Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

[Citizen-blogging by my cousin Jean Devine.]

This morning I attended a Kerry-in-the-flesh rally in Dover NH,
probably his last NH visit before the election.  I’m embarrassed
to admit that I’m new to this rally stuff, even though I’m a native of
NH and have lived just south of the border of this politically valuable
state for 22 years!

Confessions aside, because of my attendance, my proximity to the real
John Kerry and the empathy I felt with a whole bunch of earnest,
enthusiastic and “believing” supporters, my battery is fully charged
for the volunteering I’ll be doing during the homestretch and I’m
chanting with the rest of ‘em, “eight more days.”

Here are a few impressions:

As I walked past a live goat wearing a sweater saying, “Bush you’re
fired,” I began chatting with Tyler, a Dover High graduate from the
class of 1999.  Once inside, Tyler reminded me that this
auditorium has received a great deal of politicians’ attention over the
years, but the most memorable event for him was when Clinton
intentionally returned here in early 2001 to thank NH and especially
Dover for all the support it had given him over the past eight
years.   The speech ended with  Clinton’s reminder that,
“even though I won’t be President, I’ll always be with you until the
last dog dies.”

(Excuse the digression, but I couldn’t help but think that just
today,  Clinton is prancing around  Philadelphia, waiting for
Kerry to arrive at another rally where Kerry will unlikely get a strong
boost of support from one of the few still-living charismatic leaders
of the free world. I for one am happy that Clinton has put his
recuperation on hold this week!)

So, Tyler and I chatted with folks all around and joined in with chants
and refrains from “Love train” and “No Surrender” as we awaited the
Candidate.  On the bleacher side of the auditorium, the early
birds were flashing “Women for Kerry” signs. Sprinkled among these, a
big “Republicans for Kerry” caught my eye.   I hoped that
sign caught the cameras’ view finder, too.

Kerry arrived at 9:30.   He was accompanied by former
Governor Jean Sheehan and Wendy Thomas, a  Merrimack mom of six
who has been fervently campaigning for Kerry ever since her job was
outsourced.  Wendy commented that despite her many degrees, she’ll
probably need to be retrained, and as soon as she said that, the crowd
chanted “Retrain Bush, Retrain Bush.”

Wendy’s speech focused on the plight of
the “working poor” and her own example of feeling squeezed between
living on one paycheck and barely affording healthcare.  Indeed,
as she described the asthmatic illnesses of four of her children and
the challenges of affording the hospital, medicine, and doctor visit
costs on top of paying $13,000 for insurance, the audience sighed and
nodded when she said “we simply cannot afford to get sick.”

I thought for sure Wendy was presenting the crowd with the topic of the
day.  But then I realized with only seven days of airtime left for
Kerry and Bush, several topics will get attention daily.  And sure
enough, Kerry launched his speech with the current news, the New York
Times coverage on the IAEA report on the recent discovery that 350
metric tons of explosives have gone a-missing in  IRAQ. 
Kerry cited this as just another example of the President’s great
blunders with the  Iraq war, another example of how Bush failed to
do the basics when going to war with  Iraq.  He also reminded
us of how Rumsfeld downplayed looting back in April 2003.

Kerry took the opportunity to express that much to the contrary of what
Bush is saying about Kerry’s stance on  Iraq, “I’m not going to
run from this area.  But I will act responsibly.  We owe it
to the troops to be responsible and accountable.” (I’m quoting loosely
here as I did not have pen and paper in the auditorium.) And as Kerry
has said before, “We cannot do this alone.  We must bring to the
table those who have a strong concern in the outcome of  Iraq (and
I don’t mean Halliburton). We must bring in Middle Eastern countries
and  Europe.”

I was glad when Kerry shifted to domestic issues giving equal airtime
to jobs and innovation, healthcare and scientific research, taxes and
fiscal responsibility all areas that he promised would help the middle
class rise above being the working poor.

We still haven’t heard much about his environmental plans but hopefully
he’ll give time to those most pressing once he is elected.  Kerry
looked out to the audience with a grin and said, “I will be a president
who can do more than one thing at a time. We can fight the
war in Iraq, while bringing help to the middle class at home
and balancing the budget.  We can be fiscally responsible while
returning America to the times when under Clinton the U.S.
created 23 million jobs.”

As he concluded, Kerry told us about a supporter in Wisconsin who
assured the candidate that supporters had his back covered. Humbly he
thanked that supporter and our crowd while reminding us that this
election is about us…we’re in it to change the world back to something
that we all can believe in again, a land of hope, dreams and a strong
future. As he turned to leave, he promised to cover our backs and
lead us through this change. I hope he gets the chance.

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Thanks for this story, Jeannie, and for what you said in other email about “healing the blue-red divide.”

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