Six Degrees, or something like that

I went to see US Senator John Kerry speak this morning at a rally for the Obama campaign at the UW HUB Auditorium.  Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels (sitting at far left, with the UW Students for Obama in the background -- click the image to enlarge) introduced the senator and also announced his endorsement of Obama in the presidential campaign.  Overall the speech was about what I expected.  Kerry's a fairly dull but well-versed speaker and he went through the salient points for the audience -- the youth vote is critical (especially beyond the primaries!) and thus far has been surpassing all expectations, unlike most years where it seems to be there but vanishes at the last moment.  Either candidate will be a dramatic (and welcome) departure from the current administrative snafu, but it's important to pay attention to the details.  And of course, since the Washington primary means squat, it's critical that people actually attend their caucuses.  Most of the crowd was already pro-Obama so it was basically preaching to the choir, but there were a few undecideds present and a few reasonable questions asked... although since he's merely a proxy for Obama it's not quite as effective as talking to the candidate himself.

Still, how cool is it that the man who nearly became President of the United States a mere four years ago can drop in at the last minute and give a rousing half-hour talk to over three hundred people and then take open questions without hesitation?