Today's Reading [05 Aug 2004]
Bruce Springsteen is a guest op-ed columnist for the NYTimes:

Through my work, I've always tried to ask hard questions. Why is it that the wealthiest nation in the world finds it so hard to keep its promise and faith with its weakest citizens? Why do we continue to find it so difficult to see beyond the veil of race? How do we conduct ourselves during difficult times without killing the things we hold dear? Why does the fulfillment of our promise as a people always seem to be just within grasp yet forever out of reach?

I don't think John Kerry and John Edwards have all the answers. I do believe they are sincerely interested in asking the right questions and working their way toward honest solutions. They understand that we need an administration that places a priority on fairness, curiosity, openness, humility, concern for all America's citizens, courage and faith.

John McCain comes to Kerry's aid regarding an ad calling into questions the truth of Kerry's military service:

“It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me,” McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, referring to his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.

The 60-second ad features Vietnam veterans who accuse the Democratic presidential nominee of lying about his decorated Vietnam War record and betraying his fellow veterans by later opposing the conflict.

[...]

The Kerry campaign has denounced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, saying none of the men in the ad served on the boat that Kerry commanded. The leader of the group, retired Adm. Roy Hoffmann, said none of the 13 veterans in the commercial served on Kerry’s boat but rather were in other swiftboats within 50 yards of Kerry’s.

Jim Rassmann, an Army veteran who was saved by Kerry, said there were only six crewmates who served with Kerry on his boat. Five support his candidacy and one is deceased.

Potential voters are literally swooning for Kerry and Edwards as they make their cross-country bus tour:

A running joke on the campaign bus is that John Kerry is in danger of killing more voters than he's persuading. As his caravan rolls across the country from the Boston convention to the West Coast--from "sea to shining sea," as it says on Kerry's bus--an inordinate number of people are collapsing at Kerry-Edwards events. The crowds at the campaign rallies have been huge--up to 20,000 strong--and, after waiting hours in the hot sun for the chronically late bus convoy, at least one person at every stop winds up on a stretcher.

Just because everything is stage-managed doesn't mean the enthusiasm in the crowds isn't real. Asked what he thought Kerry's convention speech accomplished, one aide said it had turned anti-Bush feelings into pro-Kerry ones. It sounds like spin--especially coming just eight hours after the speech--but, among the voters on the trail and in post-convention polls, there is a detectable uptick in intensity of support for Kerry. For every anti-Bush voter, such as 66-year-old Ohioan Becky Hines, who waited by the side of Interstate 70 for three hours to see Kerry--"Because I've been screwed by President Bush and have to pay way too much for my drugs"--there seem to be many more along Kerry's rope lines who have formed a bond with the senator.

Alright, time to get to work...