Day Four of DNC 04-Contd
Kerry Speech

I thought Vanessa and Alexander Kerry did a great job. I had watched Vanessa on the campaign trail during the primaries and she was very effective. In fact, the Kerry-Heinz family has been very effective for Kerry-

Chris Heinz--good looking, articulate, very intelligent, extremely well versed on policy and effective. He clearly has a political future, but he comes across as sincere. Remember that his dad and mom were Republican, so he has no inherent dislike of Republicans. I hope he runs for the Senate seat in PA, maybe he can unseat Santorum (I am trying to tone down the beam on face, uplifted at the thought) someday.

Vanessa & Alexander--great, great, great. They are not polished political pros but have excellent communication skills and they speak from the heart. Their presentations i think are so effective, I think that they can make a difference among young people. One thing that is interesting, they are not afraid to say when they disagree with their dad. For instance they disagree with their dad on the gay marriage issue. I think this speaks volumes as to the sincerity of their presentation.They did a great job introducing Kerry. I think their presentations single-handedly got Kerry over the humanity threshhold.

I liked the short film about Kerry, although I don't think it quite captured the inherent danger of his Vietnam missions. Swift boats were turned from basic coastal and riverine patrols to assault riverine warfare craft, even though they were not made for that. The boat was basic aluminum that got shot up all the time, They did not have heavy gun, their engine was so loud, you could hear it miles away. Yet they were sent deep into enemy territory to "show the flag" and draw enemy fire. It was so bad that many swift boat crew members wondered why didn't the superiors just fax the VietCong a schedule of the patrols--their missions just about amounted to that. A study showed that their risk of death was about 75%, it was as close to suicide missions as you could get.

I thought the introduction of Kerry's crewmates went very well and set a good tone. Max Cleland was also great. He wasn't at his best, but he was effective. When he introduced Kerry in South Carolina during Kerry's official campaign kick off, he was much more lose, funny and punchy. I think he did a great job, though. Hopefully, he senate loss and the story behind that would get out. Saxby Chambliss ran against Cleland and in his negative attack ads, aided by the RNC, they morphed Cleland's face into that of Osama bin Laden and called him unpatriotic. How on earth? Here'a man of left three limbs on the blood soaked hills of Vietnam for his country, and the RNC called him unpatriotic simply because he wanted Homeland security workers to have rights.

Kerry's speech was a home run. When he started I was so nervous that I couldn't clap much. It was interesting because, even though he was the man of the hour, his entrance wasn't necessarily more electrifying than Clinton's, Obama, or Edwards. I think everyone was so nervous and wanted to get the speech going. However, a couple of minutes into the speech, I loosened up as did everyone else. Kerry was clearly in a rhythm and he was setting up for a great speech.

It was an interesting blend of personal history and policy and I'm glad he took the time to do both. If he had missed out on anyone of those, there would have been complaints. It was excellent and it was written by Kerry himself. When he was done, we all knew it--home run!

Kerry succeded in presenting himself and the Democratic party as a valid and credible option to Bush. He may not have taken people over the top, but he set the stage. For one, he appeared presidential. When people see him further in the debates, I think they'll come to trust him very deeply. He is nothing if not competent, trustworthy and common sensical.

One thing that I was upset about was that it took too long to get Edwards and the families out. I thought that whole thing should have happen much quicker. We all know about the balloons. I actually thought that the slow pace of balloon release was by design, so that the balloons last longer, but thanks to CNN, we know better.

The convention was a success, no question. The party made gains, the question is if we can withstand the withering negativity and dourness of the Republican party hacks. While the Democrats preached hope, Cheney has been going around preaching fear of another terrorist attack. I hope people embrace the hope and freshness of the Democratic party.

There ended my adventures in Boston at the DNC2004.

I am glad that I went. I normally eschew these things because I dislike political events and speeches. The reason I was an alternate delegate was because when delegates were needed on the Maryland ballot, Kerry's slide in the primaries had begun in earnest and there were not enough Kerry delegates. Kerry maryland supporters then got an email asking everyone to go out and register in Annapolis as delegate for Kerry at the MD board of elections and so I did it and would you know, Kerry won Maryland, so voila!

So even though, I'm not a fan of attending events like this, I would much rather have parked infront of CSPAN, I was very happy to go because of how I feel about Kerry. In my lifetime there is no president that has inspired me. I have liked some and was a supporter of Clinton. In Kerry I am inspired. If you looked at all the candidates in the Democratic primary and even at the current president, you'll note that with the exception of Edwards, they were all fixers and managers. They wanted fix and manage things. The thing about Kerry that has had me excited from the start is that he has a vision. As a sci fi writer, I often think about the future and I wonder if we'll ever get there-to that world we often read about or watch in sci fi movies and I concluded we need a bold and visionary president for that to happen. That president is Kerry.

John Kerry is not simply a fixer or manager, he has a vision. he is the type of president that no only wants to make sure that we are solid now, he is the type to think ahead and ask what and where do we want to be as a nation in 2035, in 2056, in 2078? and how do we get there. We are in the 21st century and as yet, we have no vision of this century. The current president had no vision when he came into office and the only thing driving him now is a war on terror which he is bungling. It is pathetic that America hasn't presented a 21st century vision to the world, somethng that we can hope for and aspire to. John Kerry has a vision to lead this country to a new baseline. With Kerry we can dare to dream again, we can hope and more importantly we can dream and ask "why not?"