A more intimate look at the candidate

At about 11pm, a friend calls: "How do you feel about an early morning?" At something before 8am, Gavin White, Joyce McGreevy and I are being wanded down and sniffed by dogs, and ushered into the small auditorium at the PCC Metro Workplace Training Center at NE 42nd and Killingsworth. The sidewalk is laced with cables from the media trucks, and there are a cordon of perhaps 25 motorcycle police briefing near where I park my car.

People in line for the secret service briefing murmur to each other, their eyes bright. Black women looking natty in dark business suits. Students. Camera men looking, perhaps, a little less jaded than usual. Some folks, in jeans, wondering if they belong here, waiting to see the next president of the United States.

We're ushered into a small round auditorium. People are whispering, chatting, greeting each other, bantering. Behind me, a GAO auditor is asked if he's here to audit the Kerry press corps. To one side, workforce trainers, and the seats in front of us are reserved for the PCC officials. The high stools for the candidate, Dr. Dean, and three more are no more than ten feet from me. Behind that, a riser is filling up with students ranging in age from perhaps early 20's to middle age.

When the room is full, there are perhaps sixty or seventy of us, including a dozen or more camera and sound crew. We spot Tom McMann, head of Democracy for America, come in to brief the room security. The candidate is here.

Kerry and Dean enter to a rising, clapping crowd. I hum "Hail to the Chief" in Joyce's ear and she smiles. This morning, Kerry looks fresh, rested, relaxed, and comfortable -- not at all the stiff figure I remember from yesterday on stage, or from the media. There is a twinkle in his eye, and I find myself anticipating enjoying what he has to say.

Along with Dr. Dean and John Kerry, three retraining unemployed people sit on the stools in front. After introductions, they tell their stories. One is a programmer, competing for a few jobs a week with a huge unemployed tech force. Another woman was laid off from Boeing's plant in the east county right after 9/11 and is still seeking work. One gentleman, who notes that he started in computing when it was considered that only geniuses could be programmers, barely veils his frustration at going from a six figure salary to less than ten an hour.

These are the people John Kerry is here to help. He outlines his plans for keeping jobs on this shore, and repealing the programs that reward companies for sending jobs overseas. He talks about how his health plan will help. How he will fully fund K12 and continuing education. How he has seen, going from state to state, how all these things have put Americans into an environment of insecurity.

At one point he goes off for a few minutes on how the price of gas is killing us, and how, if he were in charge, that would be one of the first places he could make a difference, by working with diplomacy with OPEC, and manipulating our current reserves to control prices.

Then he goes back to jobs, social programs, bringing back an idea of the American dream for youth entering the workplace, education funding.

It's a good talk. It's interactive. He pulls in questions from the crowd, comments from Dean and the three unemployed people. He's joking around and playing the press. It's animated, intimate, and I begin to understand how some people could love this man. His demeanor has that possibly military formal reserve (in fact, his bearing in his torso is so stiff that to my yoga-trained eye, I wonder if there is some old clavicle or rib cage injury, rather than just mannerism) -- but in a group this small, he is dynamic. He's smiling, reaching to people, including us with his stance and his gestures.

This is the John Kerry I was hoping to see. It's marvelous! You can feel the warmth and sincerity from the man. He is at ease.

I realize that perhaps that's it. Before a large crowd, everything about the man is on the parade grounds. He declaims. He is stiff. But here in a circle of instant friends, he is at ease. He is a man among his people, not an officer rallying his troops.

I wonder if my own subconscious has been reacting to that officer's bearing his projects on the media, old hippy that I am. Food for thought.

Toward the end, I am sold, but I have a meeting with a potential client at 10:30am, and I have to run just as Kerry notes that he has to start wrapping up. However, I am well satisfied that, in my little professional marketing heart, this is a product I can promote with integrity.

Later in the day, I check the internet for stories filed from the press on the morning meeting, but I am dismayed. From this intimate message of hope, there is only one sound byte that gets picked up. "Kerry will lower gas prices." That was a footnote! It had nearly nothing to do with the well-integrated job and education platform he presented. It was not a showcase for the warmth he showed -- in fact it might have been the geekiest moment in the whole presentation.

This is the filter of the press. This is why I urge you to read his stuff on the website and see him in person if you can. Talk to the local Democrats or the local campaign office and see if you can come to a smaller event. It will be worth it. This is a man you wouldn't mind seeing in the West Wing.