Cheney Campaign Hands out Loyalty Oath Forms, Kerry's Daughter Gives First Aid

Want to see your Vice President? Better sign the Loyalty Oath. Link to the Albuquerque Journal article by Jeff Jones: Obtaining Cheney Rally Ticket Requires Signing Bush Endorsement, taken from Atrios's Holden:

State Rep. Dan Foley, R-Roswell, speaking on behalf of the Republican Party, said Thursday that a "known Democrat operative group" was intending to try to crash Saturday's campaign rally at Rio Rancho Mid-High School.

Crash? Otherwise known as peacably assembling and petitioning one's government for a redress of grievances?

More seriously, folks, what's the point of giving a speech to people you know are already planning on voting for you? Well, obviously, to look good on television. And you might be a little jealous of the kind of turn out John Kerry and John Edwards can get going in steaming Scranton PA without loyalty oaths:

John Kerry and John Edwards made their first post-convention appearance in this recovering anthracite city during an event that took on the character of a rock concert. A hot, sweaty rock concert that began two hours late.
But 15,000 people braved what local officials described as the hottest day of the year while they waited for a fleet of Kerry/Edwards tour buses to arrive. Nearly 100 people had to be treated for heat exhaustion or dehydration, according to Scranton Fire Chief Tom Davis. ...A little after 3 p.m., a telephone call from Kerry was broadcast over loudspeakers to the crowd. He told the crowd he was just a few minutes away and advised them to drink lots of water.''Hang in there,'' he said. ''We're going to change America.''...
''It's a huge thing that this many people are willing to come out and stand in the heat to see John Kerry and John Edwards,'' said Mark Nevins, Kerry's campaign spokesman in Pennsylvania. Kerry campaign volunteers left the rally scene and returned with water cooler jugs and passed cups through the crowd.
Nevins took a case of water from the national media tent to hand out bottles to wheelchair-using senior citizens who were baking in the afternoon sun and dangerously high humidity. And when Kerry tried to introduce to the crowd his younger daughter, third-year medical student Vanessa, she had gone to administer first aid to a man who had passed out.

(Slightly reorderd grafs from an article in the Morning Call, by Daryl Nerl; link also from Atrios.) According to the Kerry Campaign Blog, thousands of people braved pouring rain in Greensburg, PA today.