Kerry's Speech in Nashville Today

How did the VFW audiance respond to Kerry?

Can you tell if they were just being polite?

I've read in several places that it took awhile to warm them up, but in the end he got a standing ovation.

From the text, it was an excellent speech for that particular audience.

I'm going to see him and Edwards...the whole family actually tomorrow night....A Midnight Rally! Right after *scrub recites his lies....I mean lines.......

Slightly less so when he moved on to Iraq and terrorism, but he got a good standing O. The contrast with Bush's speech is probably more telling...

I especially liked when he spelled out what he would have done differently in Afghanistan and Iraq militarily and strategically. It made him come across as very focused and knowledgeable and made Dub look like an idiot. It was really excellent.

And while I listened I felt all the doubts melt away about him being too weak or not aggressive enough or whatever has been floating around about him. It all becomes a non issue when he speaks like that and you get to hear him.

couple of times for the clapping to stop.

This wasn't a rallly and there were no mikes on the audience.

So, since you could hear their postive reactions without a mike says something.

The cheering seemed loudest for Health Care IMO.

I listened and saw it twice.

vets.

The last part of his speech was very good. He recounted how the author of the GI Bill was a vet and spoke about it helped raise the middle class in America. He stressed how vets deserve a fair shake, as do all Americans, at getting good jobs, etc. He spoke about health care, too...first in terms of vets earlier in the speech, then in general. What was so good was that he didn't ISOLATE vets from the needs of all Americans and showed how the Legion values are American values and credited helping vets with progess for all. I thought that was very well done...

When he was done and was greeting people behind him, he got some very enthusiastic body language from many of the women, lots of handshakes...but you could tell the older vets who just stood there stonefaced must have been Bushies.....