Non-Amish Campaigning in Pennsylvania
Mark Nevins. One of my three battleground states. What more could one ask for? Thanks to Saheli and The Morning Call:

By Daryl Nerl
Of The Morning Call

SCRANTON | John Kerry and John Edwards made their first post-convention appearance in this recovering anthracite city....

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....

It's significant that Kerry picked Scranton — a socially conservative swing city with a reputation for supporting labor in a battleground state — to hold his first rally after accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president during this week's convention in Boston.

Scranton and Harrisburg were the first stops in a scheduled 21-state campaign tour.

''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....

One reason for the late arrival was a stop at a Wendy's restaurant in Newburgh, N.Y., so Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, could enjoy a wedding anniversary tradition. It was their 27th anniversary....

The first men to step off the bus were Secret Service agents, who nonetheless were greeted with screams and chants of ''Kerry! Kerry!''

The first man to the microphone was Hollywood screen star Ben Affleck, who was a highly visible presence at the Democratic convention. ''Oh my God! You're so hot!'' one girl yelled....

Scranton is trying to shed its image as a down-on-its luck and crumbling coal city. Doherty's office distributed a news release to the media touting more than $200 million in construction and infrastructure improvements taking place in the downtown....

Down the road in Harrisburg hours later, Kerry and Edwards rallied the faithful, hoping to energize their Democratic base to pull in much-needed votes in a historically Republican section of Pennsylvania....

The war in Iraq was on the mind of Robert Miller, an air traffic controller at Harrisburg International Airport.

''I believe if Kerry is not president, we're in big trouble,'' he said. ''If we continue the war, we're in big trouble. Ever hear of Vietnam?''

So, Miller is assuming Kerry will end the war?