By Tim Thornton

Josh Meltzer/

John Kerry works a downtown Roanoke crowd Monday morning.

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    The Roanoke and New River valleys scored a rare double play Monday - visits from two presidential candidates, just hours apart. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry came to Roanoke; Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich visited Blacksburg.

    Nearly 1,000 people packed the blocked-off street in front of Roanoke's Fire Station No. 1 Monday to see Kerry.

    "We're here to mark the beginning of the end of the Bush presidency," he told the crowd. "Like father, like son. One term, and you're done."

    When Kucinich stepped onto the stage at Virginia Tech's Squires Student Center Monday night, nearly 700 people rose to applaud.

    "Our campaign is beginning to connect with people at the grass-roots level," Kucinich said. "This campaign is about relating to the real needs of the people."

    Both candidates are coming off one of the best weekends of their campaigns. Kerry won contests in Washington state, Michigan and Maine. Kucinich finished third in Washington and Maine, his best showings in the 14 delegate-picking contests the Democrats have held so far.

    Kerry has more than 400 delegates toward the 2,162 needed to secure the nomination, more than twice as many as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the candidate with the second-highest total. Kucinich has two delegates.

    Polls show Kerry far ahead of his rivals in Virginia and Tennessee, the states holding primaries today. Virginia Gov. Mark Warner endorsed Kerry on Sunday.

    While other presidential campaigns rolled into Roanoke in customized buses, Kucinich flew coach into Roanoke Regional Airport. A volunteer drove the congressman and one staffer to Blacksburg.

    "My entourage consist of the solitude of my conscience and the sanctity of my integrity," Kucinich said. "I'm not out to impress anybody."

    Kucinich has a long list of issues he wants to address, but it was the war in Iraq that got him in the race.

    "I never saw a lick of proof that would have required the United States to move against Iraq," he said. "I said it then. I was the guy who stood up and said this emperor has no clothes and the other guy has no weapons of mass destruction.

    "I'm passionately opposed to war and to this war in particular. Any nation has a right to defend itself, but any grade school quarterback knows the difference between defense and offense. We went on the offensive against Iraq."

    Kerry's road show rolled into Roanoke with bleachers, stages and a four-piece band. The stand for television cameras aimed at a picturesque backdrop. A stage filled with more than 40 Kerry supporters, most wearing yellow "Firefighters for Kerry" T-shirts and some waving Kerry signs. Behind them hung a Kerry banner and an American flag.

    When his speech ended, Kerry worked the line of barriers that kept the crowd from the stage in front of the firehouse, signing bumper stickers, signs, and shirts.

    During his speech Kerry outlined an ambitious list of goals, some he said he would accomplish through executive orders, some by working with Congress.

    The senator promised to take special-interest tax breaks out of the tax code, restrict lobbying by former government officials, and make meetings between public officials and lobbyists public information. Kerry also said he would treat health care as a right, and provide every American with health care as good as Congress has provided for itself.

    Saying, "I remember what it was like to be the cutting edge of American foreign policy," the Vietnam veteran criticized President Bush's handling of foreign policy in general and Iraq and North Korea in particular.

    Though Kerry made references to his military service and to the veterans in the crowd, he said he wasn't trying to denigrate Bush's time in the National Guard.

    "I think there are much bigger and more important things for us to be talking about in this election," Kerry said.

    But Kerry did say the Vietnam-era Guard was very different from the modern version.

    "Today the Guard has almost become active duty," he said.

    Not everyone in the crowd was convinced that Kerry offers a dramatic difference from Bush.

    Brian Long, a Dean supporter from Roanoke County, carried a sign into the street full of Kerry supporters. One side of the sign said "Vote for Kerry. He's slightly better than Bush." The other side said "Kerry = Bush on important issues."

    "We can't beat Bush with a clone," Long said. "We need someone with more substance, like Howard Dean."

    Kerry said he didn't see Long's sign, but it was wrong. Although he supported the No Child Left Behind act and other Bush programs, he doesn't support the way those programs have been put into action.

    "It's a question of implementation," Kerry said. "It's not a question of intention.

    "There was a right way to hold Saddam Hussein accountable and a wrong way. George Bush chose the wrong way."

    Although some of his opponents have said Kerry's election strategy discounts the importance of the South, Kerry said Monday that's simply not true.

    "I look forward to campaigning throughout the South."

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