Yesterday, The rimrocker family went to see Kerry and Edwards in Las Vegas, NM. This event was part of their whistle-stop train ride across the country. The Setting: Las Vegas, NM is the heart of San Miguel County, a Dem bastion that went 71% for Gore and is reflective of Northern New Mexico. The big Dem turnout is needed here to balance out the larger GOP numbers in southern NM and the Albuquerque suburbs. The 2000 election went to Gore by a few hundred votes. Don't expect it to be that close this year. Bill Richardson is our new governor and more importantly, is also the Patron of NM. I like him much less now that he's my Governor, but there is no way the machine he's put together allows the Bush campaign much of a chance in NM. While the voting over the past few years has been about 50/50, the populace is majority Dem and the Richardson ground game is already working hard at getting the vote out. The Congressional side is 2-1 in favor of the GOP, but the longtime GOP Rep. from Southern NM is retiring and Heather Wilson, whose District includes the Albuquerque suburbs and some ranching communities, would have been defeated twice by now if a Green candidate had stayed on the sidelines. This means the Bushies have to campaign here... not because they expect to win NM (whatever you may hear on the TV), but because if they don't bump their turnout there's a good chance the House delegation will go from 2-1 in their favor to 0-3. Neither Senator, Domenici (R) or Bingaman (D), has a race this year. The Las Vegas rally was held in front of the historic RR Depot. (If you've never been to Las Vegas, NM, you should make an effort if you're in the area... it's a a pretty cool little town... lots of historic architecture and some good antique shops.) We got there about 5:15 for the 6:30 start. Listened to a bunch of local politicos and Tom Udall, our Congressman. Also a few rousing salutes to the 720th, which arrived home from Iraq just a few hours before. Then we were entertained by some local talent for awhile. In the interim, people kept streaming in. The line to get in at 5:15 was about 3 blocks long. Thankfully my wife had connections and we got to go through the VIP checkpoint, which only took about 20 minutes. I was a bit surprised at the security. It was heavy in regards to the cops and Secret Service, but surprisingly light on our attendee security. We all got a cursory wanding and a few questions from the SS guy, but I was a bit shocked I didn't have to take off my Kelty baby backpack that my youngest was riding in... they didn't even look in the zippered compartment to see our cache of diapers and wipes and water bottles. Attendee security was more like a sporting event the what I had expected. I guess they made up for this by having people on the rooftops with scopes and such. So, it gets to 6:30 and nothing is happening. I talk to one of the TV guys and he says it will be closer to 7:20. Seems they made a few unscheduled stops on the way down from Colorado and slowed down in a few communities more then they had planned. Sure enough, at 7:20, we see the light of the train, now just a few miles away, and the crowd starts to get jumpy. When it finally gets close enough for the crowd to hear the whistle, there is sustained whooping, clapping, and chanting for the next ten minutes or so as the train slowly pulls into the Depot. The rucus only dies down when the train reaches the crowd... it is a much longer train then I expected and splits the crowd in two. There's two engines, two cars for stuff, two dining cars, three press cars, one car for staff and guests, a couple of sleeping cars, and two cars at the end for the candidates. It takes a few minutes for the trains to make it's way through the crowd, but when everyone sees the older cars at the end, the anticipation builds loudly. Suddenly, the end of the train is there and on the back are Kerry, Edwards, and thier wives. The train pulls forward a few more feet and we end up about 30 feet away. (In the picture below, we're about 5-6 deep halfway between where the picture was taken on the left side of the photo.) Impressions: Richardson came out first and spent about 5 minutes introducing the ticket and Edwards in particular, It was clear Edwards couldn't follow some of the Spanish being thrown around, (I think he was taken back a bit when a big cheer went up after Richardson said, "He will work for the workers!" in SPanish) but he did perk up when Richardson led the crowd in cheers of "Kerry y Edwards!" Edwards looks a lot better in person then on TV but I can't really explain why. He definitely has charisma and you can see why a lot of the folks in Iowa who heard himin person ended up voting for him. He also looks... older in person. More serious yet still boyish. When I first saw the end of the train, he was the one you I naturally focused on first. Hard to explain. Anyway, he did a 10 minute riff on the "One America" and then spent about 5 minutes introducing Kerry. Kerry spoke for about 30 minutes or so. The speech was somewhat uneven, but mostly good. I'd say about 60% was as good or better then the one at the DNC, about 30% was decent and he drug a little on the remaining 10%. I may be a bit jaded because I'm a C-Span junkie and had heard a number of the riffs before. Overall, the speech was a bit more populist, which is probably explained by the type of audience. He spent a little time on his education and community service plans, which unsurprisingly, went over well. One throwaway line on the National Laboratories in NM. Nothing on water rights or forest health or grazing on Fed lands, which is probably very smart at this stage. The most striking thing about the speech is the way he responded when talking about foreign policy and terror. He got straighter and more... steely-eyed, I guess. I think Kerry might be the first President we've ever had who, going in to his first term is more comfortable with foreign policy. From Wilson to FDR to Nixon to practically everyone, Presidents get elected on domestic concerns then find they have to devote much more time the expected for foreign stuff. I get the impression that Kerry will be different and I think that is good and suits the times. When he talked about this stuff, you can see the energy and resolve just under the surface. the energy just increased and I don't think it was politically calculated. I've seen speeches by Reagan, GHWB, Clinton, Dole, and Gore. This was different on some level. It made me feel even more comfortable on those issues. THK also said a few words in both English and Spanish, but looked tired and worn down. Still, she was warmly received and bantered with the crowd a bit. EE looks better in person, and had the more energy then THK. She was very good at relating to the crowd even though she didn't speak. Alexandra Kerry showed for a minute or two to shoot some footage with a handheld. She is very attractive by the way. Great bod. After the speeches, the train was bombarded by t-shirts and signs and the candidates did their best to keep up with demand for autographs. We got out of their about 8:30,,, before the train left... and got a late dinnerat Sonic (Yum!) before heading home.
Forgot to add that the Repub protesters were present, but well-behaved. Lots of entrepreneurs selling buttons and t-shirts as well.
