I touched that hand today in San Francisco.
I touched John Kerry today.
The news coming out of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's visit to San Francisco today is that he picked up the influential endorsement of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, but what the mainstream media haven't told you is that I touched John Kerry today in San Francisco.
Yeah, OK, that sounds a little weird, perhaps even for San Francisco, so let me explain that I took the day off from work and went to see him speak at a rally in San Francisco today at least partly to make him more real to me.
I mean, I've been blogging about him for a while, am a co-host of the monthly Meetups for Kerry here in Sacramento, have contributed almost $250 to his campaign over the past few months, etc., but up until today, I'd only seen media images of Kerry, and that isn't quite the same thing. You get your best sense of someone in person. (Yes, I got a good feeling from the real live Kerry. Anyone who calls him "aloof" hasn't been in his presence. He is quite personable. [My brother, who went to the rally with me, tells me it's shallow to mention it, but Kerry looks thinner in person than he does in the media; what they say about television and photos adding pounds is true.])
Anyway, I had wanted to lay eyes on the candidate I'm hoping will be the next president of the United States and, if possible, to shake his hand. To use Gee Dubya's infamous phrase, mission accomplished.
At the noon rally in San Francisco today, Kerry opened by calling the diverse San Francisco crowd "John Ashcroft's worst nightmare" and then gave a rousing talk heavy on national security -- Bill Clinton's secretary of defense, William Perry, spoke before Kerry did and introduced him to the crowd -- but he covered a wide range of topics, including jobs and the economy, health care, education, the environment, civil rights and his national service plan, which includes expanding the Peace Corps and his "Service for College" initiative, which, to quote his Web site, "will offer Americans the chance to earn the equivalent of their state's four-year public college tuition in exchange for two years of service," with "a goal within the next decade of enlisting 500,000 young people a year."
(I would give you a fuller account of Kerry's talk, but I was there to experience the event, not to record it; I did not take notes or record his talk or take any pictures. I'm not an expert at estimating crowds, but I'd guess that between 200 and 300 people were at the rally today in San Francisco.)
After his talk, Kerry pressed the flesh of his supporters on his way out of the room that had held the rally. He spoke briefly with everyone whose hand he shook. I shook his hand and told him in the 10 or 15 seconds that I had that I'm the co-host of the Meetups for him in Sacramento and that the Meetups are growing. He thanked me and made a remark I can't recall -- "We have to keep growing," I think he said -- and then he moved on to one of the dozens of others who wanted a moment with him. Strangely, although I had his ear only very briefly, I did not feel patronized; he seemed genuinely interested in hearing why I was there.
Of course, Dianne Feinstein had to step on my dress today and announce that she endorses Kerry, so you didn't hear about how I had shaken his hand just hours before she announced her endorsement and how Robert's Virtual Soapbox endorsed Kerry long before Dianne jumped on the bandwagon.
Politics.
10:53:17 PM 
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