with the rest of the patriotic songs. I know most of you know that Bruce-baby is totally ripping the USA apart, right? Did you listen to the words? Anyway, that is how much some music companies know. They look at a sweet title, like, "Born in the USA", but haven't a clue. I was so ticked. Needless to say, the CD is still on the rack, and I hope it rots.
I feel pity for Bruce. For some goofy reason, he thinks his political opinion matters to me. From his lyrics and past actions, it is obvious he has a very simple surface view of life. Some of his tunes are catchy, but his political opinion simply doesn't matter to me and nothing he says or does could influence me to vote for Kerry. Now, my husbands opinion is very important to me, and by the way, he is much cuter than Bruce :) ....
Oh, and my husband is definitely voting for President Bush...
Those are some excellent points that you made. Especially with the Teacher's convention being there. Of course, that's who was at it. Glad my tax dollars go to those idiots.
Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "Son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "Son, don't you understand"
I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.
I agree with you that Born In the USA didn't belong in with those other songs, but Born isn't downing the USA. It's a song about a very particular place at a very particular time.
I'll take Ted Nugent any day...Bruce is a traitor's B!tch!
Springsteen can't even save his native NJ for Kerry, nevermind Wisconsin.
He is what he is -- an entertainer. I'm of the firm belief that no good ever came from an entertainer stepping over the line to promote a political agenda.
I've always said that artists are idiots, and that art is wise. In the rock and roll idiom, everything is puerile and perpetually foul, so there are exceptions to my rule. If I were a highly placed gimmiecrat, I'd tell the boss and similar true believers to throw their support to the Republicans!
Kind of like those free concerts the Today show has in the summer
I treat any entertainer who steps over the line into politics -- left or right -- as having a case of temporary insanity. I simply patiently wait for it to pass and hope they make a full and speedy recovery. The one exception, of course, would be Reagan. However, if you look at his career, he transitioned into politics over a long period of time and never returned to acting.
I base this opinion on the belief that my judgements and knowledge base are just as good as any actor's or singer's.
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