LCLGR election trip

2004-11-08T05:04:00.000-08:00

My host Naomi on Hallowe'en

2004-11-08T05:03:00.000-08:00

Lesbians against Bush (really)

We go forth valiantly

2004-11-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

Team GB on election day

We go forth valiantly

Election day dawns

2004-11-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, it really does say 5.30am at the top

Election day dawns

The piano bar

2004-11-08T04:59:00.000-08:00

Liam gave us his repertoire of Billy Joel songs

At the piano bar

At the Clinton rally

2004-11-08T04:58:00.000-08:00

The balloon says "Boilermakers for Kerry/Edwards"

At the Clinton rally

Hello sailor

2004-11-08T04:57:00.001-08:00

Kelly from the Stonewall Democrats in his Hallowe'en costume

Hello sailor

2004-11-08T04:57:00.000-08:00

Michelle Clunie aka Mel

2004-11-08T04:51:00.000-08:00

Antonia working the table

2004-11-08T04:50:00.000-08:00

Cheerleaders for Kerry

Back from Philadelphia

2004-11-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Just got back this weekend. Wanted to round up the trip to Philadelphia.

To put it in perspective, here’s a bit of electoral math - to win, either candidate needed to hold every state from 2000's election, and win two of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. Our job was to make sure that the liberal metropolitan denizens of the City of Brotherly Love voted for Kerry in large enough numbers to overhaul the rural conservative votes from central Pennsylvania.

Throughout the time I was in Philadelphia, the atmosphere just walking around the city was fabulous - it was great to be in a city where politics really mattered. Philadelphia had voted for Gore and for a continuation of the Clinton-era prosperity in 2000, but had instead been landed with an irresponsible President who had played fast and loose with jobs and with the cash for regeneration so desperately needed in a former industrial city, and now it was sure that Bush was on the way out. Everyone was motivated - happy to take a sticker, happy to volunteer, happy to honk at the enormous Kerry signs waved at them at every major intersection. In the run-up to the election, everyone felt that the US was at a turning point, and that it was going to make the right choice.

Not that anyone was leaving anything to chance. In the run-up to the election, on Hallow'een, we started giving out goodie bags full of sweets, leaflets, flyers and an Eminem CD to young people - the slogan was "Happy Hallow'een! Don't get tricked by the Republicans!" Over the weekend before the election, Liberty City organised the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell (sometimes touted as a national candidate himself), to do his traditional tour of the gay bars. It's a ritual he has observed just before every election since the mid-80s, and one that is really appreciated by the lesbian and gay community, who were so proud to see him and who chanted his name at every bar - truly as close to being a movie star or FA cup winner that a politician ever gets! We also held a huge rally to get out the gay vote on the Sunday, with openly gay congressman Barney Frank and a couple of actors from Queer as Folk America. The gay community was vital in Philadelphia, which had to get out 250,000 more votes for Kerry to make sure that the state stayed Democrat. And the gay community really are in the firing line - as Gov. Rendell said, it's time to remove homophobia from the list of election tactics.

Election Day dawned, and I had already been up for hours, getting early morning leaflets to all the houses in the patch I was responsible for. I was a team leader, with a set of volunteers, two polling stations, a borrowed mobile phone and a piece of central Philadelphia, bounded by Broad Street, Locust Street, 12th Street and South Street to look after all day. Much of the day was spent being visible - getting people pumped up and reminding them to vote. Other parts were about making sure that everything ran smoothly - that the polling stations opened when they were supposed to, that everyone knew where to vote (unbelievably, Philadelphia doesn't write to everyone to tell them where their polling station is!) and that people weren't getting turned away or intimidated. My job was also to collect the number of people who had voted every two hours and phone them to HQ, so they could monitor turnout. I couldn't believe it when, at 9am, two hours after polls opened, nearly 200 people of the 600 registered had already voted at one of my polling stations. Eventually nearly 70% of my area voted, and looking at the returns later, 95% of those votes were for Kerry. Thankfully, neither of my stations had long lines at the end of the day, and there was little trouble, although I did have to contend with two Nader supporters urging people to vote for him as a write-in candidate, which could have damaged our turnout amongst young voters, and with six preppy Bushites knocking on doors in my area - an unusual species indeed in Philadelphia.

At eight, when polls closed, our footsore team made our way back to campaign headquarters - a nightclub taken over for the purpose, full of free food and drink, with banks of computers, a huge screen and a legion of exhausted volunteers - not just Philadelphians and Brits, but people from Washington and New York, Maryland and New Jersey, who knew that their states were safely in Kerry's column already, but who felt they needed to do more. As the results rolled in, it looked good for Kerry, and certainly the atmosphere was one of suppressed excitement. As a Labour party member, I know the only way to be on election night is pessimistic, but even I was beginning to hope that after a race of dead-heat, Kerry might actually pull it off. We really raised the roof when MSNBC called Pennsylvania for Kerry at about 11pm, but gradually, as it became clear that there was not going to be a result for hours, people started to drift home to bed. I left at 2.30am, with the race still undecided, and when I woke at 9am, NPR was still reporting no decision, so I went back to sleep. When I finally got up at one, it was clear that the lead Bush had in Ohio was greater than Kerry could hope to overhaul from the provisional ballots, so he conceded. Until then, I'd been calm and slightly dazed, but we all wept during his speech.

On the streets of Philadelphia later that day, people were quiet, subdued - we'd done our job and they had done theirs: Philadelphia county was the fourth-highest percentage vote in the country for Kerry, behind Washington DC, Chicago and Los Angeles, and we'd held Pennsylvania, as Ed Rendell had promised Kerry we would, but it wasn't enough. Kerry had lost Ohio and Florida, and with them the election. When the campaign staff went out for dinner later on Wednesday, it was all we could do to keep talking about the future - the highest turnout ever, which in any other election would benefit the Democrats, and we'd still lost. No-one was sure what more they could have done. We let it all out at one of Philadelphia's wonderful piano bars, with a pianist who was slightly surprised when fifteen drunken tearful Brits and their American friends settled in for a night of Cosmopolitans and howling along with country music.

It was a great experience, and one that could have been even better, but I did learn a lot to bring back to this country - about the power of community politics, about the strength of the internet as a tool for organising. And about a wonderful country, half of whose citizens couldn't quite believe they'd managed to elect George W. Bush again. (The hottest forwarded email amongst liberal Americans on Thursday and Friday was the front page of the UK Daily Mirror, a picture of Dubya, which said simply "How can 59 million people be so dumb?")
I've promised my friends in Philadelphia to be back - for the senate elections of 2006, when the homophobe Republican Rick Santorum, who likened homosexuality to bestiality and incest, is up for election, and in 2008, when hopefully Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards or one of a host of Democratic rising stars will both win Pennsylvania and take the rest of the country too. First, I need to return my focus to the UK, though…

The Morning After the Night Before…

2004-11-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

With John Kerry admitting defeat less than an hour ago, the sense of disappointment on the streets of Philadelphia is palpable. Whilst Pennsylvania went Kerry, the campaign just missed out in Florida and Ohio, ensuring a second term for George W.Bush. In one café, the waitress had already relabeled her tip jar "the Canada relocation fund".

From an LGBT perspective the next Bush administration is highly uncertain. Emboldened by anti-same sex union votes in many states yesterday, there is fear here that Bush may press on with Federal Marriage Amendment to the US Constitution.

For must of us Brits it’s time to head home with a sore head and a heavy heart.

Queueing round the block

2004-11-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Or "standing in line" as we are learning to call it.

At the polling place I have been monitoring, there was a 40 minute queue to vote by 9.00 this morning. The turnout has been absolutely enormous - the predictions are for anything up to 80%. One in seven voters is a first-timer, which means that the result really is simply too close to call - polls don't take account of people who didn't vote last time, as I reported before.

Reports from other states show even longer waits, of up to several hours. However, anyone who is in the line when the polls close has to be allowed to vote, and there are lawyers at each polling place waiting to mount a challenge if this doesn't happen.

I have had many messages of support from friends in Britain today, which were much appreciated. Thank you to all of you - you know who you are.

36 Hours for a New America

2004-11-01T08:42:00.000-08:00

It’s now less than twenty-four hours before the polls open across the United States. Here in Philadelphia support for Kerry is as strong as ever, the main challenge being to mobilise that support to counter-balance the undoubted swathes of conservative Bush-Cheney voters a matter of miles away.

What’s most striking are the tactics employed by certain Republican-supporting groups to disenfranchise vulnerable sectors of the Democrat vote. There are reports of Bush-Cheney supporters allegedly planning to drive around communities in cars not dissimilar to those used by the police, in order to intimidate electors from going to the polls. There have also been attempts to move polling stations and also misinformation promulgated confusing electors on what ID they need in order to vote. Luckily, the Pennsylvania Dept. of State maintains an authoritative resource at www.votespa.com.

Last night saw our final GOTV rally in Philadelphia, addressed principally by Congressman Barney Frank. The first openly gay congressman, Barney aims to become the first openly gay Senator, filling the gap soon to be opened by John Kerry’s ascension to the White House…

In the calm before the storm, most of us ‘Brits’ (as we’ve been affectionately tagged) are taking time to collect our thoughts and catch some sleep. This evening and tomorrow promises to be as frenetic a polling day as any of us have ever experienced, but at least at the end we can hopefully rest assured that we played a small part in delivering a New America.

Trick or treat

2004-10-31T01:40:00.000-08:00

Today we have been doing more traditional style door-to-door canvassing, delivering "trick or vote" goodie bags with GOTV literature and a Will and Grace CD. I went round some student accommodation attached to the medical school and had a generally very good reception. It's unseasonably warm for the time of year here, which is good news for us if it holds until Tuesday. Good weather helps turnout, which is good for the Democrats.

What isn't clear from the polls published in the media is that they don't take account of people who didn't vote last time, meaning that first time voters are excluded, along with people who abstained in 2000. Also, pollsters can't call cellphone (mobile) numbers, so people without a land line are also excluded. All this means that things are probably much closer than the polls suggest, and there really is everything to play for on Tuesday.

We had a "honk for Kerry" session at a busy intersection during the rush hour yesterday evening, and the (very) small number of Bush supporters were treated to chants of "three more days". The life-size Kerry cut-out was held up to various bus windows and was kissed on more than one occasion.

This evening we have a rally with Barney Frank, the first openly gay US Congressman. Frank was actually outed after an indiscretion rather than choosing to come out, but this doesn't seem to have harmed his career - he subsequently stood for re-election on an openly gay ticket and is in his eleventh term in Congress.

Rendell supports equality

2004-10-31T01:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, so last night was the weirdest ever - and it's not even Hallowe'en yet. Liberty City took the governor of Pennsylvania on a tour of gay and lesbian bars in Philadelphia, getting out the vote and rallying the troops. Apparently, it's a lucky charm for Governor Ed Rendell, who does his gay tour before every election. All I can say is that they certainly love him here - every bar he entered was filled with screams and shouts, and he got masses of applause. Can't think of a politician who'd get even close to that reaction, not even Tony Blair entering a room of Labour Students ;-)

Anyway, we all got our photos taken with the gov, and waved the signs we'd been making all day on Friday like crazy. He seemed a bit bemused to be followed around by a bunch of Brits - or maybe that was just the seven foot drag queens, various fairies and goblins and the odd Queen Elizabeth who were all out on the streets last night!

Americans seem to go for Hallowe'en in a really big way - so much so that every news programme for the last week has concentrated on the crucial issue of what costume to wear, not analysis of that pesky election, or, heaven forbid, international news such as the state of Yasser Arafat's health or the crisis in Iraq. I also find it strange that such a consciously religious country goes so crazy for Hallowe'en - devout Christians that I knew growing up refused to take part in any festivities because it was a pagan festival, but that doesn't seem to trouble even churchgoing folks here.

Signs and wonders

2004-10-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

Today is the governor's lucky bar crawl, and also a party with some cast members from Queer as Folk, who are coming to support the campaign.On our way into the office this morning we stopped at a farmers' market and bought home-made produce from an Amish family. Lancaster County, just outside Philadelphia, is home to a large Amish population. While I knew this before we set off, it was still surprising to see people in Amish dress - even down to a baby in a car seat wearing a headscarf.

I'm John Kerry and I approve this message

2004-10-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

Another thing that's odd about elections here is that whilst there are almost no billboards advertising the candidates, the television commercials are ubiquitous! It's no surprise to watch through an ad break with five commercials, three of which are for candidates.

Some of them are straightforward contrasts of the messages and priorities of the candidates for a particular office - remember, here in PA they're electing members of congress, a senator, some state-wide offices as well as a President and VP. Many of the others are vicious - I've seen the swiftboat veterans for truth so many times now. One particular one that stands out is the anti-Ginny Schrader ads . She's a Democrat standing in the 8th congressional district, just outside Philly.

The ad goes: "Ginny Schrader's inexperience could be dangerous. She's supported by a far left group (caption: the Council for a Liveable World) which advocates deep cuts to the millitary. She raised funds through a far-left group (caption: MoveOn.org) which opposed millitary action against the Taliban in Afghanistan - the Taliban which condones kidnapping and rape of girls. In a dangerous world (caption: Munich, WTO, Madrid etc etc) can you afford to trust the inexperience of Ginny Schrader?"

Unbelievably, it doesn't mention who her opponent is. Thankfully, that race isn't a foregone conclusion.

One of the ads I hate most has the family of a 9-11 victim talking about their experiences, then the daughter of the victim telling us how George Bush hugged her when he came to her town. It finishes by saying "surely this is the type of man that we can trust to lead our country?" I'm left incredulous by it - if John Kerry or Bill Clinton or anyone with any ounce of compassion had met that young woman, surely they all would have reacted the same way? We're expected to vote for the President on the strength of him knowing that a hug was the appropriate reaction to a distraught bereaved young woman?!

2004-10-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

This way, Kerry can be on every street corner

Making placards to welcome the governor

2004-10-29T02:49:00.000-07:00

Get them to the polls on time

2004-10-29T02:48:00.000-07:00

As Antonia has said, there is no requirement here for electors to be sent information about where their polling place is. Added to that, the Philadelphia Republicans tried to get many polling stations in areas with large African-American populations moved (though their petition was denied). So one of the tasks we are undertaking is sitting on street corners with printouts of all the polling places in the city and which streets they serve. I spent the morning doing this outside a wonderful bookshop called Giovanni's Room (after the James Baldwin novel of the same name) and was able to help quite a few people find their polling place. This afternoon's task is to make placards to hold up at Governor Rendell's tour of the gay bars. Rendell is governor of Pennsylvania, but was previously Mayor of Philadelphia, and is very well thought of in the city. Photos of the placards will be posted when I find a PC with a free USB port!

2004-10-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

Feelings running high

Election schmelection

2004-10-28T04:21:00.000-07:00

Been on the street stalls all day, helping people find their polling places and referring them to the election commission if the not-infrequent circumstances that they haven't received a polling card or made a mistake on a form. I don't understand why this country, the most developed nation ever, can't get its elections right. Why don't they have rolling registration? Why doesn't everyone have to register like we do in the UK? And why don't they send everyone a card with their polling station's location?

With all the chaos in Florida, and the kerfuffles over the voting systems, why the bloody hell don't they just revert to the British system - an impartial, non-partisan appointed Electoral Commission, pencils, paper and counting by hand? I've spoken to too many African Americans who are worried about casting their ballot today for it all to be a fluke.

Meeting real Americans

2004-10-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about being here is the chance to meet real Americans - not just Rhodes scholars and tourists. Over the last few days, I've chatted to African Americans, Pakistani Americans, Polish Americans, a bunch of Latina high school kids, seniors, loads of union activists from the steelworks and boilermaking plants, older lesbian women, college students and all sorts of other people. So many people are so glad to meet us - I've counted 19 "I love your accent"s so far! But really, people are astonished and so pleased and grateful that we came so far to work on the election - even Republicans.

I met the chair of the PA Log Cabin Republicans (like the Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality - another pretty delusional group of people) the other other night. We disagreed vehemently on the American recession and Bush's economic policies. He said that the surplus inherited from Clinton would have been used up by whichever president followed him, as a result of the recession caused by three factors - the dotcom bust, 9/11 and the war on terror. I pointed out that all three affected the British economy too, but that under a centre left government, we'd not only avoided recession but had during the same period reached almost zero unemployment, raised the minimum wage and increased tax credits for working people. We agreed that we'd never agree on that point, but he thanked us for coming to America to work on the election, saying that he was touched by our obvious love for the US and for democracy. Sounds quite trite to type it, but I was moved - I can't imagine that reaction from a Tory under any circumstances.

Spreading Santorum

2004-10-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

So, in each state there are two US senators. Here in PA, they are Republican Arlen Specter (who we all hope is going to be defeated by Joe Hoeffer on Tuesday) and Republican Rick Santorum. Santorum is notoriously anti-gay - he said a few months ago "And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."

Anyway, some in the PA gay community have decided that a fitting punishment would be to name a particularly hardcore sex act after him - www.spreadingsantorum.com (don't click if you're of a sensitive disposition....)

American exceptionalism

2004-10-27T05:25:00.000-07:00

Well today has been more like the elections I'm used to - the routine but vital admin of making sure that all the canvass returns are on the database. So much about US politics is so different, it was really quite comforting to be doing something so familiar - although in the UK I've never had the experience of recording that a voter was in gaol so couldn't vote!

The thing that seems so strange is that the politicians are like showbiz stars - people queue for hours to see Kerry, Edwards and both the Clintons. And once you're in the venue, a school band plays the national anthem and then local candidates for lower positions (city council, attorneys etc) give lightning speeches of a few minutes each, that say very little about what they're standing for, but act as cheerleaders, getting the crowds to chant and sing. The best I saw was a guy called Angel Cruz, a Latino city council member in Reading, PA, who gave a bilingual speech and told a wonderful joke: "Jesus would be a Democrat - when he came to Jerusalem, he rode a donkey, not an elephant" - I didn't get it at the time, but you need to know that the Republican mascot is an elephant, and the Democrat mascot is a donkey! And in an election that's so focussed on proving that you're more religious than the other guy, really effective.

Anyway, to get back to my point. Then, before the main act (Clinton, Kerry etc), there's usually a gap of about an hour, with nothing going on - no warm-up act, nothing! Or maybe a little motivational music, but nothing more. I couldn't get over how patient all the huge crowds, many of whom must have taken the day off work, were. Personally it seemed really rude to me - to keep thousands of people hanging around. But then, American politics is different, as I'm increasingly finding.

Now, the fun part of my day - I'm off to the lesbian bars to leaflet the women enjoying happy hour...

Postcard from home

2004-10-27T04:40:00.000-07:00

The cat has sent me a picture of herself to show she is alive and well (thanks, Mat and Jess for helping her).

2004-10-27T02:16:00.000-07:00

Data entry Philadelphia style

Democratic Party offices, 1528 Walnut Street

2004-10-27T02:15:00.000-07:00

Today we were put to the familiar tasks of data entry and envelope stuffing. Voter i/d sheets here have a barcode for each elector, so the method is to use a wand to read the barcode, then the code for who they support from a laminated sheet (like the ones for loose fruit and baked goods in Sainsbury's) . It's between two and three times faster than doing the same task in labour.contact, which is good given the number of sheets of data there are to enter.

The city of Phildadelphia is expected to return Kerry with something like a 300,000 majority, but this has to cancel out the result in the rest of the state, which is more rural and conservative.

2004-10-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

One for Martin Salter

After the John and Bill show, the Edwards show

2004-10-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

John Edwards appeared today at the small town of Reading, PA and we were in the audience. He was extremely impressive, and has a lot of Southern charm (not as much as Clinton, but still quite a bit).

On the way, we stopped at a genuine American diner with juke boxes, and played Dixie Chicks tracks in the hope of annoying any Bush fans. Actually, we have come across virtually no Republicans since arriving here, but the building we are working from is opposite the Planned Parenthood offices, and there was an anti-choice demonstrator outside there this morning. He didn't seem to be doing much business, though.

2004-10-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

Tickertape remains

2004-10-25T05:59:00.000-07:00

Waiting for John and Bill

2004-10-25T05:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome wagon

Dispatch from the Liberty City Democrats office, 12th & Locust, Philadelphia

2004-10-25T05:40:00.000-07:00

Okay - so to get the narrative out of the way...

We landed at about 2pm on Sunday PA time - about 7pm UK time. Jon Snow was on our plane, so I guess Channel Four are covering the rally today. At Philadelphia International, a lovely guy called Dan with a big rainbow Kerry-Edwards placard picked us up. He took us to our billets - me, Katie and Josh to Naomi and Rie's, Liam to the JFK apartment and Liz to her B&B, and then gave us a bit of a tour around Philadelphia - it's a bit like the photos of Amsterdam I've seen, all tall houses and lots of trees. Everyone's been really lovely - so friendly and welcoming to a bunch of British Labour party activists, and it's true - they do love our accents! The "gaybourhood" is in the centre of Philadelphia - "Center City" - and the local Democratic party have given the Liberty City Democrats (lesbian and gay section) responsibility for getting out the vote in a large part of the city.

Today, we were at the Clinton-Kerry rally in central Philadelphia. We were really far back, so I doubt you'll see us on TV! Some of it was strange - there was a prayer at the beginning of the rally (!) and Patti La Belle sang the national anthem. Clinton was pretty fab, though he sounded unwell and not as compelling as usual - just a quick runthrough of his record as President, the standard Kerry-Edwards campaign lines. The reaction to him was amazing, though. So many people here seem really affected by the change in government - airline workers have taken a huge paycut - I think 21% - , and the figures of people who have lost their jobs and their health insurance in the last few years are staggering. Kerry was really very impressive in person - I don't think they do him justice in the media. I particularly liked the pledge to have healthcare for all citizens, as a right, not a privilege.

My feet are killing me after standing for hours waiting for them - we were there at nine, and they didn't speak until 1pm. The atmosphere was fabulous - everyone here is so motivated, been canvassing this afternoon and everyone is like - yes yes, we'll take a poster, we'll take a badge, of course we're going to vote... At the rally, there were loads of children whose parents had taken them out of school, students, OAPs, families - and the LGB section couldn't hand out badges and placards fast enough. Maybe today was a turning point? - www.election-map.com says Kerry's behind, but hanging on in PA, mainly due to Philadelphia turning out for him in droves.

Tomorrow to somewhere called Reading (not the one twenty miles down the road from Oxford!) to hear John Edwards speak, so I'll update soon.

The John and Bill show...

2004-10-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post this morning says Kerry and Clinton are rocking up in Philadelphia on Monday - hope we'll get to go!

"Former President Clinton will appear with Sen. John Kerry at a lunchtime rally in Philadelphia Monday in what Democrats hope will be a boost to the presidential ticket in a crucial battleground state."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48309-2004Oct20.html

Today's polls...

2004-10-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

For anyone who's getting obsessive about trying to keep up with the different polls, here's the best link I've yet found: www.electoral-vote.com. US elections aren't decided on the popular vote (otherwise we'd be working for the re-election of President Gore right now) but on the electoral college vote - a candidate needs to get 270 to win.

And today for the first time in ages, Kerry has pulled ahead - 284 to 247. In our adopted state of Pennsylvania, Kerry has pulled out of the margin of error for the first time since the late summer, and now stands at 51% to Bush's 45%.

Electoral-vote updates about 1pm our time every day with the latest polls.

Want to help?

2004-10-15T21:59:00.001-07:00

The Guardian helpfully points out that although foreigners can’t donate to US political parties, they can give to non-partisan groups whose activities have the practical effect of helping one candidate over the other, for example by fostering turnout by black voters. "It's quite clear that if there was 100% African-American turnout in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, John Kerry would win this election running away", it says. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an influential, well-organised body whose get-out-the-vote activities are extremely likely to end up helping the Democrats. https://www.naacp.org/contribute.php

Fourth estate

2004-10-15T04:23:00.000-07:00

The Philadelphia Enquirer is running a 21-day series of editorials about the election. You can read them at www.philly.com (you will need to create an account). Here are a few quotes from the initial piece on 10 October:

"[Kerry] thinks it's unacceptable that 45 million Americans lack health coverage; he has a smart plan to shrink that number dramatically".

"He was one of the first to spot and expose the scandal that came to be known as Iran-contra. He took the lead in unraveling the criminal deeds of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which financed drug cartels and terrorists. Finally, he worked well with John McCain and others to resolve the emotional issue of Vietnam MIAs".

"John Kerry isn't perfect. He has things to learn. One thing Americans should have learned by now, though, is that the incumbent lacks the realism, judgment and ability to adjust to events that the United States needs in its commander in chief".

Dramatis Personae

2004-10-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

The following people are going on the trip: Antonia Bance, Liam Curran, Liz Djilali, Katie Hanson, Kevin McKeever, Ben Miskell and Josh Peck.

(Edited by Antonia, 31st October in Philadelphia)

There are actually far more of us here - the seven above, plus Clair, Katie 2, Rachel, Seb, Andrew, Francis and Oliver. Fourteen Brits on the campaign trail!