A hiatus in NH

Following the great Democrat debate, the candidates seem to have capitalised on the national media spotlight by spreading their appearances around the country. This leaves New Hampshire with a bit of a lull.

The only person on the hustings this week seems to be Elizabeth Edwards, campaigning on behalf of her husband, John Edwards. Elizabeth recently was diagnosed with an symptomatic return of her breast cancer but, if anything, she has redoubled her commitment to her husband's bid for the presidency. She is an admirable powerhouse and a spectacular asset to the former North Carolina senator.
Nonetheless, she is not a drawcard for me since she is not a candidate. Well, unless this primary is about electing the First Lady.

So I continue to monitor the candidates' websites and the New Hampshire Primary websites looking for new diary annoucements which, oddly, seem to come very suddenly with only a day or so to spare before the candidate turns up in town. Hence, vigilance is required or, whoosh, they've come and gone.

Meanwhile, it is voracious tracking of the candidates through the media, reading Barack Obama's beautifully-written memoir - and waiting to see when or if the Hillary campaign is going to use some of my time.


(photo courtesy Steve Garfield photosharing on Flickr)

Hillary nails fairplay

From Hillary Clinton working her way around California after the debate, came a promise "to treat all Americans with dignity and equality no matter who you are and who you love".

That comes as one of the great political quotes, a beautifully-put contemporary declaration of fairplay for all. It was doubtless intended for the California gay community but it embraces much more. I'm impressed yet again.

And the debate verdict is...

There they stood behind their oddly tapering lecterns under the kitsch, over-arty red, white and blue MSNBC debate set - Hillary Clinton, the tiny one, Barack Obama, the tall one, and then John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden - and who the hell is that other fellow?

I'd never heard of Mike Gravel, the former senator from Alaska.
Well, we all know him now. The man who said he felt like a potplant perched at the edge of the lineup turned out to be the star of the debate. Talk about fresh blood and fresh perspective. He is an old-fashioned sage. A no-bull man! A realist.
Terrorism, he asserted, "has been with civilization from the beginning, and it will be there till the end. We're going to be as successful fighting terrorism as we are fighting drugs with the war. It doesn't work. What you have to do is to begin to change the whole foreign policy."
On Iran and nuclear threats, he noted that the US was the greatest violator of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. "We signed a pledge that we would begin to disarm, and we're not doing it. We're expanding our nukes. Who the hell are we going to nuke?" he blustered.
He also said this:
"We have no important enemies, We've got to deal with the rest of the world as equals. Who are we afraid of? We spend more on defence than any other country...the military controls not only the budget, it also controls our culture." Wow!

Straw polls following the debate have given Gravel a surprising surge.
On Daily Kos, he has zoomed to a 10 per cent vote, ahead of Kucinich, Biden, Richardson and Dodd - but behind Hillary, Obama and Edwards.

I was pleased with Hillary Clinton, however. She was my winner. She has a confident clarity. Her voice has a headmistress timbre, so we pay attention. She is emotionally controlled - calm and rational. She also is comprehensively informed on any topic you throw her. She can think on her feet. She is diplomatic, always knowing what not to say as well as what to say. She has been criticised for this, but, hell, that is what politics is all about.
She also has been endlessly criticised for insufficient mea culpa about voting for the War on Iraq. How many times does she have to regret it? How many times does she have to say that, if she knew then what she knew now, she would never have done so? Anyway, she said it all again - and was criticised all over again by the likes of Edwards and Kucinich.
It was a rather delicious irony to note that she was the most generous-spirited among the candidates, ready to give credit to others.
Oh, yes, she stood right out.

John Edwards lost ground for me in the debate. He says his $400 haircut was "a mistake which has been remedied now". How? He paid the campaign fund back? That is really not a remedy to the primping vanity of $400 haircuts. Edwards went on to defend his "privileged" millionaire lifestyle by claiming not to have forgotten his roots and went into a Southern boy, Down Home childhood tale of how the family left a restaurant when his millworker father realised he could not afford to pay its prices. I think we have had enough of these cornball anecdotes from Edwards. I, for one, have heard them all before. Furthermore, he was the only candidate to suggest that he felt a need to consult his "Lord" .

Dennis Kucinich also lost ground. I had respected his uncompromising leftist views - but in the debate, he showed a bitchy streak I did not like, sniping at his peers, glancing at Hillary and saying "apologies aren't enough". What the hell? Apologies are enough - and forgiveness is all. Kucinich also admitted to being a gun-owner. Hillary was one of the few who indicated never having owned a weapon, at the same time reiterating careful placations to the mighty gun lobby. Everyone seems to do this.

Bill Richardson is known as the darling of the gun lobby. He is a Westerner and he owns guns - but thinks the screening processes for gun purchase are lacking, as evidenced by Cho and the Virginia Tech shooting.
I found Richards a bit bombastic, something of a hothead and too fond of speaking in lists. From this quaint pressure-cooker appearance, I wouldn't put him in the White House.

Joe Biden is charming and he looks the way a president should look. When asked about his greatest mistake, he said it was in "overestimating the competence of this administration" and "stupid enough to believe that I could influence George W Bush's thinking". He brought the house down when, accused of "uncontrolled verbosity" and being a "gaffe machine" and asked if he would have the self-control for the role of president, he said simply "yes" - and not another word. Silence.

Chris Dodd pointed out his considerable qualifications for the job of president but was underwhelming in debate, especially when he spoke on civil unions versus same-sex marriage. He is for the former and against the latter. I liked his idea of diplomacy rather than war, and his quote: "This administration treats diplomacy as if it were a gift to our opponent; a sign of weakness, not a sign of strength".

Barack Obama was my biggest loser. He seemed extremely nervous, which is forgivable. But he also seemed arrogant. He never makes a speech that does not mention his wife and children, which is beginning to grate - and, gratuitously, he mentioned them again. His big mistake in my book was when he went to town on Iran, showing that he has swallowed, hook, line and sinker, the current media campaign to turn Iran into an immediate threat. It is rather reminiscent of the Iraq and "weapons of mass destruction" campaign. Obama said that he believed that Iran was a nuclear threat as well as the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the form of Hezbollah and Hamas and therefore was a threat to the security of the USA.
My conclusion is that Obama is, indeed, the young and inexperienced candidate - and it showed. He is simply not ready for the presidency.

Hillary is.

NH house partying

It seems something of an anathema, if not downright risky, to invite strangers, sight unseen, to one's home to break bread and sit down in front of the telly.
But such is the culture of New Hampshire in Primary mode. House parties are held to meet the candidates or, as was the case last night, to watch the candidates on television.
I accepted the online invitation of NH Executive Councilor Debora Pignatelli and her husband, Mike, to come over and watch the Democrat Primary Debate on television. Debora is a former State Senator now in the powerful but esoteric role as one of an elite council which advises the Governor, approving budgetary matters and nominations. She has been active in supporting Hillary's campaign, so much so that she has already held a house party for the NY Senator - evidence of which one noticed in the form of a large Hillary Rodham Clinton autograph on the wall.

The Pignatelli home was a salubrious contemporary spread in one of those uber-bourgeois gated estates in which the homes line the fairways of a golf course. The windows look out onto lush lake-view green - and golfers tramping past with their bags of clubs.


Inside the front door we were greeted by a personable young Hillary-for-President staffer called Alex and the usual form-filling registration complete with campaign buttons and stickers. Alex is one of that impressive breed of young American political campaign professionals who move their worlds to the key places where campaign focus is required. Originally a journalism graduate from Maryland, he has come from California and places diverse to spend the best part of a year in NH on the Hillary-for-President mission. He has just settled into an apartment in Manchester where the NH Hillary campaign headquarters has been set up. We saw his ilk on West Wing - young, bright, single-minded and earnest.

Debora materialised to issue a warm welcome and lead us to her vast spread of food. We had not expected such hospitality so had quickly eaten beforehand. There were about 20 people, most of whom seemed to know each other. They were indifferent to our arrival. We chatted with our hosts and, as time came for the telecast, we pulled up chairs and formed a group around the telly in the high-ceilinged living room.
A convivial spirit ensued in the sharing of the experience - 90 intense minutes interspersed with the odd comment or eruption of mirth.
After the debate, Debora had liaised a conference call with Hillary's campaign strategist - but the phone was playing dire hold muzac for so long that, finally, we made our departure because I was getting edgy about making my nightly call too my mother in hospital in Australia.

And, of course, one wanted quietly to digest the contents of the debate. It had made a number of changes in my thinking.

McCain and his idiot sheet

It was pouring rain. They had given a "rain venue" address in case of such predicted weather but, as we drove past Veterans' Park in Manchester, there was the set-up for McCain's first stump speech as a presidential candidate, a sea of umbrellas and soggily loyal supporters. Why give a rain address and not use it?
Well, it became clear once McCain was up and talking - staring intently in front of him and rarely making eye contact with his dripping audience. There, hooded against the rain, was a giant teleprompter rolling large text! The man was READING his speech. A presidential candidate who did not know his own words! Is this the makings of the Leader of the Free World?



The nickname for teleprompters in Australia is "the idiot sheet". Need I say more?

Well, yes, of course I must.


Clearly, the logistics of moving the chunky great heap of technology which put words in McCain's mouth was the reason they decided to keep the event in the park. Moving it would throw out the whole schedule. As it was, McCain in his "Straight Talking" bus was late and we all stood about shivering and listening to Country music for over half an hour. "Straight talking" was what we got - a man talking straight to a teleprompt.

I didn't attempt to take notes in the rain, so I did not record the content of the speech. Since it is all written as a script, I am sure it is online and I am sure all the reporters were given nice, neat copies. Indeed, the only spontaneity of this political event was when McCain was forced to respond to the interjectors, calling and chanting for an end to the War on Iraq. He was not quick. First he absurdly thanked them, then he said this reflected American freedom of speech and, finally, he clued up enough to echo the New Hampshire motto: "Live Free Or Die".


There were lots of protesters dotted about outside the roped area of this event - brave and wet and passionate people. Predominant were the Ron Paul people waving placards asking "Who's the real maverick?" McCain likes to call himself the Republican maverick but, in fact, his track record is deeply conservative. Ron Paul of Texas, however, turns out to be the real Republican rebel, a congressman who voted against the Iraq War, against the Patriot Act and against regulating the Internet. I'd never heard of him. He turns out to be an obsetrician, of all things.



Amid the steely veterans in leather jackets and "Chosen Few" caps, there also were peacenicks holding anti-war placards and one couple with a long banner mocking McCain's appalling gaffe of singing "Bomb-bomb-bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran".

McCain's no go!

John McCain came to New Hampshire today to announce officially his run for president.
I went up to Manchester to see his first stump speech.
I return shocked and scandalised.
There is very good reason that this man should not even be considered by the electorate.
His team arrived equipped with a teleprompt.
Yes, he had to read his speech from a screen.
That simply is not presidential material.

McCain is running neck-and-neck with Giuliani as a Repub front runner.
He is 70 years old and he is the man preferred by the pro-war voters.

Giuliani's America

There was no grandstanding from those introducing Rudy Giuliani to the business voters of Nashua. Simply these succinct declarations:
"New Hampshire is the time-tested proving ground where presidential candidates test their messages with experienced voters to prepare for the long national campaign."
And:
"Grassroots civic engagement is taken very seriously in New Hampshire."

Rudy echoed this:
"There is no better place to do it than New Hampshire where it is traditional. Tradition is important in politics. The idea that NH is the first in the national primary is one that I endorsed a long time ago and now I am running for president, I endorse it more!"

This gained a satisfied titter from the business crowd.

Like most speakers, the former NY Mayor opened with some frivolity - an indulgence in jubilation about the recent historic four home runs hit by the New York Yankees baseball team.
"My wife says the Yankees affect my moods," he admitted, perhaps unwisely, since I, for one, immediately started envisaging a president with the international grumpies because his team had lost.
Rudy went on to recall that he had suggested to Hillary Clinton when they were competing for the NY senator spot that, instead of a conventional senatorial campaign debate which bored viewers, there should be a Yankees trivia debate. Hmm.

"Baseball statistics are endlessly fascinating - and so are economic statistics," he said, in a very nice segue into campaign patter and his "four policies for growth".

"These are not ideas, they are things I've done, things I've brought about," he bragged. "Don't just listen to what I say but listen to what I've done."

Lowering tax came first - to allow private enterprise to grow and hence, allow the national economy to compete with the rest of the world.
"The Democrats blur that line," he said.
Rudy said he had done it in NYC and "if you can do it in New York, you can do it in Washington, DC".
He went on to expand on how, by lowering hotel occupancy tax in NYC, tax revenue had increased.
"Democrats don't understand. Liberal columnists don't understand but if you lower tax, you collect more because more people are using and therefore there is more revenue."
Hotels consequently employed more people and the assorted services grew accordingly, he explained, adding that his term as Mayor had been described as "the most conservative term of office in America in the last 50 years".
Jobs had grown by 30 per cent and fiscal deficit had turned to a multi-billion dollar surplus.
"The Democrats are working out which taxes to raise and I'm working out which to lower," he said.
He cited Capital Gains tax, lowered to encourage more people to invest, and Death Tax (known among Democrats as Estate Tax) whihc he said was an unfair tax which hurt families.

Next Giuliani wanted to reduce the size of the government and reduce government spending, as he did in his Mayoral role.
"Spending restraint and economic growth has to come from the Mayor or President. Executives have to understand this. It has to be part of your DNA."

He went on to criticise over-regulation which is "the same as taxes", and to call for sound monetary policy.
"You have to run government in an effective way, like it is a business. You have to pretend that it is a business," he declared.
This meant constant measuring of performance levels for which he recommended to ComStat Program (which turns out to be an accountability measuing program which he used on reforming the police in NY).
"Measure every week. Are you achieving this?" he reiterated.
This struck me as a form of performance-based management so ferocious that it would leave its staff in a constant state of neurotic stress. Clearly Rudy Giuliani is a tough boss.

He spoke also of US Ambassadors and the State Department with its "overriding purpose to expose America to the world and, secondly to expose the rest of the world to America."

He concluded by saying that people had said it was impossible to reduce crime in New York and that he had done it.
"I'm good at doing impossible things. I like to do impossible things," he triumphed.

The breakfast business crowd, the mass of men in dark suits and ties, might have been devoted Republicans - but they also were New Hampshirites. They had questions and their questions were confronting.

Dependence on foreign oil came first.
Rudy did the old political sidestep by saying "let me give you a slightly different perspective" - and then tackled the issue by suggesting that as Chinese and Indian populations emerged from poverty to middle class, the idea was to sell them things - such as potential energy technology, an American "growth industry". Of course, one needed "to put the emphasis on the private sector" with incentives from the Federal Government to develop this. But this was a "tremendous opportuniy" for the USA.
"I'm a glass half full person," he declared.
He was also in favour of more nuclear power for the US. There has not been a new nuclear power station in 30 years "because some special interests are frightened".
"Nobody has died as a result of nuclear power," he said, adding that wind, solar and carbon sequestration were also worthy of attention. And that OPEC was something of an obstacle as "a cartel that fixes prices". "If it operateed in the US, it would be illegal," he snarled.

Asked about Federal Government entitlement and pharmaceutical subsidies, he returned to the free market theme - "competitive and profit-driven"
"If the goverment takes over, the costs go up," he said.
He envisaged tax incentives for people to buy health insurance, to make a market of individual consumers, suggesting a $15,000 deduction would encourage people to choose $9,000 insurance policies and pocket the rest of the money. My eyebrows shot up.
He mentioned health vouchers, too, and different health products.
"Let's create a vast consumer market," he trumpeted.
"We'll have socialised medicine if we do what the Democrats want."

A black Marine Corps veteran asked about what was to be done for disabled and fallen comrades.
Rudy was passionate about the obligation to give them more support, telling of how he would always visit injuired NY police or firemen in hospital "not only out of respect but to ensure they got high quality care". And they did.
"Whenever the Mayor showed up, the head of the hospital turned up," he laughed.
"What I wanted of these men was that they take heroic risks, so what I owed them was to take care of them. We owe this to veterans, too. We must fulfil our basic humanitarian obligation - which will encourage people to serve. We're going to be a volunteer country."

One last question - and it was Iraq.
The former Mayor saw Iraq as part of the War on Terror and was strongly against the Democrat move to put a date on withdrawal of troops, believing that this simply informed the enemy. He saw an almost limitless terrorist threat from within Iraq and from Iran and Syria and Afghanistan. He thought it was time to get Bin Laden, to ensure Iran did not have nuclear power, and to pursue terrorists "on offence, not defence".
He defended the Patriot Act's incursions into privacy and as "uncomfortable but essential" as yet more of the "offensive against terrorism".
"We are not a warlike country. We are at war because they want to come here and kill us," he concluded.
At which one could only hear, loud a clear, a perpetuation of Bush Administration policy. The only difference was that Giuliani had not mentioned God.

First sight of Rudy

Rudy Giuliani is the Republican Party's bright light as a presidential contender. He is beloved for the statesmanlike way in which he stepped up to the plate after 9/11 when the President seemed not to know what to do, and he is trusted for his track record in turning around crime and unemployment as Mayor of New York City.

Not that he is every Republican's cup of tea. He is a moderate rightist, daring to hold emancipated views on abortion and social justice - attitudes which enrage and alienate the NeoCons. He also has a terrible history with women, now on his third marriage after a really squalid break-up with his second wife, one which had the tabloids in ecstatics. And he has suffered prostate cancer. American voters like to think their Presidents are in top health and won't fall off the perch when in office.


In his big, sleek campaign bus, he came to Nashua today to speak at a breakfast for a National Leaders Forum in the vast neo-Tudor Sheraton Hotel. It had taken me a few phone calls to secure seats at this event which was hosted by local businesses and the Chamber of Commerce.

Indeed, it was anything but a people's events. It was men-in-suits all the way.

We were given 7.30am as the registration and start time, but Rudy did not turn up until after 8am, giving us plenty of time to drink watery hotel coffee and engage in small talk with the others at our table. One was a retired corporate management type who had barely said hello before he had had a little spit about how a lot of migrant voters barely spoke the language and should go home rather than vote. A very nice couple from Tennessee made for easier conversation. They are visiting their daughter in Nashua and thought this was a great chance to get a close, New Hampshire-style look at Giuliani. Such opportunities are uncommon elsewhere.

As always, the television cameras were on their dais at the back of the room with the usual couple of journalists sitting at their feet tapping away on Blackberries. Local press photographers milled around taking social snaps.

A heaving, great breakfast of scrambled eggs, pan-fried potatoes, bacon and sausage garnished with kiwifruit and orange was delivered to the table just as Rudy made his appearance. The cameras erupted in a barrage of flash and the former Mayor made his way down the side of the room amid a scrum of adoration.

Then, like the seasoned pro he is, he worked his way around the room, from table to table, signing autographs and shaking hands.
And there I was, with his silky hand in mine. Good heavens!

Candidates digging their own graves

Candidates are shooting themselves in the foot all over the place.

Republican John McCain is being media-excoriated for being so absurdly gauche as to mock the delicate issue of relations with Iran by singing "bomb-bomb-Iran" to the tune of "Barbara Ann". It was his idea of a joke and when criticised by reporters, he told them to "get a life", a very unpleasant and patronising put-down which simply exacerbated the friction. He justified his "humour" by saying he was speaking to veterans and they were friends. Oh dear. Still not funny.


Meanwhile, Democrat John Edwards has done the most bizarre thing. He has committed $400 of campaign funds to hairdressing. The country is simply incredulous. How the hell do you spend $400 on a haircut? Even a cut, five colours in foils, straightening, deep conditioning and drying don't come to $400. But, of course, he had his hair done in Beverley Hills where, clearly, clip joints are really clip joints.

Edwards has already been depicted performing extended hair preening on YouTube. Who knew he had a hair "thing"? Well, we all know now.

I am sure that, if I had donated to his campaign, I would not be happy to discover that I had just paid for an overpriced hair cut.
What else is the fund paying for?

John Edwards is a squillionaire lawyer who lives in some massive mansion with not only pool and tennis court etc, but two stages! Two stages? John Edwards is a lovely man and a very fine candidate. I heard him and, indeed, met him and photographed him, at the last Primary here in NH and was quite charmed by him. I'm looking forward to hearing him again.
And I'm looking forward to hearing him explain this extravagant indescretion. Frankly, anyone, let alone a very wealthy one, should pay for their haircuts from their own purse.
Somehow, policies about helping the poor and the American underclasses lose their sincerity when coming from a man with a $400 haircut. That sort of money is a month of groceries to many people - many of the people to whom he is trying to appeal for support as a presidential candidate.

One thing is certain, the New Hampshire voters will give him a run for his money when he shows up here. I can't wait.

Obama style and substance

The hype surrounding Barak Obama's run for Democrat presidential nomination has worried me a bit. It is highly youth-driven and youth-oriented in a way that reminds of the Howard Dean campaign wherein, when the voting crunch came, those droves of youthful enthusiasts had dissolved into the woodwork and did not seem to be reflected in the ballot numbers.
But Barak is young. He is new. He is fresh and vivid. He is sensationally bright. He is unsullied by the shadows of a long political history and, what's more, he is an open book with a fierce sense of ethics. Hence, he is what one might dare to pun "a Barak-away" candidate.
He told us: "I'm not just interested in winning an election. I'm interested in transforming the country".
He said he sought "a commonsense, practical, non-ideological agenda for change."
He cites his background as a community organiser as a unique qualification for the rallying of people.
"What I have is a really good talent for bringing people together to solve problems," he declared.

I had heard that he was less interested in listening to the sound of his own voice than in that of others - and it proved to be so in Nashua. His preamble speech was relatively brief. After commenting on the public loss of confidence in the political process, he explained his belief in the way "we are connected as a people".
"If a child in Nashua cannot read, we must care, even if it is not our child. If there is someone foraging in a dumpster, it diminishes us as a nation."
While hearing such sentiments of social justice from a politician pleases me no end, it was not what the Nashua people wanted to know.
They revved up when he noted that an economy that was good for Wall Street still left the real people living from paycheck to paycheck.
But when he said that the country was involved in "a war that should never have been authorised", they erupted into a storm of applause.
The Iraq War has become profoundly unpopular among these people.
I have noted that where, only a year ago, cars en masse were smothered with "Support the War", "Support Our Troops" stickers, they are now few and far between.

Obama, of course, has been an opponent of the Iraq War from the outset. One of the few to have dared to speak out when the country had been methodically post 9/11 brainwashed. He has articulated a precise policy for bringing the combat troops home by March 31, 2008 - which, he says, gives Iraq plenty of time to get internally re-adjusted.
Since Obama's style is to listen to and interact with the people, he gave over most of the meeting time to questions wherein people could articulate their concerns.
Naturally, Iraq came up again, a woman saying: "I've just learned that my nephew is being sent to Iraq and I can't breathe. When can I breathe again?"
Obama expressed his sorrow for her and said that everywhere he went he was encountering agonised people who had offspring either going to, in, home wounded or dead from the War in Iraq. He had already expressed fury at President Bush's intention to veto the Bill calling for troop withdrawal. Bush was "obstinate", he said, lamenting the senators who would not allow Congress to override the veto. Two NH senators are among those who stand in the way.

Of course there were questions about health insurance, one man saying that, diagnosed with prostate cancer, his uninsured brother-in-law faced only two options - "bankrupt the family or die". Obama expounded on his principles for universal health care, the two trillion dollars spent in the USA on health "more than any other country in the world" which, absurdly yielded such inequity and suggested that the USA needed to "adopt a system similar to other countries".
An Obama administration would have the government negotiate for the best prices for prescription drugs, too, and not allow the pharmaceutical companies to keep making 17 per cent profit margins, he promised.
Questions from veterans opened the can of worms of the tragedy of Iraq, of the mass of undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder in the returned troops, many of whom ended up homeless and on the streets. There was a question about redundancies to which he said that new bankruptcy laws were needed to prevent companies from going under to save paying out staff pension obligations and then reforming as another company. There were questions about pensions and, extraordinarily, one about gun control.
This is the question the politicians are avoiding post the Virginia Tech massacre.
Obama trod lightly.
He wondered if there was anything that may have guaranteed that violence would not be seen that day at Virginia Tech, or could have lessened it. The issues he saw were that "they are still selling handguns to crazy people".
"There is supposed to be a system to screen backgrounds. The system failed,'' he said.
Citing the use of a semi-automatic weapon with a clip allowing 19 shots, he said:
"I don't hunt. I respect hunters and sportsmen. No one is infringing on their rights. But I don't know any self-respecting hunter who needs 19 rounds. No one shoots 19 rounds at a deer." Ignoring or not hearing interjections that no one hunts deer with handguns, he concluded that there was a need for "sensible laws in place".
That is as good as one is going to get on the election trail. No one, except perhaps fearless minority leftist Dennis Kucinich, would stick out their necks as targets of the gun lobby.

Obama returned to safer ground with other questions, responding on issues such as disease prevention, closing tax breaks for companies who moved their operations offshore to elude tax and more on the Iraq war.
"We have dug ourselves such a deep hole. Ending Iraq is 100 billion dollars saved but we haven't paid for it. We borrowed it," he exclaimed.

When he reached time for the last question, there were hands waving all over the hall. Oddly, Obama chose to give the question to the one and only child present - "a chance for the next generation".
"I don't know much," said the little boy. "I just want to know what do you have that Hillary Clinton and John Edwards don't have?"
The crowd dissolved into laughter. Obama with it. "Are you sure he's not a midget?" he asked. "Is he a plant?"
When mirth abated, he tackled the question.
"I try not to compare the other candidates," he said. "We are on the same team. Hillary Clinton gets things done and does great work. John Edwards has great ideas. I like them both and I think they'd make great presidents...but we are on the same team. We're all trying out for quarterback."

Barak Obama comes to town

The Barak Obama machine is moving smoothly through New Hampshire. Organisationally, it is way ahead of Hillary's. Already I have had several phone calls from its young volunteers in the Manchester office who say the opening of a Nashua campaign office is imminent. Hillary's team say they are still waiting for phones in their new Manchester office and have no idea when they will get Nashua up and running. It is unsurprising, therefore, that they have failed to respond to my offer to work for them. Obama's team, on the other hand, is courting - hence the invitation to attend his Nashua meeting.

This was an invitation-only meeting. The Obama buzz is such that he is drawing crowds like a rock star.
Nonetheless, when we rocked up for the "Town Hall" meeting at the handsome, modern seniors complex, it seemed all rather low-key. There was just one volunteer outside - selling wild and zany Obama buttons at three for $10.

He was doing a brisk trade and the rows of buttons on his board were diminishing fast. They ranged from sedate "Obama for President" to "Hot chicks love Obama". I indulged in "Carpe Diem - Barak Obama", "Superbama" and "The Three Stooges - Jr. Dick Rummy". Inside, beside the sign-in desk, were all the free coat and bumper stickers as well as glossy policy brochures complete with NH campaign head office address, phone number and email. As I said, they are well-organised.


Of course, the Americans for Health Care team was there with the same ebullient Tammy Clark ominpresent giving out brochures, entreating everyone to wear their stickers and offering free "I'm a Heath Care Voter" t-shirts to anyone who would put them on.

When Obama appeared, he was sporting one of her stickers.

There was a good phalanx of media but not, as with Hillary, a sense of media entourage, let alone obvious security. A couple of solidly-built men, one black and one white and both wearing dark suits, looked as if they may have been the official heavies.

An all-smiles girl wearing an apron and carrying a basket worked her way around the room handing out cookies...Pentagon Cookies adorned by a vivid pie chart showing that the Pentagon's expenditure of more than half of the US's discretional budget. Its PrioritiesNH label on the back suggested that $60 billion wasted each year on obsolete weapons should be turned to programs that built strong families and communities. The icing melted on my cookie on the way home. It looks rather messy now. Like the Iraq War?

Of course there was something of a wait before the Senator appeared. Quasi reggae music played discreetly and the people bubbled about expectantly. I found a place by the wall where I could stand up and take photos and we ate our sandwiches, enjoying the hubub. I eavesdropped on the chair of NH Women for Obama enthusing about the stress and pleasure of introducing Obama's wife at an earlier function and how desperate she was to get him to autograph her copy of her book. I've been reading his first book, Dreams from My Father, and am very impressed with his literary eloquence.

He was less lyrical on the hustings, however. After the exuberant standing ovation and the requisite effusive introduction, he spoke with chatty informality, explaining how his name was Kenyan but his accent was from Kansas and how the most important thing he had to before deciding to run for president was to ask his wife.

At the parish pump

New Hampshire has yet to set a date for its Primary. It prefers to give short notice, especially now that the other states are breathing down its neck. Florida, for instance, thinks it should have greater prestige in the national Primary business and it has moved is Primary date from March to seven days after the NH Primary or February 5 - whichever comes first. California is champing at the bit to raise its electoral profile and it is aiming for February 5. So is New York. Nevada, meanwhile, has announced a Democrats-only contest on January 19.
What is going on?
Already the businesses of Primaries and Caucuses are confusing - but why can't the various states leave the tradition alone?
Well, whatever the policies involved in the political race, whatever the issues with the incumbent Administration, it is all about dollars. This is America, after all. Presidents might administer, but dollars rule.

The candidates have been raising vast amounts of money. Quite a bit of that is spent in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, who are the traditional early states wherein the candidates spend a lot of time coming face-to-face with the people. That is what is special about New Hampshire. It's about scale, the fact that it is a parish pump state. As such, it has always been considered something of a barometer to the nation's political mood.
In massive, broadly-spread population areas such as California, this sort of grass roots interaction is not feasible. The pollies are spread thin. So, they have to depend on advertising. And this is what those states want. They want election advertising revenue.

Policy and person

Hillary Clinton had made her first official policy speech - right here in chilly, spring-challenged New Hampshire. Oh, my, it is cold and nasty right now - one sleety snow storm soon to be followed by an even more extensive and miserable nor'easter bringing a foot or more of snow.
Wicked weather does not get in the way of the NH Primary. Hillary chose to give her policy speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. Of course, it gained lots of serious press coverage. The highest-profile presidential aspirant is rarely short of press coverage. A fleet of journalists and cameramen is on tour with her. She is big news.

She offered a 10-point plan to reform the government but the headline the media extracted, and rightly so, was her adamant stand against people who leave their roles in political administration to become lobbyists.
She expanded on this at our meeting, saying that one of her priorities was to get te best-quality people working in the White House and to get rid of that seedy business of "no-bid contracts". Of course, she was speaking of Halliburton. She added: "Really, it's a stunning record of cronyism and corruption, incompetence and deception and it has shaken the people's faith in our government," she said.
She added that it was hard to get accurate information from the incumbent government which "stonewalls and misleads".

I was talking to one of the "I'm A Health Care Voter" people after Hillary's event and she was whining that Hillary did not answer the questions people had asked. Was this woman at the same meeting as I was? It just goes to show the way people read into things what they want. One finds it a lot in journalism. People are capabable of the most perverse misinterpretations of perfectly simple things - and they will ring and accuse you of writing quite the opposite of what you have clearly written. They are usually argumentative and negative people who operate from some stubborn mindset. This woman was of the ilk. I was gobsmacked.
Like most journalists, I am acutely aware of politicians who evade answers with artful sidetracks and I had just been marvelling at the thorough way in which Hillary Clinton had, indeed, answered the questions - including a deeply challenging question on farm subsidies. This is a crucial and complex issue. Hillary took her time extrapolating on the situation and its sensitivity, recognising small farmers as the core to the quality of life of rural America. Apparently there are 34,000 family farms in her state of New York. She suggested alternative conservation subsidies for such farms to help farmers to stay on the land "and be stewards of the environment" while allowing other countries also to grow crops.

She pulled no punches on the pro-choice issue - citing the Chinese government's enforcement of abortion and the Rumanian enforcement of a five-child policy as historic examples of the obscene folly of government control over women's bodies.
"No American wants police state interference with these personal decisions," said she.

At the end of these community events, it is traditional that the candidate presses flesh and chats informally to the people. I went to a lot of these events at the last NH Primary, but this was the first time I saw people being kept behind a rope. Hillary strolled the perimeter of the rope, rather like the Queen on walkabout. Then again, it was more the rock star scene since people were thrusting books and campaign posters at her for autographing, which she did in good cheer. I eased my way to the front and proffered a hand. As it happens, she has a lovely handshake - a warm, soft-skinned and dry hand with a grip that is neither weak nor fierce. I introduced myself and said I hoped that, when she was president, the outside world would be exposed to some less rabid Americana on ubiquitous Fox News. Clearly, it was a comment out of the ordinary and she asked me to repeat it, pulling my hand towards her as if to hear better. I repeated. Still holding my hand, she threw back her head and laughed, exclaiming "Yes! Yes!" before moving on, closely followed by the phalanx of secret service men.
Of course, it was a pretty silly comment of mine. I'm cringing about it now. Fox is not a government institution. It belongs to a yet more powerful force, Rupert Murdoch, my boss. I know Rupert's modus operandi. It is not naive. It responds to market and in the US the rabid right, especially under the Bush Administration, is a bubbling cauldron of a responsive market. For those of us not of the right, the O'Reilly/Hannity vehemence in Fox content often is hard to stomach - but we pay Fox its due for technical expertise, most particularly in coverage of major news crises when it is peerless.
I also know that Murdoch has expressed his approval for Hillary Clinton in this presidential race. And, I have no doubt, that if she or the Democrats win office, the global news station will moderate its content accordingly to meet and reflect the tenor of the country.

Hillary raises hillfire

The American presidential process is a contact sport. Candidates vying to run for President must run the gauntlet, not of the party backroom numbers but of the people of the country. To that end, theirs is an exhausting schedule of meeting everyone everywhere - but first and foremost in New Hampshire.

Hence, the Democrat frontrunner, Senator Hillary Clinton has just made her fifth visit to the Granite State to "Let the Conversation Begin" by throwing herself at the mercy of about 1000 people packed into a Manchester highschool gym. An interesting crowd since it was of broad demographic - young and old, rich and poor, multiracial. Its common bond was the urge to get a close look at this woman, to see if she scrubbed up to their expectations, to put her on the spot with difficult questions...This is their right and their role and they take it earnestly.

She kept the crowd waiting but, oddly, no one seemed to mind. Wallpaper rock music played and a rather merry, party spirit was established - among all except the very clearly labelled Hillary Press followers who sat about intensely tapping on their laptops and talking on their cellphones.


Secret Services officers were all over the place. There is nothing secret about them. They stand out as stern besuited bruisers with vast bulges beneath their jackets. Huge weapons. Machine guns! I felt their piercing gaze assessing my handbag, my camera, my attitude. Those eagle eyes constantly scoping.

Of course Hillary is not your average candidate - not only a Senator but former First Lady of the country. One assumes she is long accustomed to co-existing with that load of protective paranoia.

Hillary breezed into the hall accompanied by the school's Vice Principal and the local Senator, both of whom required their moment in the sun before she was invited to say her piece, expertly microphoned and free to walk around the little stage to address the 360 deg of eager audience.


She went straight for the grass roots with lighthearted anecdotes about her own childhood, gently self-deprecatory and humourous. Ah, what a pro. The audience was immediately with her. And they were to become more so as she launched into the hot issue of health care. The health care lobby is omnipresent at these political events, tribes of people in strident t-shirts handing out "I'm for Healthcare" stickers. Their local organiser, one Tammy Clark, told me that some of the candidates would not wear the stickers but Hillary would. Sure enough, Hillary did. And she spoke passionately about the ways in which the inequality and expense of this country's health system could be improved - starting with electronic medical records. She has fought for this before and, she laughed, she "carries the wounds" of those battles. But she is far from giving up. When she becomes President...

Then there was energy. "It's no use paying regimes that are not friendly to us for energy," she said, explainng that the urgent need to develop alternative sources could be funded by removing tax subsidies to oil companies.

Then education - access to preschools, making college affordable again.
She did not mention President George Bush by name. Instead, she targeted his "administration" and the eight years of dire decisions which have undermined America's standing in the world.

She cited the massive international outpouring of sympathy for the USA following 9/11 "even Iran, for example", lamenting that "we squandered that". And she promised "a concerted effort to tell not just the leaders of the world but the people that, while the US will always defend its borders, it wants to get back to working with people again... to send messages again about how the US cares because that used to be the US message". She wanted village people to turn in bomb-makers because they wanted to be "on the right side".



"I have visions of walking into the Oval Office and seeing this gigantic hole we have dug ourselves into over the last 8 years," she declared.