I saw John Kerry today at the La Raza conference in Phoenix

[NMDemDist2]

he was awesome. The speech was on, he was engaged and thoughtful(one guy told me it was much better than the speech this morning in Chicago)

He laid out a reasonable, workable plan dealing with illegal immigration, spoke on education and when he said "if I win"

The crowd screamed "WHEN you win"

He smiled sweetly and said "I feel good about the election, but if I say it they will call me arrogant" and then a goofy grin---- The crowd was on it's feet and ROARED

great day!

[olddem43]

1. Despite all the RW crap --

Kerry is a great speaker. And doesn't need written copy or a TelePrompter either. I saw him in Cincinnati and he was very impressive. (got to shake his hand too)

[JI7]

2. he did that during the primary also "if i win"

and he would say it in a way where he kind of smiles and knows the audience will respond with a huge WHEN . and as you said,he would talk about how he feels good but that we still need to work hard to make sure we win.

[emulatorloo]

3. Kerry is so NOT BORING!!!! He can fire up a crowd. . .

while it doesn't come across as well on TV, he is working on that and it is getting better. . . . . .

[NMDemDist2]

4. yes he is much improved, and this crowd was close to 4000 n/t

[Darkamber]

5. Excellent...did he have a big crowd? Much play?

I'm orginally from Phoenix and so I was curious how big a crowd he got and how well it has played in the papers and TV.

Do you have any feel for it? Is there any hope that Arizona will turn for Kerry?

[NMDemDist2]

7. around 4000, all the news trucks were here and had live feeds

going out at 5PM, also AZ polls are within the margin of error

we went for Clinton in 96 and America Comes Together has an office here, Kerry has people here and will have over 30 staffers here within the month

we are seriously in play :P

[Darkamber]

10. Excellent! Great to hear that...

I know that even some of the McCain Republicans are not pleased with Bush. It would be great to get AZ. Keep up the good work!

[Leilani]

6. What was his plan for dealing with illegal immigration?

Bush has been fighting for Hispanic votes, but the Repubs have blocked his worker program.

[NMDemDist2]

8. he had some good stuff, see this for the positions he supports

http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/immigration/

on edit, he said he was working all over America to make an immigrant the First Lady of the USA, got a huge response from that :)

[Leilani]

9. Thanks AZ Dem...

I have read all his positions...just wondering if there was anything new or different.

[Dr Fate]

11. He has really become quite the campaigner...

I saw him about 9 months ago during the primaries in San Francisco-

I have to admit that while he was saying the right things on the issues- his presentation was uninspired...

I did shake his hand, I'm proud to say!

Fastforward to now- He's looking & sounding good!!!

[JI7]

12. he was slowed down by the prostate cancer thing

after his treatment he went right back out there. his wife said he should have taken some time to rest. and he probably should have. but since the primary was still some time away he had time to get back on track again.

[Dr Fate]

13. Well, he's doing great now...

...steady improvement is all I've seen...

[liberalpragmatist]

14. haha, funny, I thought his morning speech was good

Nothing that had me glued to the set, but it was very competent, intelligent, perfectly listenable presentation. I'm just not that into long speeches - I tend to lose concentration and am much better at reading then listening :) But that's great that he was EVEN BETTER in Arizona.