The big blue Jr. bus rolled into downtown Knoxville and Harold Ford Jr. gave an inspiring speech to a large, enthusiastic audience. He can work a crowd like an old time gospel preacher. He taps his foot in time to the cadence of his speech, sometimes stomping or marching a step or two. There were plenty of "amens" from the crowd.

I was taking photos instead of notes, but here's a summary from the best of our recollection.

One of his themes was change. Change in direction, change in politics as usual. Balancing the budget, reducing the deficit, standing up to Bush when he's wrong.

On the swift boat ads, he says it's too bad his opponent has to bring in $5 million of outside money to run a negative attack campaign. He says his opponent has no record to defend so all he can do is attack Ford's. Ford said "Shame on you Bob Corker for bringing swift boat politics to Tennessee."

On foreign policy he says we can't fight a global war on terror by ourselves. We need allies. He says Reagan won the cold war without launching a single missile, and it was because the world respected us. He says we have lost that respect over the past six years, and we need to get it back. He says we should never take force off the table as an option, but force should never be our first option.

On education, Congressman Ford noted that China is graduating more scientists and engineers than the U.S., and more English speaking scientists and engineers than we are. He said that if America is no longer competitive 20 years from now society can look back to this election as the turning point when we missed the opportunity prepare our next generation for the future.

He closed with "I am Harold Ford Jr. and I approve this message." And the crowd went wild.

More photos after the jump....

Swift boat critic mingles with the crowd

The Blue Bus arrives to a sea of Ford signs

David Keith welcomes Harold Ford Jr.

Madeline Rogero gives a rousing introduction

Ford calls out to the faithful

Ford makes a point

Harold has left the venue