Kerry rally in KC last evening...

[Neecy]

I went to the Kerry rally in Kansas City last night, and a couple of points ---

It was held in a hangar at the downtown airport, and 2,000 Missourians showed up for it - a pretty packed house. The gates opened at 4:30, and despite the fact that Kerry didn't arrive until about seven the crowd remained upbeat (which was helped by Kerry workers throwing thunder sticks, t-shirts and other stuff into the crowd).

Both ends of the hangar were open, and after Kerry's new 757 landed the crowd went wild when the nose appeared and his plane pulled up to an open end. Lots of energy, a huge chant of "KERRY" as he disembarked.

Nancy Farmer - our candidate for Kit Bond's senate seat this year - gave a great introductory speech. Kerry was on fire and his speech was a thousand times more energized than when I saw him at one of his primary rallies here in April. What an amazing presence he has.

What really impressed me, though, is that he doesn't change his speech according to his audience. Here, in the middle of the bible belt, he called for a reaffirmation of the separation of church and state and said that the Bush administration had crossed the line. This got a huge supportive roar from the crowd, which pleased me. I love Democrats. We ARE the voice of sanity in this country now.

He asked us to help him carry Missouri, to go out and talk to friends, to tell them the TRUTH in light of the lies that are abundant in the Bush ads (he really tore into those ads), to register voters, and bring Missouri home to the Democratic party. This brought a huge roar from the crowd.

I got home around ten and flipped on the news - this is hysterical - they covered the Kerry rally pretty extensively, and then switched to a Veterans for Bush rally that was held simultaneously at a local VFW - and about half a dozen people were there! It reminded me of the sad spectacle of ten freepers and a dog who showed up for the counter-demo at the DC war protest.

A great night, lots of energized Democrats in Missouri! I have some digital photos, I'll post them over in the Missouri forum later today.

[Maat]

1. Thanks for this. This Californian really enjoyed this post!

n/t

[onehandle]

2. The dog was anti-war.

Don't blame the dog, He voted for Gore.

[blm]

4. LOL.

The dog sense is with us.

[DeadHead67]

3. My Brother and Sister-in-Law were there. . .

And my other Brother is doing sound for a rally today in Independence Missouri. I'm waiting for a report from them. Thanx for this one!

[heidiho]

5. Saw him in Green Bay last week and agree with

all of your points. He is amazing in person. I don't see that presence come through on TV because they seem to pick and choose their clips. He comes across as honest, articulate and passionate.
He used NO cards, teleprompter or podium and he had the crowd going wild!

I loved seeing him.

[woofless]

6. All that and Gates' barbecue.

What's not to love?

[catmandu57]

7. We were there also

I was standing next to the media and kept my ears open, I talked with advance people from the Kerry campaign as well. According to them they gave out 14,000 tickets to get into the rally, many of them double entries like ours. At one point they, (the Kerry staff) were talking to the Kansas City media and put the attendance at 20,000+. I believe there was close to that number watching people still trying to get in as the rally was beginning.