Bush closes with an emotional, and spiritual, ode to the powers of liberty, his view that "freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world." Recalling his trip to the rubble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 14, 2001, he vows: "I will defend the security of the people of this country, whatever it takes."
To close his speech, Kerry relies on a woman who left a message with an aide for him after a rally in Ohio. "She said, 'Senator Kerry, we've got your back,' " Kerry says. "Today, I've got a message for that woman and every American working to build a better life for their family: I've got your back, too."
Telling his audience that "the American Dream is on the ballot," Kerry argues: "Four more years of Bush choices is four more years we just can't afford. You deserve a new choice."
The reaction to Kerry can, at times, become impassioned. At an airport arrival in Portsmouth, N.H., screaming fans cheered Kerry, who greeted them through a chain-link fence. Wearing a canvas field jacket over his business suit, Kerry produced a roar from the crowd when he said: "This president has chosen the wealthy and the powerful and the special interests. I've chosen the American people and the middle class."
Yet the partisans in Portsmouth made clear their excitement was about defeating Bush, not electing Kerry. "It's not the guy, it's the policies," Jim Richmond, one participant, says of his support for Kerry. Asked why he's backing Kerry, Richmond, a supporter of Howard Dean in the primary, explains: "George Bush has blown it for me."
The anti-Bush sentiment is pervasive at Kerry's events. Speaking at a black church in Cleveland before Kerry's speech, former congressman Louis Stokes described Kerry as someone who "can stand toe to toe with Bush and put him in his place." Comparing Bush to Barry Goldwater in 1964, Stokes said: "We stopped Goldwater and we can stop Bush."
Same thing in Youngstown, where hospital worker Beverly Bailey gave her view of Kerry after the Democrat spoke. "I don't like Bush," she said. The next day in Philadelphia, Kerry delivered his usual message to a group of black ministers, who reacted politely but not enthusiastically, sitting quietly through his talk. When Kerry finished, Jesse L. Jackson, coaxed the crowd gradually into a standing ovation.
A day earlier, as Bush's bus tour made its way through Mansfield, Ohio, the sentiment was almost the reverse, as the crowd applauded him dozens of times. "I'm 100 percent for George Bush. George Bush is the only one for the job," hollered Autumn Cramer, who couldn't get a ticket to Bush's event but stood outside in the rain with other supporters holding a homemade sign reading: "Bush, a leader with faith, courage, strength." Asked about her motivations, she says nothing about Kerry, only that Bush "is going to keep the country safe."
Up the road in Cuyahoga Falls, Deborah Havens was lucky enough to get a ticket to Bush's event; her family is in construction and gives money to the GOP, so the party gave her a ticket, she said. The Griffin brothers from Canton also scored tickets; Adam, Andy's brother, identified himself as a Christian who is joining the Marines. His main issue: opposition to gay marriage, he said. And his vote on Nov. 2 has little to do with Kerry, he said. "It's 100 percent I like Bush."
