Wish I could have gone...

Hoarse in voice but strong in his words, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry appeared in Orlando last evening with his running mate John Edwards, the first time they had been at an event together since a rally in Ohio on the night President Bush accepted the Republican nomination. Earlier in the day the candidates were across Florida; Edwards in Tampa, Kerry in Jacksonville. Today Kerry will be in West Palm Beach while Edwards is in Miami.

It's good to see the gloves finally coming off. I do believe that if there was a mistake made in Kerry's campaign, it was focusing on his service in Vietnam instead of his 20 years in the United States Senate. While his military service and his opposition to the war afterward were honourable, that was 30 years ago...and his campaign people should have realized that Vietnam still is a touchy subject with many Americans from that period. Certainly there was/is plenty of good works over two decades serving the people of Massachusetts in the Senate that are more in line with what is important to more Americans today.

The debates will be incredibly important, probably moreso than any other time in the history of the genre, in determining who will win this election. That's just my opinion.