So Wednesday was a hellacious day and why I’m still catching up. I had a funeral in Central Illinois early, happened to get back in time to get to Kerry’s event and then drove home and walked up to Blueberry Hill which was already packed by 7:15 for a 9:00 PM event.
The line was essentially from the Duck Room down the hallway next to the door, back up the hallway and stretched to the door. All to get in the Duck Room. Not everyone got in, but they cleared out the upstairs above for overflow and also had a lot of folks outside. Now, I think they counting was Million Man March counting, but there were a lot of people inside and outside. The staff, normally fast and friendly on a Wednesday night, was overwhelmed. Some of the reporters weren’t so used to it, but once I explained and once they got their burgers they were quite satisfied.
I met up there with Jeff Smith and a veritable A list of old Metropolis folks. I also got to meet Corey Mohn–though I was in the middle of dinner and beer and so our meeting was short. Jeff and Corey were both working the crowd by the end of the night. I finally made it back to the upstairs room and crowded around with a bunch of friends to listen over the speaker. Edwards was late as usual, but gave a hell of a speech. And it was a We speech versus Kerry’s I speech. We will do this, we will do that, we…
I prefer we. Also there was Joe Maxwell who gives a great introduction and is a hell of a speaker. After giving a great stump speech, Edwards came up to the upstairs crowd and gave a quick greeting.
Is he better than Clinton? Pretty damn close. As Virginia Postrel pointed out some months ago, the thing about trial lawyers is that people like them in person. That is why they win. He is a very personable, very positive and generally creates a very strong sense of goodwill.
What I did find interesting is that everyone has been talking about how he has run such a positive campaign. And it is true that he never attacks anyone directly, but he very effectively uses the amorphous others in his stump speech to draw sharp distinctions and criticize others without naming them.
Overall, he gives good stump.
The energy was higher, but then again so was the crowd with beer. At least I was.