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From: Bart (129.171.32.13)
Kerry gets a rousing welcome in Portland PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry ended a two-week cross-country campaign swing in Portland Friday, where he and celebrity supporters got a rousing welcome from the largest crowd to attend a political speech here in at least a decade. Portland fire officials estimated the crowd at between 40,000 and 50,000 people on the Willamette River waterfront, on a day when President Bush was campaigning just a few miles away. Kerry competed head-to-head for TV airtime with Bush, who spoke at an invitation-only town hall meeting of about 2,000 people in Beaverton. His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, gave a lengthy introduction to her husband that ended as Bush wound up his Beaverton visit. Network affiliates in Portland stuck with Bush until Kerry himself took the microphone. When Kerry took the stage in Portland, he focused mainly on national issues — including war and tax reform — that have cropped up often during his "Believe in America" tour that began after he accepted the Democratic nomination in Boston two weeks ago. "There isn't a person here who doesn't get up in the morning and play by a set of rules, and you make choices in your lives," Kerry said. "You try to live within the budget. You have a right to expect a government that lives by the same rules you do." The same-day visits by both candidates are a sign of Oregon's status as a swing state and its importance to both parties, despite its scant seven electoral votes. Long lines snaked around two city blocks early Friday, as Kerry supporters sipped bottled water and used campaign placards to shield their faces from the sun. Most didn't get in. David Rasmussen, special events inspector for the Portland Fire Bureau, closed the gates two hours before Kerry spoke, when 22,000 people had entered a fenced-off area around the stage. The entire crowd on the waterfront during the speech was between 40,000 and 50,000 people, Rasmussen said. He said no other political speech has attracted as large a crowd in Portland in at least a decade, when he became a fire inspector. No formal records are kept, he said. "We're dying to vote," said Aisley Deymonaz, 17, who was waiting in line with her twin sister and two of their friends. "We obviously want to change things. We've asked all of our relatives to vote on our behalf." Kerry was introduced by, among others, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and rocker Jon Bon Jovi. DiCaprio, wearing jeans and a baseball cap, praised Kerry for his environmental policies. Bon Jovi didn't speak, but played the 80s hits "Living on a Prayer" and "Dead or Alive." The Hollywood presence was a crowd-pleasing touch, analysts said. "It tells you something about the rock star element of the modern campaign," said Robert Eisinger, a political science professor at Lewis & Clark college. "This is both entertainment and politics. If you're going to take the kids out, you may as well take them to see some rock stars and maybe the next president of the United States." Republican Sen. Gordon Smith dismissed Kerry's appearance with celebrities as coming to "hang with Hollywood." In his speech, Kerry called for energy independence from the Middle East and federal policies that would reduce health insurance premiums. He returned several times to his environmental record, suggesting that Oregon hunters and fishermen in the crowd understood the importance of maintaining healthy habitat for wildlife, and that conservation projects could create jobs. "Some politicians want you to believe that it's one or the other," with jobs or the environment, Kerry said. "I say protecting the environment builds jobs." A poll issued last month by the nonpartisan American Research Group in Manchester, N.H., showed Kerry with 50 percent support from Oregon voters compared to 42 percent for Bush and 4 percent for independent candidate Ralph Nader, who's struggling to get on the Oregon ballot. The poll of 600 likely Oregon voters was done the weekend of July 19 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. At the rally, Kerry said he was looking forward to windsurfing in the Columbia River Gorge on Saturday, to relax after his coast-to-coast tour of 22 states by bus, train, helicopter, plane and ferry. "One of the things that keeps me going, is knowing I got a free day tomorrow, and I'm going wind surfing," he said.
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