Kerry-Edwards in "whup-ass" mode at Ohio Rally.

[Kukesa]

I just returned from the MIDNIGHT RALLY in Springfield, Ohio, and things have certainly changed from the first time I heard John-John speak in Dayton on July 7.

The crowd was huge for a small, urban town in Ohio with a population of about 75,000; crowd estimated at around 10,000, and we were packed into the viewing area.

I had a BLUE ticket (given to volunteers) which allows access to the up-front area, and there was a huge video screen so that even people in the back could see the speakers.

After a few short speeches from local candidates, Kerry and Edwards took the stage while the crowd roared and waved signs that stated "A Stronger America" and "Vets for Kerry-Edwards."

Edwards spoke first and used the word "fight" many, many, times. He's a terrific speaker and if you ever get the chance to hear him speak, don't miss it.

When Kerry stepped up to the the podium the place went nuts; we were screaming and applauding -- he had to be impressed. From what he said tonight, I think the good guys have heard our message and are going to be aggressive. Kerry said he would no longer allow someone who didn't serve our country to attack him for his service in Vietnam, and noted Cheney's five draft deferments and Bush's short time in Alabama. He emphasized Bush's broken campaign promises; he spoke about job losses in Ohio, lack of health care, and cuts in education.

He addressed the Repuke convention and pointed out the attacks and viciousness of their speakers.

At this rally, both of our candidates were on the offense and their tone had changed from what I heard in July.

Kind of like we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore.

I liked what a heard tonight and you would have, too. HOPE IS ON THE WAY!!

[A_Possum]

1. A lot of things have changed since July

the timing of this is perfect.

[proud patriot]

18. The Timing Was Brilliant

a one two sucker punch out of the box .

Does bush play chess or risk ..It's all in the
strategy ..This was Brilliant IMO

[DenverDem]

2. Thanks for volunteering and being there. It looke GREAT on TV.

The gloves are off and Johnny K is proceeding to kick busholini's cowardly, lying, traitorous ass.

[enigmatic]

3. Thanks for this..

I love reading the first-person accounts. I watched the speech on C-Span 2; it was great..

[GimmeDANEger]

4. how many hecklers were present?

I could hear them in the background sometimes.

[Kukesa]

8. Don't know the count, but we heard them, too.

When we left the rally there were a few people holding signs and screaming "God will decide our next president" -- we told them they'd better start praying!!

There was another group of four holding hand-made "W" signs and we thanked them for coming; they were shocked.

Bunch of nuts, if you ask me.

[quaoar]

22. They were probably shocked

I'll bet they were expecting to be assaulted by gangs of homosexuals and then carried off to an abortion clinic.

[Arugula Latte]

48. LOL!

Yeah, and then they'd get a queer-eye makeover and get their free latte. That's the liberal way, ya know!

[PA Democrat]

25. I guess God decided upon Hitler too n/t

[Philostopher]

16. We left right away, and were in the 'white ticket' zone ...

which is to say the back of the crowd. To say there were 100-150 Bush* supporters outside would probably be an extravagantly generous estimation, though it is possible some left or were rousted out before we got to the gate. There were at least 10,000 people inside for the rally, and from what I understand there were still people outside when Edwards stepped up to the mic, they just stopped letting people in. The area was pretty much full from the stage to the gate.

[iconoclastic cat]

5. Hey, were there any anti-Kerry protestors, Protest Warriors, etc.?

And, were the screams for John Edwards as fevered as they sounded on C-Span?

[Kukesa]

9. You betcha! We love that man, Edwards, too.

As far as hecklers, I didn't see or hear any inside the area, but there were a few protesters waiting as we left. No big deal; they were a bunch of losers.

[iconoclastic cat]

13. Yes, Mrs. IconCat claims that there is a John Edwards exemption

written into our vows somewhere...I'll have to check...

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. What was the deal with

the shouts from individuals in the crowd. Were those heckers? There were a few times you could hear someone shouting something, and when it first happened Kerry's head popped up and look in that direction (while Edwards was speaking). It just seemed weird.

Loved his speech though! I was so pissed when Matthews cut away "because it's the President's night". NOT!!! Then I had to scramble and found it on CSPAN2...which apparently my cable provide decided to change the channel order AGAIN!

[Kukesa]

14. I didn't hear/see hecklers in the crowd and I had a good view.

There were lots of students (a welcome sight) and young people who sometimes began their own chants . . . even at inappropriate times. We'll forgive 'em -- if they vote.

I don't think a heckler would have had a chance with all the Teamsters, firefighters, and "big" guys around; they would have taken them down in no time.

[Philostopher]

7. Yeah, they both were definitely hitting on 'all eight' tonight.

Although I was more impressed by Eric Fingerhut as a speaker than I was by Kerry or Edwards -- I hadn't ever heard him before. It's a damned shame he doesn't get better media coverage, because he's a real barn-burner!

After hearing Kerry tonight, I can't help but wonder where Jon Stewart finds all the sound-bites that make him sound so laconic. He'll never seem as off-the-cuff and extemporaneous as, oh, say Bill Clinton or his own Veep candidate, but he seemed a lot more comfortable tonight than I expected.

Edwards is a good speaker -- but I'd seen him before, I'd seen some stump speeches during the primaries. He's always been a good speaker, always 'played to the audience.'

I did get a sense of 'the gloves are off,' from both of them. Good thing -- they have nothing to lose cutting loose, at this point, and calling lies what they are, as well as lost jobs, broken promises and evaporating jobs. That stuff sure played well in Springfield, not at all surprisingly.

[jmknapp]

26. Fingerhut

In the speechifying area, he was more than a bit too manic for my taste. Put the Dean Scream to shame! Course he had just finished a 400-mile walk or something, and was keyed up.

What a contrast to the grey Voinovich--a typical "quietly effective" Ohio Republican. Should have stayed mayor of Columbus.

[spooky3]

37. Cleveland, you mean?

[jmknapp]

39. whoops, yes, brain fade <eom>

[Carla in Ca]

10. Thanks Kukesa!

It was great watching it on CSPAN but getting the personal insight from someone who was there is priceless.
Anyone besides CSPAN there to cover it?
How is the state in the polls? Let us know the new polling in a few days. Hope there is a bump!

[VolcanoJen]

11. It looked GREAT on TV!!!

The crowd looked enormous! MSNBC carried the Edwards part live; CNN didn't join in until Kerry was finished with his introductory comments. C-SPAN 2 had the whole thing live, including the lengthy handshaking at the end.

Hey, mom... did you get your cooler autographed? :-)

[Kukesa]

15. My soon-to-be-famous cooler will be autographed tomorrow.

Yep, this is really a grass roots effort. This morning, one of the Kerry-Edwards advance men asked for more coolers, and I, of course volunteered two of mine. (Seems they both candidates like Diet Coke.)

In payment, I asked if I could get the coolers autographed and received a reply of "sure."

I'm waiting, patiently.

[spooky3]

38. That's great, Kukesa!!!!

[Kukesa]

44. No Autographs for My Coolers, However --

there was a half-full bottle of wine in one of them.

And silly me fell for the "Diet Coke" scam!

Oh well, after those speeches last night, they deserve a drink of wine!!

[Kukesa]

17. Duh! I didn't realize C-SPAN carried it. n/t

[VolcanoJen]

19. Personal accounts are so much more interesting!!!

We love C-SPAN, but we'd rather hear a first-person report!!

[spooky3]

35. I watched on C-Span2 until too sleepy--it was great!

It seemed on TV that the biggest crowd response came for comments on health care--numbers of people losing their coverage, numbers not covered, what J-J would do, etc.

It was a huge crowd of people of all ages packed tightly together, and I am sure that if it were held earlier in the day (I understand why it wasn't) tons of people from Dayton and Columbus would have joined them.

Thanks for a great first person report!

[T Town Jake]

12. It was an excellent pair of speeches...

...as a response to the RNC, and good timing too. Just IMHO as someone whom only saw it on C-span.

[War Pigs]

20. It made me smile after 4 days of being pissed off. Let the chimp-fucking

begin!!:toast:

[K8-EEE]

21. Thanks For Going, I Watched On TV! LOVED IT!

IT WAS WONDERFUL!

[cmd]

23. A crowd of that size in Springfield says

WE ARE GOING TO WIN! Kerry has been drawing huge crowds all across the state. These are not crowds of special people, with special invitations from the party, but people who are campaigning for Kerry and people who just drop by to see what he is about. No one is turned away until the venue is full. This is mainstream America; and we want a new president.

Thank you for your report. Hope you and your cooler have a great day!

[AngryOldDem]

30. Yep -- This Is A GOOD Sign, Folks!

The people in and around Springfield (including the Dayton metro area) are Kerry's "base." They have been hurt, and hurt badly, by the economy.

It's becoming questionable if Ralph Nader will get on the Ohio ballot. We should find out soon. If he doesn't, Kerry's job in taking Ohio just got a lot easier.

[jmknapp]

24. Hecklers

I was in the back of the crowd not far from where the hecklers evidently were, about 100 feet further back outside the perimeter. Every once in a while we would hear a faint "four more years" immediately swamped out by "no more Bush!" So it sounded more like spontaneous Kerry supporter outbursts, and was kind of confusing at first until you figured out what was happening. No big deal, but I was kind of wishing the "no more Bush" people would shut up, because the Bush people could hardly be heard anyway, and the response tended to amplifly the disruption.

By the time I left perhaps some of the Bush people had gone, but I saw nowhere near 100 of them. They were surrounded by maybe 100 screaming Kerry people though.

Can't say as I liked the vitriolic responses like chants of "F*ck Bush!" though. Also, I saw a Kerry supporter, a young woman, violently strike the Bush placard out of a 15-year-old girl's hands.

From what I've seen of confrontations of Bush/Kerry sides at these events, the Kerry people could do a lot better arguing rationally with them, rather than screaming. All the Bush people have are GOP talking points with no depth to them, easily debunked. Yet brainless cries of "fascist" or whatever don't do the job.

There were several people working the crowd trying to get signatures for an anti-gay marriage petition of all things. I told one of them, "I have gay friends, if I sign that they'll disown me. Don't you have any gay friends?" She scrunched up brow for a second and said, "I don't think so. But it's against the Bible." I replied, "That's fine for you, but what you have is a petition trying to enforce your religion on other people." She moved on. The GOP is simply of party of bigots.

PS Those absolutely huge hand-held Kerry-Edwards signs were great. Maybe 10 feet wide by 5 feet high, carried by groups of four people.

[snippy]

27. Kerry always should point out that anyone who did that at a Bush rally

would be arrested. Under Bush it now is illegal in America to protest in the presence of the Leader.

[Philostopher]

41. There weren't any hecklers inside the square

that Kerry could have heard. We had some over-enthusiastic young men around us who were shouting Kerry chants and 'no more wars' at the wrong times, like when people were speaking, but they usually just repeated it a few times and then settled down. We couldn't tell what the Bush* folks outside were shouting, so I'm pretty sure Kerry couldn't hear it, ten thousand people and almost a city block away.

The Bush* folks didn't make it in at all. Hell, I heard there were still people lined up a block and a half or so outside the square when Kerry got to the mic, so I'm sure the sheer number of people who actually wanted to hear him was enough to keep any disruptors out.

We spoke with people from Columbus, Cincinnati and Butler County (not sure where they were from, we talked to them on the shuttle back out to Clark State). There was a group of high school students on the shuttle out from Clark, I'm always happy to see young kids.

The crowd was approximately as diverse as the demographics of Dayton-Springfield, too -- I saw a lot of 'Veterans For Kerry' shirts and pins on men's hats, too. Lots of younger people (and by that, I mean too young to vote yet!) which is always a good sign.

[faithnotgreed]

45. jm - you make fine points here, thanks for your post & involvement!

[cmf]

28. I watched it

It was only 9:00 where I live. I was amazed that he was able to draw 10,000 people at midnight. My husband said, "You know, the media might not be covering it, but the word is spreading. Person to person."

[jmknapp]

29. crowd of 10,000

The main problem in assembling big crowds these days is the security checkpoints. I overheard a security person saying that each metal detector line could process 400 people per hour. I.e., about 9 seconds per person. There were about seven lines so that's 2800 people per hour. The gates were open for three hours (9pm to midnight) so that's 8400 people, and there were throngs unfortunately still in line when they shut the gates and Kerry started speaking. Those shut out were then allowed to observe from outside the perimeter.

As it was, the assembly area was essentially full. They maybe could have put another thousand in.

[Kukesa]

31. Crowd of 15,000 reported in this morning's newspaper.

Link here for the "Dayton Daily News" account of the midnight rally:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0903kerry.html

[Kukesa]

32. Great photos in the above link. n/t

[jmknapp]

33. 15,000 tickets

The article says that 15,000 tickets were handed out. the next question is how many came!

Joe

[Kukesa]

34. I'd say all of 'em!

When we left (a little early) there were still people outside who couldn't get in; they stood patiently and tried to see the big-screen TV.

And from my vantage point, I could see more and more people being allowed into the "blue" area; we were packed like sardines and it was wonderful!!

[MoonRiver]

36. I'm watching it again this morning. C-SPAN 2

It gets even better the second time! :loveya:

[noamnety]

40. c-span has it online now

if you search for kerry in the video search, and sort by date, it pops up. (If there was a link on the homepage I didn't find it)

[cthrumatrix]

42. kick for an excellent speech

[jmknapp]

43. Windows Media clip of speech

Here's a short clip of some of the video I took last night at the rally:

Kerry in Springfield, Ohio (9MB zipped Windows Media file)

Point of view from the peanut gallery.

[faithnotgreed]

46. thanks for the insider scoop. youre sure working hard for the good guys!

[jmknapp]

47. Keeping one step ahead of the Bushies

Heard a little backstory from Springfield locals while we were waiting in line. The rally was originally going to be held on the other side of the big building, but Bush supporters had heard this and had hung large Bush banners from businesses surrounding the planned rally area.

So the Kerry people switched to the other side. Slick! No Bush banners in sight.

Another thing I noticed. There were several very large (8'x4') Kerry/Edwards signs that were carried around by groups of about 4 people and would pop up at various points in the crowd from time to time. I didn't think much of it at the time, other than be annoyed because they blocked my view of the stage sometimes.

On reviewing the videotapes later though, I can see that the big signs were held up in front of scattered groups of people holding Bush/Cheney signs, to block their view. Very slick as well!

A person near me asked one of the people holding a big sign where she could get one. The guy said, "They travel with the campaign."