October 26, 2004 - Yesterday the President appeared at an outdoor venue in Greeley, Colorado. The few hundred who attended were required to obtain an admission ticket by going to Republican Headquarters and signing a statement that they supported the re-election of the President. When folks who wanted the opportunity to see the sitting President – the first in decades to visit the Colorado city - came to the gates of the fenced venue they were turned away. The selected audience booed on cue when the President mentioned “my opponent” in his stump speech. The camera panned the crowd and showed the wide open spaces of Colorado behind the fortunate few hundred.

Yesterday Senator Kerry with former President Bill Clinton at his side appeared at an out door venue in Philadelphia. No doubt the crowd was drawn by the star power of the former President’s first campaign appearance since his heart surgery. As far as the camera could see thousands packed Love Park, shoulder to shoulder, sidewalk to sidewalk. There were no tickets, there were no loyalty oaths and no one was turned away. The atmosphere was festive and the crowd reactions to both Senator Kerry and Bill Clinton had the sound of genuine spontaneity.

The back to back coverage of these two events televised on CNN at noon seemed to me to be a metaphor for the two candidates and their parties’ approach to the electorate and the business of government. One was tightly controlled, carefully scripted and excluded anyone who disagreed or was undecided so that the speaker was preaching to the choir. The other was open to all who might come, whether they were enthusiastic about the candidate, looking for more information on which to make their decision, or simply wanting to be present at an historic event.

Earlier in the campaign the President made a clumsy joke in which he referred to the exclusive audience at a black tie fundraiser as “the haves and the have-mores” and said that he called them “my base”. As I watched the contrast in the two rallies that remark echoed as I was reminded of the difference between drinking at the Country Club insulated from the hoi polloi and calling for a beer at the bar of a corner tavern surrounded by the real people who make up this country and built it with their hands and their brains. It is the difference between exclusion of the rest of us and inclusion of all of us.

That is the choice we face on November 2. Whether America will belong to the few true believers who hold the “right” opinions or will the rest of us take our country back?