A Loosened Kerry Wins Over Crowds at Rallies

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Senator John Kerry had just taken the stage on Saturday at a packed rally at the Oklahoma State Firefighters Memorial in Oklahoma City, and he was fired up. "George Bush thought he could play dress-up on an aircraft carrier and you wouldn't notice," he thundered. "Ask yourself, whose mission is accomplished?" As if on cue, the audience roared back, "His mission!" Mr. Kerry just smiled and deadpanned, "Nobody briefed me that I was going to have a real interactive crowd here."

For so long, of course, Mr. Kerry did not, and to see him on the stump these days is to conduct an unscientific but revealing study in candidate development and crowd psychology. Mr. Kerry says most of the same things he has been saying for weeks or even months, but he says them better and now that he is the Democratic front-runner the crowds respond in kind.

<snip>

At every stop, it seems, Mr. Kerry announces a new endorsement. Here it was Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer of New York. On Saturday in Oklahoma, as Mr. Kerry ran through the litany of his latest supporters, an interrupting voice rang out from the hall, "Senator, I am the mayor of Watonga, Okla., and I endorse you!" Without hesitating, Mr. Kerry did something that would have been all but unthinkable in his awkward months of campaigning in New Hampshire last fall: He scrambled down into the crowd, wrapped an arm around Mayor Richard Hightower, chief magistrate of the nearby town of 3,200, and swept him back onto the stage, holding his hand aloft and declaring, "Ladies and gentlemen, my latest endorsement."

<snip>

"I have been a Dean supporter up until today," said Charles Brittain, a retired industrial engineer for the Air Force who came to see Mr. Kerry in Oklahoma City. "I liked what he was saying, but what I saw was a vulnerability at the slightest sign of pressure. I believe I see in Kerry a man who can withstand the hurricane that I'm positive the Republicans are planning."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/03/politics/campaign/03CAMP.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5062&en=b06bf93aa33a74ea&ex=1076389200

[bluestateguy]

1. I like this guy more every day...

but I have cast my lot with Wes Clark.

If however, Clark does not make it to March 9th, when my state votes I will have no compunction about voting for Kerry.

[KC21304]

2. I'm hoping for Kerry/Clark.

[David Dunham]

3. All the Way with JK (can't use JFK, that's taken)

[formernaderite]

4. Oh please....these people have decided to vote tactically....

...not because Kerry has "won" them over with his tantalizing oratory gifts. Which is fine, everyone gets to vote for whomever, and for whatever reason....

[sandnsea]

8. Oh yes he does

I'm sorry you don't get it, America does. He reaches right down into people's souls and makes them believe.

[clarknyc]

11. I am an American and I don't get it about Kerry, either.

Besides, this, "He reaches right down into people's souls and makes them believe." sounds downright invasive, coercive, and frightening.

[JohnKleeb]

12. Why does that frighten you?

Its not like Kerry cant inspire people. I dont get it about a lot of candiates :shrug: but ya know I respect it.

[sandnsea]

14. Touching people's souls

That frightens you? Now that is truly sad.

[JohnKleeb]

18. cuz sandy, its Kerry whos touching them not his candiate of choice

Sigh, its so funny, if Kerry had voted against the war, his biggest detractors would probably be Kerry diehards. :shrug: I dont know what to say, but Kerry is a good man.

[formernaderite]

23. Wow...I have to say after watching him in politics all these years...

...he's never even inspired me to listen very long. All these years he's just been the other senator from Mass. I'm even having trouble remembering some of those exciting and persuasive amendments he's co-authored...Different strokes I guess...

[yellowdawgdem]

5. uh oh, hope he's not smokin' anything funny..

Just joking, I'm glad Kerry is relaxing. He will have to withstand the hurricane, and I think he'll do it.

[Lobo_13]

7. It's gotta be the botox

will he end up hawking botox pills on TV like Bob Dole/Viagra?

[Straight Shooter]

6. Way to go, Kerry, style is everything, substance means little

Rove playbook, page 281. Cribbed from Reagan's diaries.

[oasis]

9. Kerry's growing list of endorsements from those in public service is a

testimony to his substance.

[George_Bonanza]

10. If anything...

Kerry is the epitome of substance over style. What is his style, exactly? It's been described as droning, monotone, expressionless, etc. It covers up his great ideas. Want style over substance? What about Dean's internet bonanza, his fiery rhetoric, and the campaign that so much people found to be one giant party?

[Leilani]

13. What bothers me about Kerry

I am watching him on C-Span right now, & a majority of his speech is lifted from other candidates.

He just talked about making war "the last resort," which is what Wes Clark has been saying since he testified in front of Congress. And that's a big part of Clark's stump speech: "last, last resort."

I also hear parts of Dean's speeches, & parts of Edwards. All 3 had themes, & Kerry has lifted the best of all 3.

I believe Kerry will probably be the nominee, & I want to like him, but the more I see, the harder it is.

[sandnsea]

15. Sept 6 2002

I hear parts of speeches in other people's speeches too. I just kind of know where they really came from first.

http://www.cfr.org/campaign2004/pub5596/kerry/we_still_have_a_choice_on_iraq.php

[Feanorcurufinwe]

16. Look its just silly to say that Wes Clark originated the idea of war being

the last resort. That is a basic principle of most peaceful people, it's not something Wes Clark thought up.

[sandnsea]

17. take back America

That's original too. Wait. No it's not...

[blm]

20. When did you start listening? Kerry sounds the same to me the last 2 yrs.

He hammers all the points and gave his speeches months before, but who was really listening?

It's absurd to believe that Dean came up with his environmental and foreign policy speech after you read Kerry's who were given months ahead of Dean. Kerry STUDIED environmental issues for over 30 years and has the highest rating from enviro groups, while Dean could never even get the Sierra Club endorsemnet for any of his races.

Same with the foreign policy speech.

btw...Kerry said war should be last resort in Sept. 2002 in an op ed piece that urged Bush to go to the UN . It has been part of his stump since then.

[DjTj]

19. He learned it from Edwards...

He will still never be cuddly. He is too tall, too gaunt, too lantern-jawed, too serious for that. His Iowa caucuses victory speech was solemn and windy, and he sat watching the Super Bowl on Sunday night with a band of firefighters from Fargo, N.D., whose union has endorsed him, tapping his right thumb and forefinger nervously against his teeth without making much effort to converse or connect.

Two years ago, Mr. Kerry's advisers tried to get him to loosen up by showing him tapes of Senator John Edwards's easygoing style. Even now, he lacks Bill Clinton's innate, empathetic artistry with individuals and crowds. But as his campaign moves onto a national stage, where television advertisements and sound bites are more important than one-on-one encounters, Mr. Kerry seems comfortable with a kind of paint-by-numbers Clintonism that is effective in its own way. He asks people their names, and their stories. After his brush with political near-death, he is smiling, even laughing, more — and the results are infectious.


Smart move by the Kerry campaign.

[Algorem]

21. A loosened Kerry?He's fake-Irish,maybe he's fake-drunk.

[stickdog]

22. More hard hitting attacks on the obvious front-runner by the

New Whore Times!

Yep, the corporate media is sure tough on that ol' fornt-runner, ain't it?

:eyes: