TAMPA - They warmed up the crowd with music. A touch of Eric Clapton, a splash of Fleetwood Mac.
"You say you want a revolution?" the Beatles sang from the speakers, and 2,000 faithful fans clapped in time.
Supporters of Democrat John Kerry were in a clapping mood Monday afternoon, even though their candidate trails President Bush in many pre-election polls across the country.
Kerry, introduced Monday by senators Bill Nelson and Bob Graham, lashed out at Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, his opposition to stem cell research, and the rising cost of health care.
The crowd inside the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center gave the Massachusetts senator 16 standing ovations during the span of an hour.
Kerry wasted no time pouncing on new revelations that the top U.S. commander in Iraq last winter had complained to the Pentagon that the Army lacked the supplies needed to counter the growing insurgency in Iraq.
He noted that the day after Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez wrote his letter about dire supply needs, the president said in a speech that the troops in Iraq were properly equipped.
"Despite the president's arrogant boasting that he's done everything right in Iraq and that he's made no mistakes, the truth is beginning to catch up with him," Kerry said. "It's a bitter truth."
Kerry said Bush's "mismanagement and incompetence" had endangered troops, emboldened terrorists and made America less safe.
"But despite all these facts, despite all these truths, the president still clings to the idea we're making progress," he said. "Mr. President, you can choose to ignore the facts, but in the end you can't hide the truth from the American people."
While he saved his harshest words for Bush's handling of Iraq, Kerry spent most of Monday talking about health care.
He bemoaned the rising costs of health care and the fact that nearly 45-million Americans have no coverage, 5-million more than when Bush took office. He chided Bush for allowing a shortage of flu vaccines.
Kerry vowed to give middle-class families access to better health care options, to cover all children, to allow the importation of less expensive prescription drugs from Canada and to let Medicare negotiate with drug companies for lower prices.
"Today is the first day you can vote here in Florida," Kerry said. "Today, Florida, today health care is on the ballot."
Earlier Monday, Kerry courted seniors at the sprawling Century Village condo complex in West Palm Beach. The campaign provided a caravan of vans to take people to early voting sites, though most of the enthusiastic crowd wandered home instead.
After 7-year-old Michael Benson of Boca Raton handed Kerry a basket with about $34 in it, Kerry called him onto the stage to ask him how he'd earned the money.
"I stole some from my dad," replied the boy, who also had emptied his piggy bank.
"This is going to help me get elected, and it's going to help you have a better America," Kerry told him as the crowd dominated by grandparents beamed.
With Republicans working hard to peel off traditionally Democratic Jewish voters, Kerry said he would be more engaged in the Middle East peace process and would do more to hold Arab countries accountable for funding terrorism.
"I'm proud to say to you, throughout my 20-year career in the United States Senate, I have a 100 percent record on every resolution, on every vote, on every appropriation, on everything that has made a difference to Israel's qualitative military edge," Kerry said. "I have been there and I will be there."
President Bush on Monday accused John Kerry of employing "shameless scare tactics" on Social Security and the military draft just before voters go to the polls. Kerry has said that Bush was planning a "January surprise" attempt to privatize Social Security if re-elected, and he has suggested that there might be "great potential" for a draft if Bush were re-elected.
After Monday's rally in Tampa, Kerry walked offstage as Bruce Springsteen's "No Surrender" blared from the speakers. He shook hands, posed for pictures, held a baby, then headed to Orlando for another early voting event .
-- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Howard Troxler: