Watching the speech tonight and reading all of the comments made me wonder if Kerry's true victory tonight was not in convincing undecided, but energizing his base.
I am one of those Dean supporters who worked their asses off in the Primaries. I am talking 20 to 40 hours a week outside of my full time job and family obligations. When Kerry ran away with it, you can understand that I was disappointed and slightly deflated, and I told myself that I needed a break before I started working for Kerry, but I couldn't quite bring myself to get back into it, even after some time off.
I have been working on some local primary campaigns, and to defeat a Hate Amendment here in MO, but really nothing for Kerry. I sent him some money, but didn't go down to Volunteer or return some of the phone calls from the local campaign who had heard of my work for Dean. I lied to myself that it would be different after the Primaries, but deep down I knew that I just wasn't excited about a Kerry Presidency.
After tonight, I am sold.
We have primaries on Tuesday but after that, I am focusing on Kerry, Farmer and the Governorship.
So again I ask, was the real victory tonight to get us excited and ready for the push to November. Anyone else out there feel that way?
(p.s. My first Diary - hope I did it right.)