John Kerry shook my hand and signed my hat at a rally on Monday

[Wetzelbill]

He's an accesible guy. I went to a few Dean rallies and he seemed like more of a rock star. Just came in, did his thing, shook a hand or two and went out. Not that Dean's style is bad or anything, it was just nice to see Kerry stick around after the rally and, shake hands and give out autographs the whole time. His "last man standing" approach is working well for him.

A quick story about the rally.

My younger brother finagled his way past the barrier and got to hang out with Kerry for ten minutes. My brother is going into the Marines and had a Marine sweatshirt on. Kerry told him "Semper Fi", shook his hand, hugged him and autographed his hat for him, then let my brother go grab mine and do the same thing. As Kerry started to make his way through the crowd he turned back and waved my brother on to follow him as he made his rounds. It was pretty cool. Eventually I got close enough to shake his hand, but my brother definitely got a better campaign story then me. Last Saturday, he got onstage with Howard Dean and shook his hand too. Little jerk was on all the news shows on Sunday as excerpts of Dean's speech from that day was shown and he was standing behind Dean the whole time. I was teasing him that he made it on "Face The Nation" and "Meet The Press" long before I'll ever get the chance.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. Kerry is very good at "pressing the flesh"

this is how he revived himself in Iowa.

[liberalnurse]

9. That sounds very offensive.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Thanks for sharing your revealing story about meeting John Kerry.

I wish your brother well in his service in the Marine Corps.

[Wetzelbill]

13. You're welcome and thank you, as well

[JI7]

3. he tries to get one on one contact

as much as he can. it sucks later when there are so many states voting and not enough time to do it. but he does as m uch as he can. his campaign is pretty good at answering questions which they didn't have time to do through email later on also. they just ask people to write down the question and email so they can contact them later.

i'm sure more will be later written about kerry in iowa, but this was a very large part of his campaign. just meeting p eople and answering as much of their questions as he can. at that time there weren't many asking for autographs though. it was just p eople with problems or other questions they wanted solutions and answers to.

[Name removed]

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[Ficus]

7. no that is a lie

I watched all of these candidates at events since January 2003 (some even earlier) and just observing Kerry here in Iowa, there is no basis for your claim. And yes, that is a big reason for Kerry's success here.

Oh wait, it must have been his connections to all of his fellow Skull and Bonesmen here in Iowa!!! </sarcasm>

on edit: Dean was great in a room too. Actually, he was the first candidate I was turned on to because of his dynamic small group presence. Then I discovered Dennis K....

[Wetzelbill]

11. I voted for Dennis but I missed him when he was here

[meegbear]

8. Really?

You were there and personally saw him not meet with this person? Such a lie.

[Wetzelbill]

10. Yeah, it's a lie because I was at two Dean rallies when he left right away

and I just decided to lie about shaking Kerry's hand to sound cool. That's what I do. I compulsively lie to people all the time. I'm sure you were there watching me at all three events to prove my worthless misleading nature.

I never said Dean didn't ever stay in rooms or that Kerry never went right for the door. It just so happens that when I was there this is what happened. I take serious offense to being called a liar. I have no tolerance for it whatsoever. Maybe I'm being unfair by getting so pissed, but you owe me an apology.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. Thanks for the story

Montana is so underpopulated and votes so late I wonder if the candidates will ever make it here.

[Wetzelbill]

12. Yeah, I know, I'm originally from Cut Bank

I go to college at the University of Arizona. My litte brother just came down here to Tucson this month and he was freaked out to even be in the same state as Howard Dean, haha. Then he got to meet Dean and Kerry - his two favorite guys- and it blew him away. It was fun.

[TheDonkey]

6. I've seen him mingle on C-Span

and he looked pretty casual and friendly. Trying to hug and shake hands with everyone.