Posted on 11/03/2004 8:07:51 AM PST by ninonitti
Early on there was something Boston in the air. At my own packed polling place in leafy, leftie Brookline, the four voters who'd share their decision put it this way: not just anti-Bush but ``for Kerry.'' ``I want Kerry,'' said one. ``President Kerry,'' said another.
There was something Boston on TV as well. When cable networks zeroed in on packed polling places in Philadelphia and Madison, Wis., and Cleveland - the belly of the battleground beast - much of the crowd looked like the Green Line to Boston College.
Peach fuzzy boys, girls with jeans low on thin hips. Backpacks and book bags. Kids sent forth from the halls of liberal academia to slay the warmonger of Texas.
If you live close to the Fenway or the South End, you recognized about dusk last night the familiar sound, the one heard on other recent Boston nights around here: news helicopters hovering.
Then they were over Fenway Park for the victorious Red Sox. Last night they were over Copley Square for the local pol, so long the butt of talk-show jokes and regular-guy derision. The same Fenway-bright lights lit up Trinity Church and a flag maybe 30 red-white-and-blue feet high.
And there were those same peach-fuzzy faces and low-slung jeans whooping and hollering up Boylston Street, waving Kerry signs.
It was early still. The first polls hadn't closed. A race too tight to call, reporters said. Bush could surge here, there, everywhere.
Still, there was a Boston feel to the air. John Kerry [related, bio], like our own breathtaking baseball team, seemed to have the mo.' And even if you can't stomach the guy, you might have cut him slack last evening in Copley Square, swept up in the chanting and the white lights and anticipation. There was magic there, and passion.
Earlier in the day, a polling place in Chinatown was so packed - young, old, from the projects, from the Ritz Carlton towers - that Bill Shirreff, 40-something, went home to get a sweater, hot coffee and two newspapers to hunker down in line. ``I have never seen anything like this,'' he said.
``This election is pretty pivotal to me,'' said Kevin Leary, 63. ``Iraq, budget deficits.''
``People who say they're not voting,'' said Jim Kauffman, 59. ``How could you not after what happened in 2000?''
An elderly Chinese woman offered a variation on the phrase I'd heard over and over miles away and hours before: ``No Bush. John Kerry,'' she said. ``John Kerry. John Kerry.'' Then she bowed, smiled and headed home.
( Margery Eagan's radio show airs at noon weekdays and 9 a.m. Saturdays on 96.9 FM-Talk. )
Anyone who can do an intervention?:
EaganBraude@969fmtalk.com
Wicked shot!
What, everyone's making plans, hiding their true military records, having their butlers make them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and getting them a hunting license while wearing a barn jacket?
The kids in schools across the nation are going to have a tough day with all the teachers who just lost their hope that Communism would be here in two years.
I was with a bunch of teachers last night for a Bush victory party. ALL their students voted for Bush. (And they were so glad to be somewhere where THEY could show their support of Bush, it was kind of sad.)
My daughter came home last night saying she mixed up with her computer ed teacher yesterday over the teacher's Bush bashing......should have sent her in today with a dish of crow pate.
Good for her!!!
Yeah. that's why he LOST!
Oooooohhh!
You ARE BAD!!!!
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