Sleepless Summer Tour
Sleepless Summer TourFalls 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.
 

Copyright © 2003  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.