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 Falls
Church, VA--August 23, 2003. The campaign reported that 4,500 people
turned out at Cherry Hill Park for the first stop of Gov. Dean's four-day,
nine-stop Sleepless Summer Tour. One of those, Ben Collins of Accokeek,
MD, said he is "looking for an alternative to Bush," whom he described
as "the scariest president we've had since Nixon." "He's changing
our entire society," Collins said. Collins said he is "definitely
interested" in Dean although he is concerned that Dean "might not have
the pull necessary to beat Bush." He is also considering Sen. Kerry,
whom he has been following since the 1970s. Sherry Padgett of Charlotte,
NC, woke up 4:00 a.m. to come to the rally. Despite some automotive
trouble, she and a group of four others set out from Charlotte, stopping
to pick up three more people in Durham. Padgett started learing about
Dean in May 2002, after seeing something about him on the Internet; an
article in the American Prospect also influenced her. She
attended the first Meet Up in Charlotte, which drew all of two people ("even
the host didn't show up.") "He is a straight talker," Padgett said. |
