A lunar eclipse. A World Series victory after 86 years for the Boston Red Sox. For the Democratic faithful, it was an unmistakable omen: Senator John Kerry, locked for weeks in a dead heat with US President George W. Bush, now had the stars on his side.
Kerry certainly seemed to think so Thursday as he bounded on stage in baseball cap, shirtsleeves and striped tie in Toledo, Ohio, much more relaxed than usual, and visibly happy.
"I'm feeling great," he told the crowd in a voice raspy from cheering on his team. He recalled the rightwing radio host who had taunted that he would never be president until the Red Sox won the title: a notion once dismissed as impossible for a team famously seen as cursed.
"We're on our way, we're on our way," Kerry gloated.
The good humor was infectious and the rumbustious crowd of students, boilermakers, steelworkers and autoworkers and other union members stamped their approval. Kerry even loosened up enough to admit having Vietnam flashbacks, saying the thunder reminded him of bombing raids, and the audience liked him even more for it.
"If there was any doubt I had, I don't no more," said Jennifer Hawkins, 27, a restaurant manager and part-time student. "I was torn for a while, but he was just awesome."
Nobody on the Democratic campaign dares speak of a wave but with just four days left there is a sense that Kerry is rising to the occasion. Campaign staff often frustrated by their candidate's difficulty in connecting with ordinary Americans are now enjoying a discernible satisfaction. Someone has painted "Red Sox rule" on the windows of cars in the motorcade.
On Thursday, Kerry's famously convoluted sentences were tighter. The aloof New England demeanor softened, and his message rang more clearly. The candidate with the reputation in baseball parlance of a "good closer" is growing visibly stronger as he approaches the finish line.
This week has been an exercise in endurance and star power. On Tuesday he traveled thousands of kilometers in a single day. On Wednesday he enlisted Carol King and Bon Jovi, and last night it was Bruce Springsteen, whose No Surrender Kerry has adopted as his signature tune.
At every stop in the midwest he has relied on the same top line, assailing Bush for the disappearance of nearly 400 tonnes of explosives in Iraq.
He soon returns to more traditional Democratic terrain, presenting himself as a "champion for the middle class" as he tacks a populist line on jobs, healthcare, and tax breaks for the rich. But his focus on the missing explosives has been unblinking, clearly believing the debacle will amplify his larger arguments about Bush's conduct of the war.
"This week's news about the missing explosives speaks directly to the president's mistakes in Iraq," he said yesterday.
On Wednesday he accused Bush of putting US troops in greater danger.
"The missing explosives could very likely be in the hands of terrorists and insurgents, who are actually attacking our forces now 80 times a day on average," he told a rally in Rochester, Minnesota.
RSS