This is reposted from my new politics blog at
threeguys.blogspot.com.
I spent seven hours standing in the blistering sun today to see John Kerry and John Edwards at the "Welcome Home, John!" rally at NC State University today. I'm pretty sure it was worth it, though my girlfriend's already made it very clear to me that she won't be attending any more political rallies. But even she half-admitted that it was good to hear John Kerry speak.
A lot of people treat John Kerry like he's the booby prize of the primaries, the guy we got stuck with when all the new hotnesses fell through. It's silly. John Kerry is the real deal. Forget all the trumped-up worries about Kerry being overshadowed by his VP; Edwards is truly a magnificent speaker ('12! '12!), but Kerry can more than hold his own. His speech was organized around the notion that "I share your values. Not the forced values that divide us, but the shared values that unite us." It's a damn good speech. He ended by quoting the Langston Hughes poem that has quite rightly become the keynote of his campaign.
I don't see how anyone could listen to these speakers and assert that Democrats are the party of pessimism. All of the people I heard spoke about possibility and promise. That's the whole point of Kerry's campaign, that we might be better than we are.
Jaimee was pretty taken with Teresa Heinz Kerry, too.
I'm very glad I went. I feel confident, I feel hopeful, and I feel electrified.