Kerry to campaign in Wisconsin on Tuesday

[Mass]

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/309144

EXT BIG CAMPAIGN EVENT: Four years after he drew 80,000 people (with a little help from Bruce Springsteen) to a Madison rally where he urged Wisconsinites to vote early for him, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry will return to town to urge Wisconsinites to vote early for someone else: Obama.

An early and enthusiastic Obama backer this year, Kerry will appear Tuesday at a "Vote EARLY for Change Rally" with Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.

The rally will be followed by what the Obama camp describes as "a march to the Madison City Clerk's office to vote early for Senator Barack Obama!"

Here are rally details:

Tuesday, Oct. 14th 3:30pm

Madison Capitol Square

(State Street Entrance)

2 E. Main St.

To attend, RSVP to:

via e-mail: [e-mail]

by phone: [phone]

on the Web: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gs5yqt

[Luftmensch067]

1. I'm so proud of him!

I saw that he will be doing the same thing at the U of Wisconsin Oshkosh campus on Tuesday, too. I think it epitomizes everything that's best about this campaign -- empowerment and hope and a refusal to give in to apathy and despair. Yay for JK!

[globalvillage]

2. He's going to Iowa on Wed.

http://iowa.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/gs5l8r

[JI7]

3. nice to see he can focus on helping Obama again

with the stupid primary and fake candidate out of the way.

[Noisy Democrat]

4. I agree *but*

I think there was value in O'Reilly's motivating JK to campaign all over MA. It's true that O'Reilly himself was more of a heckler than a serious candidate, and I share the low opinion of his "campaign" that everyone has expressed. But it was great for JK to get out to these little towns. I know he does some of that anyway -- e.g. last week he did a tour of local businesses in Greenfield, which was not a campaign event but a matter of Senate business, and he does that kind of thing in non-election years (touring a factory that's closing or the site of a fire, etc.). But people in these towns were so glad to see him; it was good he got out there more than usual.

[karynnj]

6. I agree and it also looked like he enjoyed it

I suspect the general election campaign will be just the same - Kerry talking to people in MA, almost ignoring Beatty other than to answer any semi-legitimate questions. O'Reilly, even with the fact that he did not have a past to stand on, was smarter than Beatty. I don't know how many in MA heard his complete overreaction to the Yankee fan comment(that almost seemed like a parody of the worst of Republican responses - well beyond McCain saying he didn't have a house for 5 1/2 years), but I would imagine the response would bring laughter -- and the recognition that he was not a native of MA. Bridget O'Rourke was brilliant to throw those words out - because he totally took the bait.

[ProSense]

5. Kerry has been Obama's best and most

consistent surrogates.

[ginnyinWI]

7. He was also scheduled to be in Milwaukee at 9 a.m., Red Arrow park.

Also for an early voting push. It's a beautiful day here for a park rally--a little chilly but the sun is shining brightly.

[TayTay]

8. So, how did it go?

Were you able to go to this Ginny?

[fedupinBushcountry]

9. Here is some video

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/30886424.html?video=pop&t=a

[karynnj]

10. Nice coverage there

It looks like there was a nice size crowd for this best of all surrogates.

[ginnyinWI]

11. no I couldn't go--will check the local news and let you know. nt

[ladym55]

12. Here's some coverage from Madison

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/top5/309539

We were just in Wisconsin this weekend visiting our son. Madison is definitely with the program, but Oshkosh not so much. We saw lots of McCain-Palin signs up that way. I'm so glad JK went up there and talked with the people.

[beachmom]

13. DailyKos diary about the event:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/15/01120/502/748/630827

After an introduction by a local super volunteer (I'm terribly sorry, I didn't catch her name) Senator John Kerry took the stage. At this point I must take a moment to say that John Kerry's campaign and subsequent loss are why I got involved in politics. I must say, I didn't recognize the man on that stage. If he had this much charisma and humor when he ran in '04, history would have recorded a much different story. Or maybe his wit just doesn't carry on television that well.

Kerry started with the boilerplate surrogate speech, outlining the stakes, and that there's only 21 days left before the big day. (Author's Note: ONLY 21 days left? After so long this is really coming up fast) He then segued into something I wasn't sure he was going to talk about: his 04 run. But, it wasn't a maudlin moment of self-reflection. He poignantly related his run, and the circumstances the country was in, to the current race. The stakes are higher, now and he made it clear that we understood that.

Pics at the link.

[beachmom]

14. Oh, I love this post:

After running some errands this morning, I remembered vaguely an email from the Obama compaign about voting early. I opened my laptop, and saw John Kerry was in town, promoting that very thing. I figured I had an hour before my next meeting, and so drove to downtown Milwaukee, ten minutes form my office. Granted, I had to giggle to myself about the fact that we met in Red Arrow park, in front of Starbucks, so there was - quite literally - a crowd of “latte drinking liberals” waiting to vote. And I admit the sign calling all Republicans liars, and the gentleman holding it screaming that that party was responsible for an “inside job” on 9/11, made even me, a die-hard liberal, uncomfortable (oh yeh, THAT’S gonna win over undecideds. Idiot.). Even still, I couldn’t help but get emotional, watching this amazing war hero, who was trampled on for his service in 2004, promote who will likely be America’s first black president, and first great president in some time. I’d been an expat for 8 years, watching from a distance with horror on 9/11 and the wars that followed. And so after just moving back, being in a crowd of individuals that care this much about what happens next, gave me a rush of enthusiatic patriotism and pride I hadn’t anticipated when I woke up this morning. John Kerry is a great man; and neither he nor I can wait until we call Barack Obama our president.

http://itp.nyu.edu/alumniblender/2008/10/14/i-voted-early-john-kerry-for-obama-in-milwaukee/