Both sets of supporters were in a buoyant mood, Bush from the polls, Kerry from his well-received speech. But the particular style of high reflected their temperaments.
"Confident." "A man of conviction. "Always consistent," people streaming out of the Bush fundraiser echoed, as if they'd been media trained. "Things are going well in New York," Bush had assured them.
Marion McQueen practically floated out of the room. "The president was just fabulous in his determination to stay the course and defend the American people. All around him people change and he stays the same, so truthful, so honorable, so credible. He says what he means and follows through with what he says."
Kerry supporters, meanwhile, were giddy, as if they'd just discovered their new love that morning. Timothy Paulson, political director of the New Democratic Majority, rushed up to Kerry as he walked in to tape the Letterman show and gave him his hand. "You're on the right track now, man," he told Kerry. "And he gave me the eye, like 'Are you saying I wasn't before?' "
Like many of the activists who stocked Kerry's events Monday, Paulson originally hails from the Howard Dean campaign. They liked Kerry because he sounded less like himself and more like Dean.
"He finally spoke from the heart," Paulson says. The campaign had given Paulson's group 100 tickets to Kerry's afternoon fundraiser, and after a flood of e-mails they had to request 100 more, a sign, says Paulson, of a mass conversion.
"Everyone's honestly coming around" to Kerry, he says. "I feel like once again we're harmonizing with the candidate. Everyone's like, 'We love John Kerry.' They're not saying, 'We disagree with this or that.' I mean maybe just over coffee, on the side."
At the fundraiser, Kerry reflected on his reborn self. He praised the triple victories of the Jets, Giants and Yankees and said: "I came here to bask in your glory, came here to grab onto that winning streak."
"Those guys," he said, meaning Republicans, "have got me in a fighting mood."
Afterward Prema Dordeodhar was "walking on air," she says, sounding as unambivalent as a Bush fan. "He was amazing, like a leader from the olden days. He projects such power, such strength.
"I feel like he could take over the whole world," she says. "Couldn't he?"
