DAVID SKOLNICK \ Politics Bush rally packs 'em in; Kerry hopes to, too
Even Republicans were stunned.
A rally by President Bush in the Democrat-dominated Mahoning Valley attracted about 15,000 people to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna.
Several Republicans joked that there aren't 15,000 of them in Mahoning and Trumbull counties combined.
While some people traveled from outside the Valley to attend the rally, it's fair to say most of the attendees were locals.
Drive through the Valley and you'll see plenty of Bush-Cheney signs. I live in Austintown, hardly a Republican community, and there are three Bush-Cheney signs on just my street.
The noise inside the Winner Aviation hangar was deafening at times. For the most part, the crowd reacted on cue.
If Bush or one of the other speakers said something designed to receive applause, the crowd was more than willing to comply. The mere mention of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, Bush's Democratic challenger, got loud boos from the audience, the intended reaction.
It was fascinating to see Bush catering to Valley Democrats, even though there couldn't have been more than a handful in the crowd. The speech was tailor-made to reach out to local Democrats.
The rally should give Bush a good feeling about the Valley. His campaign officials and supporters admit Bush won't win in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. Their goal is to keep Kerry's voting percentage in the two counties to the low 60s or less.
We'll have to see what Kerry does during his Saturday night rally in Warren's Courthouse Square. Attendance is the key. If Kerry can attract at least 10,000 people to his rally, it will energize Valley Democrats. Anything less than that would be an embarrassment.
I complained last week about Kerry's goose hunting trip in Springfield Township -- what a waste of time it was and how poorly it was planned.
Well, Kerry's campaign is certainly not alone in having planning problems.
You expect traffic and waits when you attend a rally for the president that attracts about 15,000 people.
But the logistics of the event made it exceptionally difficult for attendees to get in and out.
Those attending the rally had to show up quite early, wait in traffic, park their vehicles on the Ridge Road side of the airport and wait in long lines to board a bus that would take them to the event location. Once there, they had to get in another long line and go through a metal detector. For some, this took up to three hours.
After the event, people had to stand in long lines waiting to board buses -- and there were perhaps two dozen of them at best -- to get them back to their vehicles. The wait for the buses, for some, was three hours. Then they had to find their vehicles, and, for some, wait an hour or two to get out of the parking lot.
Believe me, there were some exceptionally angry people at that parking lot. Other Vindicator staffers and I were fortunate that Jean Neice, one of the newspaper photographers, was kind enough to drive to the airport, meet us at the main entrance, and drive us to our cars in the parking lot. We waited about 21/2 hours after the event to leave the airport.
Other than the long waits, many of those at the event enjoyed themselves.
Just like the wait to get out of the Bush event, this presidential campaign has been exceptionally long. The focus on Ohio, and even the Mahoning Valley, is amazing.
I never interviewed Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney. But those I interviewed read like a who's-who of the campaign, including Kerry and U.S. Sen. John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee. I've even turned down interviews. In normal presidential years, I would be thrilled to speak with U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden. But this wasn't a normal presidential year.
Come Wednesday morning, there's an excellent chance the people I interview now with such ease won't return my telephone calls.
I've certainly griped and goofed about events run by both campaigns with justification. But it's an experience I'll never forget. Probably in a few years, I'll even look back on it with fond memories.