People on the site have been talking about the open policy of Kerry, compared to the Bush' cult events like
SIOUX CITY, United States (AFP) - President George W. Bush famously dislikes press conferences but has embraced "Ask President Bush" sessions packed with supporters at least as eager to pay tribute to him as get an answer.
..."Mr President, I don't have a question. I've got three 'thank-yous'," one man told him at such an event in Ohio.
...But would-be Bush hecklers face daunting obstacles: Loyalists handle giving out tickets to the event; home-made signs and banners are often forbidden; and in some cases access hinges on signing a loyalty oath.
"First priority goes to volunteers and supporters and then we reach out to people who are undecided and want to hear what the president has to say," according Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel.
The result is a friendly crowd eager to see the candidate they hope will win the November 2 election, while authorities banish protesters to heavily policed sidewalks blocks away.
In fact, the only question that left Bush briefly at a loss for words in Oregon came from a child who stumped him by asking why a school superintendent who "makes 200,000 dollars" would fire the school librarian.
"I can't answer your question why. But (First Lady) Laura (Bush) was a librarian, so maybe the superintendent ought to talk to the librarian, Laura. But, no, I don't know," the president said...
It looks like the Kerry campaign is hoping they can build momentum thru the size & scope of the crowds that come out. It may be working. The ZOGBY numbers show a growing lead, after what some on this site thought was a disastrous week. The campaign looks like it wants to compare its support to the bullshit above...
PORTLAND, Oregon -- By 9 a.m. on Friday, throngs of John F. Kerry supporters clogged the city center, blocking the garage where Julie Edwards parks for work. So rather than fight the crowd, the 41-year-old Republican joined it.
Four hours later, as the Democratic nominee was wrapping up his stump speech, Edwards finally made it through security. As she trudged toward the stage, it was not the candidate who amazed her but the massive crowd that turned out for him, even as President Bush was speaking just outside town.
"I've never seen anything like this," she said, surveying the more than 40,000 audience members. "This is going to make a real statement, a swing state turning out [for Kerry] like this, especially with Bush in town. I worry for Bush."
After worrying about their message, advertisements and grass-roots drive, the Bush campaign now has another concern on the horizon: the buzz generated by theatrical events, celebrity endorsements, and heavy supporter turnout on the other side, adding the glow of momentum to the Kerry campaign in a race that is locked in a statistical dead heat in most voter surveys.
Kerry, with the help of an occasional rock star joining him on stage, has sustained crowds into the tens of thousands since the convention in Boston, in a few instances clearly dwarfing the ticketed events President Bush tends to hold. Kerry, with fewer security concerns than a sitting president, can throw open his doors in ways Bush cannot, giving him a logistical advantage in building big audiences.
Crowd size can be an unreliable measure of how a campaign is progressing -- especially after a political convention that gave star billing to the candidate. But as the campaigns continue to chase each other from swing state to swing state, holding events within days -- or even hours -- of each other in the same media markets, the large crowds play to Kerry's advantage and generate a persistent story line in the local media wherever he goes: that the Kerry camp is more open to members of the public. And this, it is said, comes from both political parties.
To that end, Kerry campaign aides collect stories about closed Bush events from the local press, and gleefully celebrate stories about undecided voters turned away at the door. As all campaigns do, the Kerry staff keeps statistics -- and on occasion exaggerates them -- on the size of the crowds.
And the aides unabashedly add side attractions to lure audience members; on Friday, rock star Jon Bon Jovi and actor Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up with Kerry in Portland, instantly adding a level of glamour to his event. Across town, meanwhile, Bush was announcing new funding to deepen the Columbia River shipping channel, before holding an invitation-only rally with about 2,300 loyalists.
"In terms of buzz and intensity, you've got to remember that probably the campaign with the most buzz in terms of intensity and crowd size and the nexis with pop culture would be the Dean campaign," a Bush official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of the crowd sizes. "And so I don't know what that means."
Of course, former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who initially generated enormous buzz, saw his popularity melt away once Democrats began to cast primary votes. Nevertheless, each side works hard to demonstrate its popularity, by the few measures available. The Kerry campaign offers what it describes as concrete evidence they are on the move: By its count, 300,000 people saw the Kerry-Edwards tour from Boston to Portland over the past two weeks, the Kerry-Edwards book, "Our Plan for America," was downloaded 20,470 times from the campaign website, and a roster of 12,000 people signed up at events to volunteer for the campaign.
...Political strategists argue that local media coverage of a visit is more important than the sheer volume of guests at a given speech; anyone who bothers to attend a rally is likely to be a supporter already, whereas local coverage reaches voters who aren't yet decided. Furthermore, Republicans show enthusiasm in less visible ways than Democrats, according to a political analyst, Charlie Cook of the National Journal. "You see it more on the Democratic side," said, who has his own website. "I think that Democrats, liberals, tend to go see 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' while Republicans listen to Rush Limbaugh and go to [conservative website] freerepublic.com."
...The comparison has become the subject of more heated debate in recent weeks as the campaigns have played a cat-and-mouse game across the country, repeatedly crossing paths in swing states -- and important cities -- preventing either from fully monopolizing the news in a given media market.
Bush diverted his campaign bus in West Virginia two weeks ago to stop in Wheeling just ahead of Kerry, then followed him to Iowa several days later, and then last week trailed him to the West Coast, with stops in Los Angeles and Portland.
When the Bush and Kerry campaigns crossed paths several weeks ago in Davenport, Iowa, the appearance of momentum was reversed: Kerry held a closed business meeting with about 350 invited guests, while Bush appeared at a rally that drew at least 5,000.
And at Bush events that have sometimes seemed mixed on quantity -- such as a rally this month in Saginaw, Mich., that filled the seating in a sports arena but that left most of the event floor empty -- the crowds have more than compensated in quality, displaying wild enthusiasm with cheers that interrupt his speech every few sentences.
Maybe Kerry should keep his itinerary secret until the last possible moment? As further evidence the Bush people are scared of this, we have the chasing of Kerry around the country...