From the latest johnkerry.com email:

I’ve spent the last week on the road from Seattle to Tacoma, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, New Haven, and Bridgeport – and this morning I’m back home in Quincy, Massachusetts – all campaigning for Barack Obama. The energy at these events has been nothing short of amazing – from 400 people standing in the rain in San Jose waiting to attend a town hall meeting to one hundred people standing in the cold in a backyard in New Haven.

It rained on Saturday!???!

You will all just have to pardon me, because I saw John Kerry two days ago. My internal organs are still on the liquidy side.

In the interest of being perfectly honest, I didn't wait in the aforementioned rain. It's been the coldest, rainiest, crappiest year I've experienced since moving to CA, and, after working, grabbing lunch, obsessing over my outfit, and making the drive to SJ, I had no intention of waiting in ANYTHING, let alone precipitaion. Mr. DC and I arrived at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose just as the doors opened, and the rain had either taken a break, or hadn't the nerve to fall when I was about to see John Kerry. We grabbed two of the few remaining seats, and I took off to find a ladies' room.

I fear I may have passed up the ultimate groupie opportunity at this point, because when I saw an official-looking man with an Obama button, and smiled, he asked me if I was looking for the "Holding Area." This presented a dilemma for me, because, had I been in top crafty form, I could have pretended to be the state senator or something, and possibly ensured myself 10 extra minutes with Senator Tall and Exciting. But, because I do feel it's a true breach of etiquette to attend a town hall meeting looking anything less than properly hydrated, the original purpose of my journey was sort of haunting me. So I powdered my nose and went back to my seat.

(I have to wonder if my invitation into the holding area wasn't some Karmic reward for the time I was covering a JK appearance for his blog and almost got kicked out of the Herbst Theatre for appearing to be some kind of loitering whore.)

To the sound of typical campaign tunes, the glass walls were opened up to accommodate crowd overflow - BRRR! - and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren kicked off the event with a very personal story: her mother-in-law had passed away the night before, and would probably not have been too pleased at the thought of Rep. Lofgren attending a campaign even just hours following her death. But the Congresswoman explained that the future, and Senator Obama's vision for it, were so important, she wanted to make a quick stop to voice her support for Senator Obama's candidacy. I could tell that this was an emotional experience not just for the Congresswoman, but also for her constituents, who obviously think the world of her. For a Congressional enthusiast like myself, that was nice to see.

She was followed by a couple of other speakers who got the crowd fired up and ready to go, but none so well as writer/director Luis Valdez, who is a San Jose native. His appearance at the even was so special, not just because he's an amazing speaker, but because I love hearing an artist's perspective on politics - and I love when artists aren't too vapid or uppity (or both!) to get up in front of people and say, "I care about this. This is important to me."

At least, I'm pretty sure it was special. During the last round of "Viva Obama!" and "Si, Se Puede!", I craned my neck, got a glimpse of a patch of JK's hair, and started silently freaking out in anticipation of all the awesome that was to follow.

During the obligatory playing of "No Defeat, No Surrender," lots of hands were shaken and hugs exchanged between the really hardcore folks in the front rows, and the Senator, who was looking very handsome and successful in a dark blue jacket, grey trousers, really nice shoes, a pinstriped shirt (blue and white), this tie. I LOVE this tie. I nicknamed it "Orange Crush" almost two years ago, because I look at JK in this tie, and experience true fashion infatuation. Among the other forms of infatuation.

It was really a big weekend for infatuation here in CA.

I don't have video of JK's initial remarks, but but Dr. Ron found some clips from that morning's San Francisco event, and there's plenty of content overlap.

I've seen JK speak before, and he always does it so well, that it's really become such a fun experience to be surrounded by lots of Democrats who are more familiar with the overly-processed, media-created "I'm John Kerry and I approve this message", and who are seeing the real thing for the first time. The same crowd who cheered with only moderate enthusiasm at JK's introduction was, within just a few minutes, on its feet over and over again, completely won over. Most of the "hecklers" in the audience who interrupted the action were actually just letting loose with spontaneous bursts of love: there was a sprinkling of "thank you for your service," the announcement that Michelle Obama would be in town the following evening, and an African-American man standing near my seat shouted, "We want YOU on the ticket, too!"

All of which, plus the exceedingly warm reception JK and THK received here last April, makes me want to invite the entire state of Massachusetts to the Bay Area to show them how to treat a senator. I mean, really!

The question and answer (or "Town Hall," as it were) was really amazing. I was so impressed by the quality of questions, and I thought JK outdid himself in the quality of his answers. I have to add my own voice to the chorus: Barack Obama's candidacy has truly been a force of inspiration in people's lives. I actually found myself tearing up through a lot of the exchanges, but I held back, because if there's ever that slight chance that I don't look like the biggest spaz in the room, I try to jump on it.When a few voices began the requisite impeachment chants, JK asserted that impeachment of the current administration is a great way to focus on the past rather than the future, and that the best way to impeach Bush and Co. is to elect leaders who want nothing to do with the Bush legacy. I expected some backlash at this response, but the crowd couldn't have been happier with it.

The final question, about the influence of lobbyists and special interests on legislators, was asked by a 12-year old boy, who unleashed a whole new wave of squee over the audience. There were a large number of children in attendance, and, because seating was in short supply, many of the kids were sitting, story-time style, on the floor in front of the rows of chairs. I regret not being able to snap a picture of this, because it was really sweet to see all those young faces tilting up toward the enormous senator, and I was really moved by the fact that their parents had felt decided it was safe enough to let them gather there. There's been such a sense of fear and paranoia permeating, like, everything over the the past eight years, and it can be really tough to go to a community event that isn't really short on community. I'd like to think that the mood of Obama events, the willingness to have a little faith in people, is something that we'll see a little more of if he's elected President.

While attempting to leave and head up to another town hall, this one in Sacramento, JK was mobbed - MOBBED - by the crowd, particularly the aforementioned children. Mr. DC did his best to make sure I didn't get trampled, while I did my best to secure autographs for the little girls who were risking trampling themselves. In this effort I failed, though, when a staffer began leading JK away, I managed some really impressive hurdle jumping over both crowd and stage and scored myself a good three seconds with the tall guy himself.

JK clearly didn't recognize me at first, which surprised me, as I could tell he'd seen me during the event. The best explanation for this is either that he recognized Mr. DC, who never changes, unlike me, who was sporting kind of an astronaut's-wife blowout, or that he'd seen the cartoon hearts coming out of my eyes, and kept looking over to try and figure out what the heck was up with the chick sporting the astronaut's-wife blowout. In any case, we shook hands, I told him I'd just wanted to say hi and thanks for coming, and, after the click of recognition, JK asked me twice if I was well, and I told him to be safe in Pakistan.

If you translate from the Senatese, and pretend we're living in Victorian times, we practically made out. And if you see Teresa this week, please tell her that was a joke.

After signing a couple of petitions, we headed back to the car just as the rain was about to start again.

Please Kerry On by voting on your primary day. It isn't just that it's so important, which it is - it's that we have a chance to choose something really wonderful, a better version of our country than we've gotten to see in a while.