Oracle Online

"I have lived in the bright light of America and that light is flickering. George Bush doesn't see that light. Dick Cheney doesn't see that light. But you see it."

A handful of local celebrities and politicians were also in attendance yesterday morning.

Sections of the crowd, who stood in a line that stretched from Hutton to the Drew Hall entrance, cheered former talk-show host Phil Donahue as he stepped from a car on Hewitt Ave., minutes before the doors opened at 7:30 a.m.

Donahue joined on stage actor Josh Hartnett and A Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor, and politicians including former Vice President Walter Mondale and U.S. Representative Betty McCollum.
Keillor emceed the event, which began when he stepped on the stage, paused, and said: "This is the morning before the day of the beginning of the end of the Bush administration."

The outspoken liberal mostly poked fun at Republican leadership, using his familiar, sarcasm-laced narrative style.

"Bush is a cheerful fellow with his sleeves rolled up, but reality has finally caught up with him," he said, adding, "It isn't that anybody hates him. It's just that we want him to stop doing what he's doing."
He introduced Josh Hartnett, a last-minute addition to Edwards' final local stop.

"Since when did this become a swing state, anyway?" asked Hartnett, incredulous, and then described his recent experiences in Japan, where he said positive perception of the U.S. is falling.

"The country has already started to slide in a direction we don't want it to. We have a chance now to pull back the reins before it gets too far."

He told voters to bring every friend they had to the polls, and challenged them to endure long election-day lines.

"Some of you have probably waited longer in line for a rock concert, and this election is way, way more important."

Edwards echoed Hartnett, telling the crowd some voters in Florida have waited up to five hours to cast ballots. He also agreed with Hartnett's assay of international perception, saying, "America used to be respected and looked up to in the world."

At times, Hutton was more of a revivalist tent than a gymnasium, as Edwards intoned several call-and-responses during his 20-minute stump speech, such as "Have health care costs risen?", to which
supporters voiced calls of affirmation.

"Do we want four more years of this?"

"No!" the audience responded, before breaking into a chant of "Hope is on the way!"

During his exit, Edwards made a lasting impression on one last student, when he hugged senior Nicole Brunsvold, who gasped, smiled, and hopped up and down a handful of times.

There was little Republican protest after the event, except for a small group on Hewitt Ave. chanting "Four more years!" and a driver on Snelling blowing an airhorn, coasting back and forth in a pickup truck emblazoned on one side with "4 million Christians did not vote in 2000," and "Vote Bush/Cheney 2004" on the other.

Elsewhere in Minnesota today, Bush chief of staff Andrew Card visited three Minnesota cities - Rochester, Duluth, and Moorhead - and members of Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth spoke in the City Center in downtown Minneapolis.

A USA Today-Gallop poll released today has Kerry leading Bush in Minnesota by a margin of 52 to 44 percent.