John Kerry’s visit to Bowling Green created a flurry of activity in a town that normally sees little activity in the summer. An estimated 17,000 people filled the streets to hear Kerry speak.

The BG News was in attendance for his speech. We felt that while his speech resonated well with the crowd at hand, it didn’t have much substance, nor did he say anything we didn’t already hear from him–save that of a few local references.

His appearance at the corner of Main and Court came just three days removed from his national speech at the Democratic National Convention. Much of what he said on Sunday was taken from his speech at the convention.

Since he officially accepted the nomination last week, his speeches will become more and more neutral, in hopes of appeasing a greater audience. His promise was to create more jobs, improve the economy, and promise health care–a promise even right-wingers would love to hear.

His campaign is using terminology with a lot of emotion–words such as “believe,” “hope” and “dream” and phrases such as “top of the mountain” and “we can do better.”

However, Kerry has been saying all of this for a while. He has been criticized by several for not taking strong stances on issues.

In an ironic observation, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, a former presidential candidate, stood on the stage as Kerry spoke. Kucinich used to campaign in order to get the main candidates to discuss the important issues. Sunday, those issues were not addressed as Kucinich stood silent.

Even if his message was worn out, we did feel the energy all of last week when it was announced that Kerry would appear in BG. People from all over Northwest Ohio came to our town, and it no doubt helped local businesses.

Many of us believe that Kerry at least has a very strong chance of winning the election after attending the rally. There is a very strong anti-Bush sentiment throughout Northwest Ohio and throughout the United States. With small town visits such as the one on Sunday, Kerry can capitalize on that sentiment, and he needs not speak ill of Bush, but merely pander to the crowd with the same old messages.

Kerry’s campaign rolled through Ohio, one of the prized states in the electoral college. Toledo mayor Jack Ford, who attended the rally, said that no Republican has won the election without winning Ohio since about 1860. That fact will make Kerry supporters (or Bush haters) become excited and involved in the November election.

As for Kerry’s message on Sunday, we’ve heard it before. At the very least, he created a buzz around town we haven’t felt in a while.