Oprah - turning up the race card.

In the past few weeks, I have been seething with frustration at being away from New Hampshire. It is such a critical time.
And, heavens, there has been Oprah to contend with.
On that subject, perhaps it is better I am not there. The squillionaire TV star out on the campaign trail is just too much for me. My blood boils. Who the hell does she think she is? What a complete moron is Barak Obama for taking her onboard - as if he does not have the clout or the wit or the media interest and he needs to lean on her popularity. Well, that is probably so. Whenever one comes in contact with Obama, it is a suprisingly underwhelming experience. Anticlimactic. There is no "there" there. He is bland, bland, bland.
So, yes, he needs someone to grab attention on his behalf - and he has Oprah.
The only problem with this is that Oprah turns everything into a racial issue. Suddenly the fact that Obama is black becomes more important than it was or should be.
I think Oprah has an appalling cheek to use her media popularity in this way.
I think she thinks she has the power to control the vote - she thinks she is so bloody important. Oh, what money does to people.
What I don't think is that the voting public is easily suckered - and I suspect that she may have done Obama a disservice.
From this vast distance, I do not weep.

Instead, I quietly cheer for Hillary. By default, I think that egomaniacal Oprah has done her a favour.

As for trying to pin Joe Biden down on the race issue in the last Democratic debate. Oh really. Isn't it clear that the only candidate playing a race card is pushy Oprah?
Oops. Did I call her a candidate?

Hmmm.

Australian role model

Being on the other side of the world does not distance one from the campaigns of the primary. It clarifies them - crystal with objectivity. Connectivity is all - and so the reports and newsletters keep on coming in and one checks in with the campaign office sites and sees how the keen bean volunteers are going.

And, we have had the interesting phenomenon of our own campaigns here in Australia, our equivalent, a Federal Election - which delivers the Prime Minister in the form of the leader of the elected party.

We have just scored a new Prime Minister - and a government which moves from right to left, from conservative to liberal. It is an unfortunate irony that the Australian conservatives call themselves "liberal".

The election was a landslide to the left.

It omens well for the US and Hillary Clinton. The US is the last right wing government in the English-speaking world.

Around the world, people finally are rebelling against Iraq, economic rationalism, worker exploitation, dumbed down education, inequality in health care...

And so will it be in the US.

Fred's dubious bed-fellow

How sad one isn't about Fred Thompson's lovely fundraising disaster.
Thompson is going to have to stop flying for free on his buddy's jet - because the fundraiser friend has a criminal drug-dealing history.
Oh, how the Republicans targeted Hillary when they found a shadow in a fundraiser's history.
They had better eat their niggardly words.
And, accordiong to the LA Times, this embarrassment for the hideously egocentric quasi actor candidate co-incides with his pulling rank among the candidates - putting Huckabee in his place. Huckabee has been on the rise - which is unsurprising when one considers that, among the GPO drears, he is really quite personable and able to crack a joke. Of course, he is also a born-again and a creationist, all of which should eliminate him from all running as a presidential candidate. One wishes. It remains a bone-chilling worry. But there one has George W. Bush as president - an example of all the qualities on would dread.

The Mormon is doing well, too. I read that I am not supposed to refer to Romney by his religion but, guess what? I will refer to him however I wish - and the fact that he is a mormon is the first thing that comes to mind. The only thing that comes to mind.
The super conservatives are not mormons - they tend to be fundamentalist born-again types. But they see the mormon as one of their own - and they have given him their seal of approval. Very telling.

For those of us who believe in a separation of church and state - and who positively abhor all this religious extremism, this is something of a worry.

We pin our hopes on the Dems.

Put a sock in it, Barack

Now back in Australia, there is passionate frustration at being distanced from the campaign developments - which is absolutely ironic since the Internet age keeps me right up to date with every hop and hiccup. I am "virtually" there.
And, at the moment, railing with fury at Barack Obama for taking his negative campaigning.
At first, I was rather interested in Obama - the bright, young, black candidate. I watched carefully as he established a campaign. I went out and bought his books and read him - and I was even more impressed. He is very good with the written word.
Then I went along to see and hear him in person.
And I felt hollow.
All the positive feelings just melted...dripped into little puddles of disappointment.
There was now "there" there.
Something about Barack Obama was thin and insubstantial. Something about Barack Obama was not right. I could not put my finger on it. I just accepted the old gut feeling - and it was with relief.
He was absolutely no threat to Hillary Clinton as the best Democratic candidate.
He is not ready, not right, does not have the goods...

But he has stayed in there with a loud and enthusiastic youthful supporter base.
For all those who are new to politics, he is a dream candidate.

It is a marked sign of his unreadiness, his amateurism, his unworthiness that he has now turned his campaign not policies and the priorities of the nation but to attacking Hillary.

His idea of winning the race is not to be better but to cannibalise his own kind.
He should be gunning for the very dangerous Mitt Romney, that famous Mormon. Or the rising creationist Mike Huckabee.

Hillary has responded philosophically.
She does not need to rear up and make a fuss. She has suggested that he replace the old negativity with a bit of hope. And she is just getting on with it.

Which is one reason that she shines on as the primary primary candidate.

Hills and the MySpace outreach

Never slow on the uptake, Hillary, one notes, has been campaigning brilliantly from within the ranks of youth. There are several worlds in which to sustain a profile these days. The classic hustings of the trail, the stump speeches from town to town, and then there are the "other" towns, the virtual communities which are huge, powerful and often cohesive.
Hillary has sustained a strong presence on MySpace which is virtual home to a daunting mass of brightly bubbling young people as well as much of the music industry. I am told that if you are in the music business, a MySpace page is de rigeur.
If you are trying to communicate with music consumers, with young people generally, MySpace also is de rigeur.
Hillary's team was quick to put her in there and to know how to escalate the message. Some 14703 have signed up as her friends and thus are eligible to receive postings of her blog. The blog is posted regularly - clear and coherent policies right there in your face, so to speak.
Today she talks about education, the most valuable investment the country can make.
It costs a fortune. Hillary suggests:


* Lowering the cost of college through a $3,500 tuition tax credit, enough to cover more than 50% of the cost of tuition at the average public institution for many families.
* Increasing the Pell Grant.
* Strengthening community colleges and training programs.
* Improving college graduation rates.
* Providing additional aid for people who do public service.
* Simplifying student aid.
* Providing clear information about the real cost of college well in advance to help families plan.

Meanwhile, here's to AL GORE, the first man since George Bernard Shaw to win both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize.
Perhaps the Nobel prize may make some of the American anti-environmentalist right wingers wake up, just a little bit. Or will they only think the prize is a commie conspiracy?

The Fred factor

Now Fred Thompson has had his first official exposure on the dais amid the hard-working lineup of Republican presidential candidates, the political pundits, endlessly and laboriously chewing the cud of opine, seem to have pronounced him okay.
Not great. But at least a fresh face.
If you could call that overexposed face "fresh".
In fact there is nothing fresh about Fred. He is a tedious ego.
I thought his attitude in the Republican debate was patronising. Quite frankly, he gives the impression that he thinks he is just such a star that becoming president would be a come-down.
The media questions him for laziness and commitment. Good questions.
But the public, especially in America, has an inbuilt admiration not just for successful people but for television stars. Despite the fact that he is potentially a worse president than Bush, despite the fact that his first debate was beyond lacklustre, despite the fact that he could not be bothered to exert himself in campaigning like the others and entered the race at the last possible moment...despite all, there are lots of wide-eyed fools out there who are agog with excitement about him - and he will probably fare well in the polls.

It should all make more sense.
One can only hope that common sense prevails and, in the end of the day next November, all the Republican candidates are irrelevant.

Hillary - racing like a thoroughbred

The Iowa caucuses are just a couple of months away. So is the New Hampshire primary, come to think of it. The year has been racing forth mercilessly.
I continue to admire the incredible stamina of the leading candidates in sustaining the pace required to get the message across, meet the people, raise the profile…
Hillary now is so solidly in the lead that one has to fear that the opponents’ dirty tricks campaign are around the next corner. It has been a pleasure to watch her, the thoroughbred of political candidates, pull out into first place and keep the pace up without a backward glance.
Obama, who has never missed a chance to have a snipe at Hillary, has ramped up his television advertising in a last-minute bid to catch up with Hillary. But, last month he failed to show up for a Democratic debate in Iowa. What a mistake. I am not sure what his reason was but it was a golden opportunity for Hillary to shine – and she did.
The more she is diligently and consistently out there, the more the people are realising that she has depth and experience. She is spectacularly well informed and, oh my, she is disciplined and she is strong.

I have not mentioned John Edwards for ages – because he really isn’t worth a mention. He has campaigned with great confidence and determination yet again. But he simply is not “it”. The daddy working for the mill patter now is tired and no one will forget that $400 haircut. It was the lethal misstep. That is all it takes in politics.

Obama has not made one, but there is still time. He is the Howard Dean of this primary – boosted by noisy young. But the young are flighty. I’ll take a punt that half his support base has not even registered to vote.

Hillary has had a couple of close shaves, if one is to believe the beat-ups of Fox news. But, the more solidly she leads the pack, the more respectful the detractors seem to be becoming, as if readying themselves to accept her as president.
Even the old chestnut of how “polarising” Hillary is has not been getting much ink in the media.

Ah, yes, things are looking pretty good.

Hillary's roadies

Sometimes the grass roots are positively verdant.
They line the roads.

Today Hillary's grass roots supporters, along with those of the other candidates, are converging simply to stand on the verges. They are driving and taking buses to Hanover to make an impressive rain or shine showing, waving placards, smiling and chanting her motto on the route to the latest debate.
This is not just part of the colour and theatre of the presidential primary process - but it is a demonstration of the enthusiastic commitment of the supporter base.
It is a surprisingly effective gesture, especially so far as the international media is concerned. The power of the people reflects the power of the candidate's position.


Hanover is a wonderful town - the Dartmouth university town in the north of New Hampshire. It is the place that Bill Bryson finally chose and settled in after his quest to find the perfect America town.

Doing the hard yards

It'd s game of stamina and determination as the candidates roll on towards the yet-to-be-revealed NH Primary date at year's end. They must be getting sick of the sound of their own voices. I know I am a bit tired of hearind the same things said over and over - even when I agree with the sentiments.

On Sept. 18, calling for raised capital gains taxes and tax relief aimed at elderly and middle-class Americans, Barack Obama said: "If you talk about this in polite company, sooner or later you’ll get accused of waging class warfare. As if it’s distasteful to point out that some CEO’s make more in 10 minutes than a worker makes in 10 months."

Don't hold the presses.
Those are the same words he uttered when I heard him in the Nashua Seniors Centre months ago.
No blame to Barack. Hillary is repeating herself, too, albeit that she has saved a few goodies such as the health plan details to give the media a new hook here and there.
They are all repeating themselves, except for the ghastly Fred Thompson who has yet to say anything worth repeating.

This is an epic campaign, testing the strength and staying power of all the candidates. Having seen close up the schedules they keep as they sweep through the states and the myriad fairs, garden parties, town hall meetings, rallies and campaign office visits, one comes to realise that these presidential hopefuls are doing the hard, hard yards. Astronauts have it easy by comparison.

To big for presidential boots

Oh, my, talk about the star making the late entrance.
Fred Thompson has finally declared his intention to run as a candidate in the Republican presidential primary.
Surprise it is not, since he has been campaigning for months. No, it's a big yawn.
What is surprising, however, is the aggressively bad taste of his choice of time and place.
With things coming down to the bone in Iowa, the other candidates were hammering it out in the fiestiest CNN GOP debate yet.
Fred chose to hang back from lining up on a stage with them.
Those politicians are not really his own kind.
Fred is a better kind.
He is a showbiz star. He can rub shoulders with the popular boys.
And so he chose to declare his intention to run as a candidate for president to Jay Leno.
Jay is his kind.
After all, more people would be watching the Tonight Show than the debate, surely.
I am not sure what are the ethics of this sort of manipulation of the media. Jay may think it is a bit of a scoop to have that second-rate actor making his declaration on his show but, truth is, the second-rate actor with presidential ambitions was using Jay and Jay's popularity for his own ends.
It is sleazy.
But the star has shown his hand. He has shown that he believes the voters will be more swayed by his celebrity than by the political positions of his rivals.
He patronises the public with this assumption - the assumption that they are all shallow idiots blinded by fame and oblivious to national priorities.

One can only hope that he is wrong.

Michigan, the ugly

The role that New Hampshire plays in US presidential politics as the primary state geared my impetus for writing this blog. Swept into the state's hands-on action in the run-up to the 2004 election, I was wide-eyed with admiration. This, truly, is the democratic process, I thought. This is the people connecting with their politicians, putting them on the spot, picking holes in policies... This is the politicians, being tested on every level from stamina on the gruelling schedules to quick-thinking in the genuinely open forum conditions of house parties and town hall meetings. New Hampshire has been the first primary state for a very long time and its inhabitants have taken their role almost as a constitutional responsibility on behalf of the rest of their vast country. They are the nation's testing ground.

The old entrepreneurial spirit of America, however, turns out to be incompatible with this concept. The entrepreneurial spirit sees campaign expenses as a potential profit line. Politics be damned. Look at all that money!

Hence, the ugly jostle to steal dates, to push the primary dates forward until the first primary becomes meaningless.

Michigan is the latest culprit, going for January 15. That steals a month from the old schedule and pushes the primary primary and caucus states to yet earlier dates just to keep the status quo. It also forces the candidates to put more resources into Michigan - and that is what the game is all about. It is not that Michigan's 10 million people are in the least bit interested in taking on the political scrutiny game or even that they could. The sort of hands-on scrutiny that takes place in New Hampshire can only happen in the manageable demographics of a 1.3 million-strong New Hampshire, not in a hugely populous state. House parties in Detroit, population 5 million? Whose house is big enough? Intimate political contact is not a mass activity.
Mass political communication is - guess what? Advertising.
Hence, what Michigan seeks to achieve is to harness the campaign dollars into television advertising campaigns in Michigan. Forget human contact, genuine scrutiny of candidates and their policies. Let's have your dollars and whoever has the best advertising agency can win the presidency.
This is the short-sighted and mean-minded campaign now being waged in the USA. "Entrepreneur" is another word for "get rich quick" or "greedy". By definittion, entrepreneurship lacks wisdom, foresight or magnanimity.
These US states playing ugly entrepreneur games with the presidential primary are doing a serious disservice to their country.

Joe Biden, Democrat presidential candidate from the tiny state of Delaware, put it very well:


"Powerful interests are trying to change the Democratic nomination for President into a game of Monopoly, replacing the retail politics of Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire with a process in which the only credential necessary to be President is to be the wealthiest candidate.
Under the current calendar, voters can regularly meet candidates in their homes, town halls and diners. This provides an almost one on one opportunity to hold candidates accountable for their ideas and records for solving the most pressing issues facing this country. The communities of Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire provide a diverse array of voters and a level playing field for candidates to compete in, as a lead up to the larger states which will decide who the next Democratic nominee will be for President.

I call upon all of my fellow Democratic candidates to reaffirm their support for the retail role Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire and publicly ask their supporters, such as Democratic Senate Leader Mark Schauer, and Governor Granholm to oppose any attempts to break the Democratic National Committee’s “calendar window” as Republicans did in Florida on behalf of Mitt Romney.”

Hillary the nutcracker

When first I saw this satirical object, my hackles rose. Hillary, the nut-cracker?
But, then I thought about it. Hillary, the nutcracker, is no bad thing.
The symbolism here is not what the makers intended.

It is about time that the nuts were cracked.

I would never call myself a card-carrying feminist since I despise sexism of any ilk.
However, the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld patriarchy, the patronising attitudes, the macho hubris...these need cracking, cracked down upon, crunched into the miserable place they will assume in the history books.

Hillary the nutcracker is a fine campaign tool.
I want one.

Hillary's hissy fit

Hillary was angry about the China scandal."I don't want to eat bad food from China or have my children having toys that are going to get them sick," she exploded. You could almost see the steam coming from her ears in the last Democratic debate. And, she was right to be overtly furious and not evasively nodding towards free trade, as were so many of the other presidential candidates. It is not good enough that China is flooding the US and the rest of the world with poisons - not just lead paint on toys but polluted toothpastes and contaminated dogfoods. A proper leader would be making a stand. Hillary is the only politician yet heard with genuine anger in the voice. Barack Obama is just missing the point altogether. "China is not yet our enemy. China is a competitor," he says. Oh, really?


Barack has other things on his mind. He has been back in New Hampshire giving the state lots of attention as the primary comes closer - perhaps closer than we all thought, since with the other states jostling and grabbing at earlier dates, it will probably be in December. Oh yes, it is later than we think.


Barack continues to look to the youth vote, the fun vote. In the cut and thrust of serious politics and with the country at war, he told his Nashua crowd on Monday: "We have the most fun, the best music." He will have the New Hampshire motto "Live Free or Die" tattooed on his back, he laughs, acknowledging that New Hampshire is the nation's "due diligence" test on presidential primary candidates.
He definitely has the youngest supporter base and, as they are as enthusiastic as they are young. They remind me of the Deaniacs of the Howard Dean campaign of 2004. And, I'm still not sure what is beneath the BO surface. I'd like to hear more substance and less Hillary bashing from him.

Making a blonde joke of politics

Now it is the Romney Girls - ditsy blonde triplets who seem to have been employed to be the YouTube campaign answer to the Obama girl. They are so vapid that they make Obama girl look like Einstein.

Why do they like Romney?
"He's so handsome!"
Would they vote for him?
Giggle. "Why not!"

The lowest common denominator scrapes the bottom of the barrel. The Britney/Paris syndrome of mindless, underdressed publicity-hungry bimbos creeps insidiously into politics - mocking the crucial issues behind the political process, not to mention the concept of the educated vote. I get the feeling that fundamentalist Christians and moronic sex kittens now are holding political hands. That, at least, amuses me, albeit in a sour way.

Campaigns are moving steadily onto YouTube and MySpace - desperately seeking a popularist image. The illusion lies in the demographic they find - lots of young people who can't vote at all and certainly are not going to listen to serious policy when they can have titillating footage of scantily-dressed airheads.

Ironically, the dividend comes from the old media mainstream - the television news and the print media - wherein newsrooms now monitor the Internet as a source of prime time news thus efficiently on-feeding the online ga-ga gimmickry to the conventional news consumer.

One can only hope that the news consumer sees this cheapening sexy nonsense for what it is.

Waitress puts the Mitt up

How out of touch is Mitt Romney?
Absurdly!
First we hear the story, reported with gawking shock by the Utah media, of the waitress who dared to challenge the Mormon presidential candidate on the issue of health care. A mere waitress in a mere diner! Not only did she challenge the millionaire Republican but also she answered back and interrupted!
A number of people have forwarded reports of this encounter to me with varied comments, mainly astonishment at the Red Arrow diner waitress's daring. Of course, these were not New Hampshire people. The whole point is that this was a waitress in a New Hampshire diner and she had every right and then some to question this or any other presidential candidate. New Hampshire is the barometer state, the first primary and its voters take their role very seriously. Yes, waitresses and all! The other states pushing and shoving for a run at being first primary state are pissing into the wind if they think they can replicate the educated political people power of New Hampshire. Not that they would care, since their quest is simply to "have" or be "first" - not to improve the political process.
Indeed, opportunities for the likes of the New Hampshire waitress to speak up would go right down the sycophantic drain.

It is quite possible, although not probable, that the daring New Hampshire waitress was a Republican. In New Hampshire, party loyalty is no impediment to asking the hard questions and putting candidates on the spot. Quite the opposite, really. I saw Rudy Giuliani's besuited brown-nosers asking quite confronting questions. I have most certainly seen the Hillary supporters putting her on the spot on issues.
The New Hampshire voters test the candidates through and through.

Romney seemed askance at the waitress's impertinence and his response seemed blustering. He did not seem to realise that he was in New Hampshire and not Massachusetts, referring to his health care reforms as Governor of Massachusetts. These had no application in NH, of course.
One might forgive the campaigning candidates for getting a bit confused as to which state they are in as they whirl around the country - unless it is NH.
Mitt is out of touch.

Yet more so in the things he has been telling the Granite Staters.

"I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman," he told the Union Leader when asked if he will take part in a YouTube/CNN Republican debate in September.

Glib answer, Mitt. But, oh, so wrong.
The YouTube snowman is not simply genuine incarnation of today's voter, he represents a vast and powerful generation. You are just out of touch with the people, Mitt Romney. And you sound embarrassingly arrogant, to boot.

The millionaire Mormon also acknowledged that he had flown F-16s and shot Uzis and an AK 47s.
"They're fun, but I don't think anyone is suggesting that these kinds of weapons are going to be in the public domain," he said. Huh? Eh? Where is this man coming from?

Frighteningly, he is the Republican front-runner and it is where he is going that we have to worry about.



(pic - with thanks to Flickr MittRomney photopool)

Political strategists in the mix

Sometimes one wonders just who is the real candidate.
I have no doubts about Hillary Clinton. She is the old hand. This is not her first time at the rodeo, so to speak. She has now spent decades in among the strategists, handlers, staffers and keen-bean volunteers. She has observed them from varied perspectives and I am pretty damned sure she is a step ahead of them and well aware of their assorted ambitions and motives.
Political strategists are both ally and encumbrance in the electoral process. One sees candidates fall into desperate holes thanks to the misguided directions of their strategists and, oh my, haven't we been seeing some firing, drop-outs and swerves of allegiance among the staffers as the primary plays out!
Hillary's association with the Mandy Grunwalds of this world go far back to a point of mutual understanding - or so I choose to think, having done the archival Hillary reading.
I see Mandy still there, a strong shadow in the scheme of things. Indeed, perhaps a stressed shadow, since last spotted on the campaign trail, she seemed to have put on a few pounds. Fast foods on rushed schedules, comfort foods in late night hotel rooms..?
I had an interesting insight into some of the localised campaign strategising for Hillary and, while charmed by the quality of some of the dedicated Democratic support, I found myself a little underwhelmed by the concepts of strategy. Well, put it this way, I've been to a few rodeos in my time, too, and there is not a lot I have not run into before. Oddly, there was no encouragement for us to put forth ideas. Strategic mistake. But it matters not a jot in this context, since all Hillary really needs to win votes is to be heard. Hardened cynics swing into her camp the moment they have actually seen and heard her on the stump! I've watched it happening!

Barack Obama, on the other hand, is surging towards a huge tumble as he follows the leads of his strategists who would seem to be urging him to "show some balls".
So he is uttering warmongering words - threatening Pakistan, for heaven's sake.
"The war we need to win" he touts - the chase for Osama bin Laden and al Quaeda. His latest campaign push is based on this strategy - and one can only assume it has been directed by strategists who seek to lure votes from the Right.

"Political masterminds have transformed the candidate from a political visionary into an electoral product like every other presidential aspirant", writes Chicago Times op ed columnist Salim Muwakkil.

Mukakkil has known Obama since the early 90s and offers dismal observations on the path that his campaign has been taking. He looks at the strategists. I look at the strategists. These people have their own agendas. They are potentially dangerous.

Indeed, they are a study in themselves - as are so many of the young staffers, each so very anxious to claim a piece of the action, the ingenuous quest for self-aggrandizement posing all manner of subtle problems for the smooth forward movement of the message.

With devotion and enthusiasm comes paranoia and territorial imperative.

The successful candidate will prevail, not because of their staff, but despite them.

YouTube marries CNN - debate update

My brush with CNN in the context of its media facilities New Hampshire Democratic debate has turned me into something of a CNN fan. Hence I was not surprised to see the news station recognising the Internet not only as a resource but as a media partner and creating the bright new phenomenon of a co-hosting arrangement with YouTube. In many ways, this was more significant than the South Carolina Democratic debate it embraced. It was media history.

Of course, a lot of secrecy and fuss surrounded the questions submitted to the Debate via you Tube. No one wanted to blow the pioneer partnership before the event - so the teasers told us of the quantities of questions submitted and the fact that they would be screened.
One has to note that YouTube now is a vibrant political playground. All the presidential candidates have posted video in YouTube and there is a mass of political satire and commentary available amid the piano-playing cats, pratfalls and teen showoffs on the video-sharing empire which, I may add, is only two years old and already is a household name which was sold to Google for something like $1.6 billion.

It is realistic to see YouTube as a player in the political progress - and a brilliant idea to encompass its global participating in the American political process.

It also made for a livelier and more interesting debate with video questions from all sorts of people all over the place.

So, the big and usual question: Who won the South Carolina Democratic debate?

Of course I am going to say Hillary did.
There in her vivid magenta in the line-up of besuited men, she was as much as visual stand-out as she was a political one.


The more of these debates they do, the more the New York Senator shines.
She never has to try. She is simply serene and authoritative, confident and ready.
One reads the ongoing polls and observes the public reticence which holds her back - the old baggage being carted around by those who are stuck in a time-warp of media negativity from the old Whitehouse days when she was cutting her teeth, so to speak. One by one, they come around as they have any direct contact with Hillary. That is all it takes. That is the transformative moment.

The other Democratic candidates realise this and are working hard to compete. It is a bit sad in some ways. They are an impressive lineup, exceptional politicians each and every one.

Barack Obama continues to breathe down Hillary's neck - and his media performance improves steadily.
He fronted well in the debate.
He did, however, look alarmingly thin. If he was lean and hungry before, he is a bit gaunt in front of the camera now. Not good. The stress showing? Perhaps he should have kept on smoking. I am disappointed that he caved in on the smoking thing.



John Edwards, as a Southerner, was in home territory in this debate and he was just as shiny and gorgeous as ever. A very telegenic man. He is handsome and comfortable in the medium and he fared well.

Very tellingly, both Edwards and Obama showed the face of their fear of Hillary by sniping at her and her policies. She sniped at no one.

Joe Biden always presents well in debate and he did so again in this one.


Bill Richardson, a particularly classy and worthy candidate, never seems to come over as well on the electronic media. He may be a better candidate than Biden, but he is always pipped on the television.
Chris Dodd seemed a bit stodgy - despite the airing of his own YouTube advertisement which is all about the qualifications of his thick head of white hair.

Mike Gavel might have been on the end of the line but he was in the forefront of the camera when it panned from the YouTube screen to the candidates - and he got a lot of visual prominence, if not so much in spoken word.
One of the reasons for the latter was the fairly peremptory way in which he answered the questions. He has taken gruff to the extreme. He is pouting and snarling like a rather jealous loser - which is a pity.

Dennis Kucinich is a regular loser in the presidential candidate stakes and he does the whole thing with panache and good spirit. He will never admit defeat - and he knows he has a lot of important egalitarian messages to convey and he will use the platform to keep the true left alive.

The more of these debates they do, the more obvious it becomes that there are really just the three runners - Clinton, Obama and Edwards, in that order.

Calling for Hillary

Behind the scenes, there is the hard grind of campaigning - none of it harder than working the phone bank.
I was among the few brave hearts of the Hillary campaign out there working through Nashua and Hudson phone numbers on this steamy, stormy New Hampshire night. And I do mean brave. This is not a chore for the shy, faint-hearted or super-sensitive. It is the work of valiant heroes, of true believers, of eternal optimists. Yes, we brave few.

Since the Nashua campaign office is still not quite finished, we were allowed the after-hours facilities of an ophthalmic practice where, with cheat sheet in hand, we four worked our way through the phone lists provided by Kristen, our organiser of the night.
We callers were a wonderfully representative mix: a senior, a college student, a committed Democratic activist and me, the supporter with outsider perspective.
Of course, almost everyone hates unsolicited phone calls and, indeed, they now are illegal. These political calls are exempt from the bans and, the people listed have, at some time, expressed interest in the primary. Not that you'd know it.

There is a fair share of hang-ups and blunt rejections. A lot of the 114 people I phoned tonight were either out or had their phones on answer. They are thus registered on the call sheets and another attempt to speak to them will be made on another night.

Our aim tonight was to ascertain who may be a certain vote for Hillary and, therefore, perhaps willing to be a volunteer. We then worked in incrementals: those leaning towards Hillary, those undecided, leaning away or anti-Hillary. If they were not pro-Hillary, we asked which other candidate they preferred and what issues concerned them. Well, if we got that far.
Mostly it was answering machines and automated responses which rejected calls without caller ID.

When I scored my target person it was: "Hi there. This is Samela calling for the Hillary Clinton campaign in New Hampshire - just checking in to see if you have yet decided for whom you might be voting in the primary?"
I found that, if I said it very fast, they were more inclined to answer.

There were people who hung up the moment they realised I was a political call. Oh what relish some of them took in that gesture. Only one of my hang-ups was polite about it: "Have a nice day - CLUNK". It was really very refreshing.

Then there was an angry independent who demanded to be taken off the list - and, worst of all, a woman who said she was not interested in Hillary and, when I asked if any of the other candidates interested her, she said "No, I'm a Republican". Ouch!


Of those Democrat voters who chose to discuss the primary, it was the issues of health care and the Iraq War or the Iraq War and health care which concerned them.
Of the other candidates, only Barack Obama and John Edwards were mentioned as rival choices. Those voters who were already firmly decided on Hillary Clinton were really enthusiastic and all to keen to sing the Senator's praises and enumerate the reasons for their choice - intelligence, strength, experience, values, policies...

There are a lot more of these calls to be made as the primary progresses in New Hampshire - hopefully each wave bringing in more and more positive feedback. And, of course, the other campaigns will be doing it, too. These New Hampshire voters are under intense scrutiny. They are still the "gateway" electorate - the vote that matters.


Let's hope their patience holds up.
Certainly, the experience of being the one making the calls has changed the way for ever after that I will respond to any similar callers. Even when I want to hang up, I shall do it with kindness. Now I know just what good people are on the other end of the line.

The Hill and Bill show

Ready for Change, Ready to Lead is the Hillary Clinton campaign motto - and it was her husband, the former president, that Hillary led to Nashua today. Quite a change for Bill Clinton.
As she told the local media: "When it's his campaign, it is his way. When it is my campaign, it is my way." Hence, Bill Clinton followed Hillary, a superstar not only playing second fiddle, but playing it with grace and, dare I say, love! "I'd support her even if she wasn't my wife," he told the rapturous crowd.
Interestingly, with Bill up there with her, it was Hillary at her absolute best.
That is saying something, since she is generally an exceptionally impressive woman.
But today one would never have imagined that she was on a gruelling campaign schedule. She arrived fresh, cool and serene. As ever, she gave the appearance of being genuinely happy to see everyone.




The crowd, about 1200, I estimated, had been waiting in the sun for several hours.
This show was the hottest ticket in town and there was a lot of rivalry about what colour ticket one held. The lowest was white, downloaded from the Hillary for President website. Then there were the black ones, handed out from Hillary Campaign offices - my pleasant activity of yesterday. Those tickets admitted only to standing room. The blue tickets provided seats or centre front standing room. The red tickets not only entitled their holders to seats, but seats right up there on the dais with the Clintons! How lucky were we to be holders of these coveted red tickets - thanks to New Hampshire Governor's Executive Councillor, Debora Pignatelli, who has been significantly helpful and generous towards us since that night we met to watch the first Democratic Debate at her house.

There was considerable jostling, bringing on of extra seats (why didn't any organiser notice how many blue ticket-holders had smuggled themselves into the red sector?) until Nashua's powerful Democrats mover and shaker Jane Clemons (her son, Nick, is Hillary's NH campaign director) was satisfied that everyone was accommodated and organised.


Then the Clintons made their entrance before a crowd bobbing with "Clinton Country" and "Hillary for President" signs. They worked their way down the VIPs - handshakes, air kisses, hugs - and then, oops, there was no chair for Bill while State Representative for Nashua, Bette Lasky, gave her resounding, if lengthy, introduction.
Bill didn't seem to care. Looking slim, a bit ruddy with sun exposure but really young and relaxed, he found a place and perched at the end of the dais, grinning at everyone around him. Then, oops, Bette gave Bill the big build-up intro, so he stepped up to speak. Then Bette turned back and went on speaking. Poor Bill had to find a new perch. Such are the small tribulations of unrehearsed performance - and the slightly Clochemerle qualities of small town organisers.

Finally, to everyone's relief, Bill's especially, one imagines, he was up to speak.
It was good to hear that familiar voice, that extemporaneous fluency... The former president spoke glowingly of his wife, their history, her history and the immense respect he has always held for her abilities.



He articulated many things that it would be inappropriate and, perhaps, even irrelevent for Hillary to brag- such as her history in the international diplomatic arena and her lifelong passion for "service".
Hillary, who was looking particularly pretty today, smiled with guileless enjoyment at his paeons of praise.
Courteously, Bill added that this was the first time that he had been able to like all the Democratic presidential primary candidates - since he was not running against any of them and, indeed, they were a pretty impressive bunch, albeit none with the solid experience and qualifications of Hillary.
Bill chided at the state of the US under Bush - but left it to Hillary to be the big guns. And she was.


She spoke, of course, of the significance of New Hampshire as the place where candidates came to "get their tyres kicked" by very experienced and particular voters. And then she spoke at length.

As a theatre critic, I found myself relishing her use of voice and the elegant music of her emphases. She is as accomplished as public speakers get. OK, we will not soon forget her strained acting efforts in her Sopranos spoof video, let alone her tuneless rendition of the National Anthem. But America needs neither an actor nor a singer to run the place. It needs strength, knowledge, discipline, experience, communication skills...
So strong and articulate is Hillary Rodham Clinton and so downright sane is her message that it really is just a matter of hearing her in person to be struck sideways by the conviction that she is just "it" as presidential material.
She uses some interesting tools of communication. One is an echo of the black church preacher dynamic - a rhythmic series of assertions which bring almost unconscious verbal responses and endorsements from the crowd.
For this speech on the theme of "Ready for Change, Ready to Lead", she had a surging, great list of "are you ready for..." questions, a litany of the ills of the Bush administration. The crowd was with her in roars and applause. There are so many things for which they are, oh, so ready.


Hillary pulled no punches. She went for the jugular of the Bush economic values and outlined her ideas for a fairer tax scheme. She is all in favour of the country being riddled by millionaires - but they should pay their fair quota of taxes. And it is not they who are the heart and soul of the USA or who formed it. This place is characterised by the working middle class and the entrepreneurs. She has a point.

She had many points.
The sun shone as she made them. The people listened. It was a jubilant political event - and, as so many of the New Hampshire locals kept telling me, it was a piece of history, a first not only of a woman running for president but of a president husband campaigning for that president. Oh, how they loved it, these committed New Hampshire voters!

I tag this post with a photo album of the day.





Bill wears this bracelet. I wonder what is its significance?









An ink stain on Hillary's jacket.




Of course, Secret Service officers were omnipresent. Note the bulge to the left.

Hillary's campaign knotches up

ACTION.
Not only are Bill and Hillary hitting Nashua tomorrow but also Hillary's Nashua campaign office has been born - almost.
It was still full of builders and paraphernalia when I arrived at midday today to man the ticket office for tomorrow's big Ready to Change, Ready to Lead tour event at the local university. I was supposed to meet Doug, the new Nashua region campaign organiser, outside the office to receive tickets, office keys and instructions but the door was open and Doug was not there. I was a bit perplexed, especially when people started rocking up for tickets. I scrounged around and set myself up with a chair and a little table and chatted apologetically to the arriving people.


Doug breezed in after about 20 minutes, just in time for a strong influx of ticket-seekers. While he sorted them out, I helped the friendly builder to haul out a desk and a big executive armchair - and suddenly the place took on a more authoritative look.

The people coming for tickets had RSVPed to campaign invitations to the event and were unable to print out numbered tickets from the Hillary website. Hence, they were mostly older people - except for those of the sleek New England bourgeoisie who were coming to pick up VIP tickets which we were keeping in named envelopes to one side. Doug trotted off to lunch and I had a pleasant time greeting, meeting and distributing these most coveted tickets. With Bill in tow, it is a stellar event on the Hillary campaign tour.

So much so that special signs are required.

After 2pm, it was sign time. Doug, who has driven all the way from California to work on the campaign here, produced a box of poster paints in primary colours along with mixing plates, foam brushes, large felt-tipped pens and a pile of large, thin cardboard art sheets. To begin with, there were just three of us - Doug, Kyra from the Manchester office and me.


As the afternoon wore on, volunteers rolled in and joined us on the floor. It was like a political playgroup - mixing colours and painting slogans. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. By the time we were through, there were about 13 of us, an delightfully disparate mix of ages, sizes and races. One very sensible woman chose to clean the windows instead of paint - and soon we had a bright, clean shopfront onto which she taped some of the new signs to complement the Hillary campaign signs and patriotic bunting.


A photographer from the Nashua Telegraph rocked up and snapped a million pix, concentrating on the two cute kids in our midst, of course. As they do. Newspapers love to run photographs of children. It made me a bit sad in this context insofar as this was not actually child's play - it was politics in motion. I would rather have seen people of voting age being depicted. But, hey, what can you do! The idea is to get the message into the paper by whatever means.




The Nashua campaign office is not on Main Street. It is off to the side on Elm Street. But, what it lacks in visibility it makes up for in size and facility. The ground level shopfront is handsome and spacious with a proper semi-enclosed office area at the back. Most significantly, it has a vast and spectacular basement - very smart and modern, freshly painted and wired and ready for banks of phones, printers, faxes, computers...
This will be the beating heart of the Nashua campaign.



Um, yes, one rather unconventional poster slipped its way in..
;)

Power of the people

July 4.
Independence Day street parades in New Hampshire are also presidential primary street parades.
Oh yes, the usual community groups are out there bedecked in the glory of Uncle Sam's Americana - the stars and stripes and the red white and blue - with candy scattering across the tarmac to thrill the children.
But for the grownups, it is a political parade.
All the local politicians showcase themselves - and, as primary fever revs up, the presidential candidates also are represented by a showing of the support base.
It turns out to be the pollster's dream - a stunningly transparent statistical message.

Here is how the primary is panning out - as demonstrated by the marchers of the Merrimack parade.

Number One for organisation, numbers and the copious early spreading of the support stickers among the crowds was Hillary Clinton. Almost everyone seemed to be wearing Vote for Hillary stickers.
Not only did she have a large and cohesive band of marchers but also her team had prepared a proper parade float, a race car with the promise of leading the way.




Number One for noise and pizazz was Barack Obama.
His green team, in matching t-shirts, chanted a loud Obama chorus - leading the way with the letters of his name. They were mainly young and keen.




Number One for turning on the real thing was the Bill Richardson campaign. It featured Bill Richardson - the New Mexico Governor wearing the highly emblematic Boston Red Sox garb and out there glad-handing the people all the way down the parade route, surrounded by a cheery hubub of his volunteer squad.




All the way, the Democrats were Number One - in terms of candidates represented and in terms of numbers. Among them, after those three outstanding firsts, came:

Number Two - John Edwards. As ever, the North Carolina candidate was given very strong and enthusiastic support. His people had hooters and noise-makers and revved along in infectiously high spirits.


Number Three was Chris Dodd. His campaign is not the richest in the race but the supporters truly showed their love by the large number of well-wrought home-made signs they carried. It was a strong and interesting showing.



The Republicans, generally, were a bit lacklustre compared to the leading Democrats. There simply was not such a mass out marching, not such a sense of solidarity or excitement. Among the GOP candidates, however, it was John McCain who seemed to show the most supporters. Not that this was a lot. But at least they tried, defying McCain's flagging numbers in the official polls by carrying giant number 1s.




For all the publicity he has been receiving and for all the advertising with which he has been blanketing the media, one might have expected something more impressive from Mitt Romney's volunteer brigade. It was a fairly meagre showing with a pretty hokey banner.



Similarly Rudy Giuliani managed only so-so representation in the unofficial people poll of the Independence Day parade.





The Republican maverick, Ron Paul, fared better. He has an arresting campaign motto and the few outsider supporters he has are about as passionate as political animals get. Paul is the libertarian Republican, the man who would just about abolish government itself if he had his way.



Democrat Joe Biden is a very fine candidate and really deserves better than the thin ranks who carried his name through the parade. Fact is, he simply hasn't raised his profile enough in New Hampshire so far.



Republican Tom Tancredo is the man who stands on one issue - immigration. He is against it. He had a huge van plastered with his photograph. Not too many people, though. This man led them. Need I say more.




Last and least was Sam Brownback, the Republican who, like Tancredo, doesn't stand a chance. His people had a car.




And thus do we see, very clearly, that the Democrats are a vital force and that the given leaders in the polls seem pretty well represented as such. If there is a big surprise in this display, it is Chris Dodd, who may well be the dark horse on his way up, if one gives significance to this public showing of personal support among the New Hampshirites.