NYT: An Invigorated Kerry Courts Ohio, and Some Swing Voters...

[sfecap]

An Invigorated Kerry Courts Ohio, and Some Swing Voters Are Taking a Harder Look

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: October 4, 2004

AUSTINTOWN, Ohio, Oct. 3 - Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" was pumping through the loudspeakers, aptly enough after a 75-minute political forum. And the candidate consigned to the empathetic Bill Clinton's shadow, having spent the better part of that time sharing the pain of 500 members of what he calls the squeezed middle class, was bathing in their embrace.

Off to the side of a high school gym, Katy Curtis, 39, was wiping her eyes.

"He's not Clinton, but he's close," Ms. Curtis said. "I didn't see that till today." She had watched intently on Sunday afternoon as Senator John Kerry listened to a newly divorced steelworker, locked out of his factory job for 11 months, haltingly describe how his daughter had told him not to worry - that her mother and grandmother had "taken care of" her first homecoming dress.

"I went to pieces," said Ms. Curtis, a swing voter who said that she supported President Bush after the Republican convention but switched to Mr. Kerry after seeing him up close.

Mr. Kerry's compassion for the man on stage, Ms. Curtis said, and his plans to reverse job losses and soaring health care and tuition costs, made her feel that he could address her own worries - a wellspring of emotion arising from her and her husband's inability to help their daughter pay for college, and their flirtation with bankruptcy.

If Ms. Curtis and a few other previously undecided Ohioans who came to Mr. Kerry's town-hall meeting here and some new polls are any indication, swing voters are giving Mr. Kerry a second look after his strong showing in the first presidential debate. And they are liking what they see.

(more)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/04/politics/campaign/04kerry.html?oref=login



"The c

[deadparrot]

1. Keep on swinging, Ohio.

[K8-EEE]

2. O-HI-O -- OH OH OH!!! :o)

Hey you lucky people have the power to CHANGE THE REGIME! Here in CA, things are blue with or without me but I'M VOTING, FOR SURE!

[venus]

3. I was born, raised, educated, and married in Ohio

Remember the song "4 dead in Ohio; gotta get down to it ...." (Crosby Stills and Nash?) during the Vietnam War, anyone? I remember. That refrain echoes a lot in my memory. My brother served in the Army during this time (came home safely). Yes, Ohio is and should be a battleground. Noone better to fight this battle than Kerry Kerry Kerry.