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MASSILLON, Ohio - Comedian Billy Crystal teased John Kerry, "If you're having a good time, tell your face," but the dour-looking Democrat had an excuse for looking drawn Friday after scheduling 36 hours of nearly nonstop campaigning on both coasts plus a Midwest stop.
Kerry's marathon itinerary included campaigning in down-and-out Stark County, Ohio, sandwiched between swanky fundraisers in New York City and Los Angeles. The Los Angeles event was an A-list concert with artists such as Crystal, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck.
"Can we do this every night?" the presidential candidate said as the show wrapped up about 11 p.m. West coast time. "This is a great way to campaign."
He had arrived at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, former home of the Oscars, to find a glitzy crowd of 450 that included his concert entertainment dining on shrimp and filet mignon. He thanked the celebrities for being "willing to put themselves on the line - it's not something that everybody in show business chooses to do."
Kerry then rushed across the street to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, where he was lauded by the Hollywood lineup. Tickets ranged from $2,000 for the concert to $25,000 for a couple to attend the show and dinner. Crystal called the event, which raised $5-million for Kerry's campaign and the Democratic National Committee, "Woodstock for really, really rich people."
Streisand and Diamond performed their 1978 hit You Don't Bring Me Flowers together for the first time in 24 years. Streisand also sang a special 2004 election version of her song People.
"When the White House stationery reads President John Kerry," she crooned, "we'll be the luckiest people in the world."
"I'm having fun," a smiling Kerry told Crystal at the end of the show. "And my face got told."
Kerry was speaking two hours before he boarded his campaign charter for a four-hour redeye flight to Ohio, where he had to shrug off his fatigue to stump in the bellwether community that chose Republican George W. Bush four years ago.
The first Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter to visit this blue-collar county in northeastern Ohio, Kerry met with workers at a high school to talk about their economic woes, attributed to ongoing plant closings and mounting job losses. According to the Kerry campaign, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, the county has lost more than 12,000 jobs since 2001, and the state has lost 218,000 jobs.
"Nowhere in the country has felt it as hard as this area, the way you have taken it on the chin," Kerry told several hundred people in a town hall meeting, and thousands at rally afterward.
After the rally, Kerry swung by the Pro Football Hall of Fame before he boarded his plane for the third time in 24 hours, this time to New York for a fundraiser with lesbian, gay, transgendered and bisexual supporters at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Kerry took off late, as usual, then had to circle LaGuardia Airport for more than an hour because of bad weather, putting him 21/2 hours behind schedule.
Kerry's primary rival Howard Dean warmed up the donors as they waited by telling them he's going to work his tail off for Kerry. Except he didn't use the word "tail."
"All I can say is if the vice president of the United States is using the f-bomb on the Senate floor, I can use the a-word at an LGTB gathering," Dean said to laughter and applause from the crowd. They donated $1.8-million, split evenly between Kerry's campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Kerry's stop in New York was scheduled to be quick - just four hours before he was to turn around and head to his home in Washington and cap his 11/2-day tour.
- Information from the Washington Post was used in this report.