John Kerry gets big hoots and hollers from the Faneuil Hall Crowd...

... in the middle of all the serious talk, the candidate hit a funny note. Kerry, whose campaign focuses on such heady business as his service during Vietnam, his long record in the U.S. Senate and his foreign policy experience, actually took a chance with a quirky joke. The quip flowed easily off his tongue and got big hoots and hollers from the crowd.

"Five thousand years ago, Moses said: 'Hitch up your camel, pick up your shovel and mount your ass. I'll lead you to the promised land,' " Kerry said. "Five thousand years later, Franklin Roosevelt said: 'Light up a Camel, throw down your shovel and sit on your ass. This is the promised land.' Today, George W. Bush lays off your camel, taxes your shovel, kicks your ass and says there is no promised land."


Earlier in the day John Kerry shared this bit of levity before heading to Boston from Manchester, New Hampshire...

"We're driving to Boston today to start on this campaign to change the course of America, and we're going to remove George Bush from the White House," Shaheen said. ". . . Men are dying in Iraq, and he's on vacation."

With his wife, Teresa, by his side, Kerry spoke for just a few minutes in Manchester. He joked that he'd just flown in on "Bushwhacker One."


Parting statement by John Kerry as they departed for Boston...

"Let's go down there and rock and roll," Kerry said to supporters and staffers in Manchester. "As we used to say before we'd saddle up for a mission, lock and load. Let's go out and do the job."


Read more in the Concord Monitor...