Taking a few days out from his own Senate re-election campaign in Massachusetts, John Kerry has been traveling throughout Wisconsin and Iowa in order to get the early vote out and fire up volunteers. This is part of the larger Obama strategy to lock in as many votes now in all of the states that have early voting. What has been interesting about Kerry's appearances and interviews with the local press is his message that no one should take anything for granted. This is not the time to celebrate, but to get to work. In Madison, he put it bluntly, and I consider it a warning we should all take seriously.
Kerry dismissed a poll released Tuesday that showed Obama opening a commanding 17-point lead over Sen. John McCain in Wisconsin.
"I don't believe in any polls at all. In fact, polls terrify me, whether they show you're up or down," he said. "They're snapshot indicators that reflect who's asking the questions and how they're asking them. The only poll that counts is on Election Day."
Now this is not your standard handwringing for handwringing's sake. John Kerry knows what he is talking about. And I think his combination message of optimism for our future with Barack Obama as our President coupled with a stern warning that nothing is sewn up yet is a good one for activists in the field. The mayor of Madison forced us to remember the hope we felt in 2004:
Speaking before Kerry, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz urged the crowd to think back on "how much hope there was in the air" during Kerry's 2004 campaign rally in the city.
"Think about how different our country would be if John Kerry had won that election," he said, saying Kerry would have prevented the financial crisis and ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He added, "Now think how you felt that Wednesday after the election ... We need to make sure this time we get it right."
At the centerpiece of this reality check, is the early voting strategy. It doesn't just lock in those votes, but does even more:
"We've learned historically that the more we got people voting early, the more they were invested, the more it spills over to their neighbors and friends," Kerry said after the Milwaukee rally. "Last time there were long lines, which can deter first-time voters, or they have jobs and can't stay. We want to guarantee maximum turnout."
As the Milwaukee Sentinel aptly put about Kerry's appearance in downtown Milwaukee:
Indeed, Kerry also could be a case study for why each vote is important.
Speaking to several hundred supporters of Democratic nominee Barack Obama in downtown Milwaukee, Kerry reminded rally attendees that the last election turned on one state: Ohio, which President Bush won by about 59,000 votes.
"We’re not going to let that happen this time, folks," Kerry said, later adding: "Let’s go vote and get the job done."
We in Georgia have taken this advice to heart, and the early voting especially among African Americans has been truly astounding. Still, in states where the polls are still in a toss up range, this is doubly true. The one piece of concrete info that makes me think we can overcome any problems going foward is the fact the GOP's ground game is a bit behind the curve ball:
Kerry held similar rallies Tuesday in Oshkosh, Madison and Mineral Point. Other Democrats, including Gov. Jim Doyle, also have headlined vote-early rallies.
Republicans have not used that strategy, instead focusing on a massive mail effort to get supporters of nominee John McCain to request absentee ballots and vote by mail.
That effort has drawn complaints from Democrats because some of the mailings had bad addresses for local clerk’s offices. The state GOP said it was unintentional.
Whoops. Anecdotally, I can tell you I received a mailing from the RNC to my new address in Georgia containing .... an absentee ballot for Virginia. I still can't figure out what they were thinking there.
I am really pleased to see our 2004 nominee, and #1 surrogate for Obama, traveling around in battleground states delivering this important message. Kerry also made a great appearance on Rachel Maddow last night, where he was the first Democrat that I am aware of to mention the fact that McCain's transition team leader was a lobbyist for Saddam Hussein. It starts at 3:28. Enjoy:
And finally, on the legislative front, Kerry's bill that outlaws propaganda coming out of the Department of Defense, was signed into law:
Kerry Measure To End Wartime Propaganda Becomes Law
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kerry today announced that President Bush signed into law Kerry’s legislation to prohibit the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) from funding propaganda. The measure was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2009.
"With confidence in Washington at an all-time low, the American people should not have to wonder whether the ‘non-partisan, expert’ analysis they see on television might have been shaped by a government propaganda campaign," said Sen. Kerry. "It’s essential to make sure the public’s money isn’t used for propaganda campaigns that undermine the public trust."
In April, Sen. Kerry called for an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) into the DOD’s covert efforts to cultivate military analysts with distinguished service records to produce favorable press coverage of the Bush Administration’s wartime policies in Iraq and elsewhere.