I just came from the John Edwards block party over at Milwaukee's Humboldt Park. It was well attended, and the crowd was enthusiastic and patient considering many waited hours for the band to stop and the speeches to begin. The gates opened at 4:30, but the speeches didn't get underway until around 7:00. Mayor Tom Barrett opened up, and introduced Cate Edwards who in turn introduced her father.

The speech itself was the standard Edwards stump speech many are used to hearing. It appears the Kerry people are keeping him strictly on message and not letting him go off script. Therefore, it was a little disappointing having to cheer for the same lines we've heard again and again. It makes you realize how political campaigns have become more like commercials that pound a message home to consumers so they won't forget it.

Since the story this past week has been largely about these swift boat ads, Edwards spent about 10 minutes condemning the group and calling on President Bush to do the same. Yesterday, the Kerry campaign released a new video on its site likening these ads to the tactics used against Sen. John McCain in the 2000 Republican primary. It's obvious they want to beat this issue back and respond. It's risky in that you don't want the Bush campaign and their surrogates to define the debate, but Al Gore was widely criticized in 2000 for not responding to attacks and the Dems obviously don't want to repeat that mistake.