On Sox coattails, Kerry displays his true colors
Senator enlists Springsteen at Wisconsin rally
MADISON, Wis. -- Yesterday, it was finally safe to wear the hat.
John F. Kerry may be a lifelong Red Sox fan, but he did not adjust his campaign schedule to catch the games, celebrate each victory with voters, or offer next-day commentary like so many opinionated diehards.
Yet after watching the final two innings Wednesday night, Kerry began high-fiving his aides and Secret Service agents and anyone else in sight, and still appeared ''visibly tickled" at a staff meeting in Toledo yesterday morning, according to senior adviser Mike McCurry. And suddenly, this 2004 Red Sox team, the meaning of their victory, and a possible halo effect for the Democratic campaign were all he wanted to talk about -- with his Red Sox hat firmly on his head.
''About a year ago, when things weren't going so well in my campaign, somebody called a radio talk show and they said -- thinking they were just cutting me right to the quick -- they said, 'John Kerry won't be president until the Red Sox win the World Series,' " Kerry said to roaring cheers at a Toledo rally yesterday morning. ''Well, we're on our way! We're on our way!"
Some Sox fans took Kerry's infamous ''Manny Ortiz" error last summer as a sign that he has never truly shed tears in Fenway, and there was some discussion among Kerry aides about whether an omnipresent Sox hat would tie up his (political) fortunes with the team's. Yet several aides emphasized that the Democrat is, in fact, superstitious, no more than when it came to the Curse; so wary was he of a jinx that he would not prepare remarks hailing a Red Sox victory until Keith Foulke left the mound in Game 4.
The Sox win, combined with singer Bruce Springsteen's appearance with Kerry at his second and third rally yesterday, provided a day of political theater for Kerry not seen since Vietnam veteran Jim Rassmann turned up in Iowa two days before the Democrat's victory in the Jan. 19 caucuses to tell how Kerry once saved his life. It was hardly dampened by Sox ace Curt Schilling's endorsement of President Bush yesterday, which Kerry did not mention.
Springsteen -- whose song ''No Surrender" is the anthem when Kerry enters campaign events -- helped draw some 80,000 people to the streets of Madison and earned a bear hug from Kerry.
''As a songwriter, I've written about America for 30 years -- I've tried to write about who we are, what we stand for, what we fight for, and I believe that these essential ideas of American identity are what's at stake on Nov. 2," said Springsteen, citing ''economic justice, healing the sick, health care," and other goals. ''That's why I'm here today to stand alongside Senator Kerry, and to tell you that the country we carry in our hearts is waiting."
Kerry followed up by saying, ''When George Bush heard that the Boss was playing with me and was going to be with me today, he thought they meant Dick Cheney."
Kerry and Springsteen plan to team up again at a rally Monday in Cleveland. Campaign aides also disclosed yesterday that the nominee will make his final campaign stretch through battlegrounds including Ohio, Florida, Michigan, and New Hampshire, as well as stay in Wisconsin Monday night and start Election Day there.
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com. 