The Globe projects Kerry winner

[Mass]

Not that it is a surprise.

http://www.boston.com/

[beachmom]

1. Not a surprise, but still. You never can assume anything.

I am very happy it's over, and that Kerry can focus more on getting Obama elected within his own campaign for the general election to be re-elected to the Senate.

[YvonneCa]

2. Whew! That's a relief. Now if...

...California could just pass a budget... :)

[BlueIris]

3. Good deal. Next. nt

[MBS]

4. Globe: "Kerry wins primary decisively"

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/09/17/kerry_wins_primary_decisively/?page=1

This was great (JK won EOR's home town!)

In his hometown of Gloucester, O'Reilly received about 48 percent of the vote, to Kerry's 52 percent.

And a toast to Joe Megnia!

O'Reilly had tried to galvanize those who shared his view that Kerry is not committed enough to Massachusetts. He also criticized Kerry's vote to authorize the war in Iraq in 2002, an issue that dogged Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

But voters yesterday said they thought the experienced senator could wield more influence than a newcomer, and they said they did not buy the argument that Kerry had abandoned the state.

"I've been in Massachusetts my whole life, and I don't think Senator Kerry has left us in the dark," said Joe Megnia, 51, a Verizon lineman from Somerville. "He's there for us; he's watching out for our backs."

[MBS]

6. As usual, the globe didn't get a lot of key JK comments

In his speech , in what seemed clearly (to me ) a comment on the EOR voters, JK said something like " I know that there's a lot of anger out there, and I understand that. I'm angry , too. People need to realize that many of us in government are as frustrated as voters are.". . then he went on to talk about the frustration of the slim Dem majority ("51 on a good day", then something about "depending on how Joe Lieberman is feeling"). Hopefully, there's video on this (God knows there were enough cameras!!!), so we can get transcript or footage of his exact remarks

[Democrafty]

8. I was lucky enough to get a call from a very helpful individual

(I'm sure you can guess who!) who put me on speaker while the Senator was speaking, and I did my best to share his remarks with some other folks online. Here is the chat log, typos and all:


<5:58pm> democrafty: jk sees some of them alreeady have a guiness
<5:58pm> democrafty: this is where he celebrated victory over weld
<5:58pm> democrafty: 1. we won this primary
<5:58pm> democrafty: 2. more important 128 ore days of bush
<5:59pm> democrafty: wants to thank everybody, said all along you have to repsect voters, he does
<5:59pm> democrafty: understands that there's anger, got disappoints people
<5:59pm> democrafty: just because yr in govt, doesn't mean you don't want change
<5:59pm> democrafty: jk is tired of of being in a position of stopping bad things ffrom happening, wants to help good things happen
<6:00pm> democrafty: only had 51 senate votes on a good day
<6:00pm> democrafty: wants to pass universal health, make econ work, pass gcc legislation
<6:00pm> democrafty: is proud gore said jk is strongest voice on environment in senate
<6:01pm> democrafty: we have 6 weeks to go, gonna crissx state with senate campagin and barach and elect a pres. we can be proud of
<6:01pm> democrafty: jk loves travellign within mass, and loves helping to amke things happen for people
<6:01pm> democrafty: mentioning bill garvey, who wanted uncles ww1 medals
<6:02pm> democrafty: "we were able to make a difference in his life"
<6:02pm> democrafty: (somebody please be saving this)
<6:02pm> democrafty: the best storeies are when you can make a difference in someone's life
<6:03pm> democrafty: yesterday gave 3 million to spaulding for vets
<6:03pm> karennj: I'll cut and past and email it to you
<6:03pm> democrafty: this race is about issues
<6:03pm> democrafty: admin is foxes guarding henhouses, time to force them out with AG who believes in constitution
<6:04pm> democrafty: jk looks forward to next 6 weeks, and looks forward to campaigning with us
<6:04pm> democrafty: she hung up for a bit, because it's just screaming and applauding

[Luftmensch067]

10. You're so good at this!

Very accurate and I just want to add that when he got to the part about an AG who believes in the constitution, I felt I could hear palpable frustration with the past and determination to change the future. His voice got very forceful and impassioned at that point.

[Democrafty]

13. Oh, thanks!

I definitely noticed what you pointed out - a huge range of emotions for a 5 or 6 minute speech! For me, the key phrase was when he said he was tired of working in Washington to stop bad things from happening, and wanted to be able to go back and make some good things happen. It was so *him*, and a perfect argument for why he deserves term #5!

[Noisy Democrat]

11. I'm working on getting the speech posted

Don't know if another version will also appear on one of JK's official sites, but I got it and I'm just trying to get it formatted so people can see how good it was.

ETA: Looks like NECN posted the whole thing, but I was on the opposite side of the room and got a much better angle than they did. So I'll still let y'all know when my version is up.

[beachmom]

5. Oh, this is nice to read in the Berkshire Eagle:

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_10484941?source=most_viewed

PITTSFIELD — Two of the state's longtime, popular politicians easily won their contests yesterday in the state's Democratic primary election on a day that yielded low voter turnout.

In his first primary challenge in 24 years, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry defeated Edward J. O'Reilly, while U.S. Rep John W. Olver of Amherst beat Stockbridge attorney Robert Feuer in the race for the U.S. House of Representatives, 1st District.

Kerry will face Jeffrey K. Beatty, R-Harwich, on Nov. 4, while Olver will face Nathan A. Bech, R-West Springfield.

With 94 percent of precincts reporting in the Senate race late last night, Kerry was ahead by a margin of 69 percent to 31 percent. And with 99 percent of the precincts reporting in the House race, Olver had a lead of 79 percent to 21 percent.

...

Bob and Gloria McInerney, of Pittsfield, said both Olver and Kerry's experience won their votes.
"With Olver, we feel his record in Congress is sterling," Gloria said. "With Kerry, it's his experience."

Pittsfield resident Jim Renzi said Kerry "sealed the deal for me" with his speech at the Democratic National Convention and Olver "is very proactive for our area."

You know, I have to admit that I have been separating John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts with John Kerry, national Democrat and Obama surrogate. It seemed like they were separate things. But I realize that was not right at all. That as fantastic as Kerry's speech was for Obama and the Democrats, it REALLY helped him out back home. I am just so glad to see it in print, how proud Mass. voters were of Kerry's moment at the DNC this year.

[TayTay]

7. That was a very big deal

And a source of great pride for the Mass Delegation in Denver.

Yeah, that was a nice reminder that we have a wonderful US Senator in John Kerry. Might want to pay attention from time to time and give the man his due.

[MBS]

9. "Might want to pay attention from time to time and give the man his due".

YOU BET!!!!!!!!!!

[YvonneCa]

12. 'Bout time...

..I'd say. :7

[TayTay]

14. Some pics from Primary Day

But the lighting and the fact that some people just move too damn fast seem to be against me.

But, for what it's worth, here are the pics I got: http://flickr.com/photos/picsjkfs/sets/72157607307721471/

[Noisy Democrat]

15. The speech is up at John Kerry Media Source

I mentioned it before on this thread, so I thought I'd come back here to mention that we've got it up. It's on the front page, full-length video at http://www.jkmediasource.org

I saved it a little higher resolution than usual in hopes that it would give people more of a you-are-there feeling. Feel free to let me know if it pauses or anything due to being a little higher bandwidth than usual. (The small video that plays directly in the small box on the front page is always a separate, smaller copy of the video, by the way, so when you click on that, you're actually accessing a file that takes much less bandwidth than the Play Large Size video -- perhaps convenient for anyone with low bandwidth; it's just that it's a small picture.)

[MBS]

16. nice quality video! thanks!

[karynnj]

17. This is wonderful

It looks like everyone was having a good time!