Hillary eyes her voters

Hillary's convoy of big black SUVs purred up so quietly that the awaiting crowd was taken by surprise, despite having been waiting for 20 minutes or so. Even more surprising was the presidential candidate's swift disappearance into a shop. The media thundered down to the shop door and waited respectfully, cameras at the ready.

The Senator was quite a long time in said shop - one of those aromatic furnishings and bric-a-brac places. But, as it turned out, and much to the frustration of her organisers, if Hillary is going to mingle with the people and do a "town walk", she is not going to be hurried.

When, finally, she emerged, it was to be obscured by a throttle of television cameras and microphones. She made her way slowly up the footpath where locals were grabbing a spontaneous chance to thrust out hands and express their support. The campaign volunteers outside Martha's Exchange Restaurant were apoplectic, urging people to make a clear passage for the Senator, to keep out of the way of the little lineup of arranged greeters, to go into the restaurant and get off the street.
I was perfectly placed, just where they didn't want me to be. And I watched the slowly approaching scrum, seeing Hillary thoughtfully turning from one side to another, to acknowledge one person after another - a smile here, a few words there, a handshake...

Every individual was given eye contact from those vivid blue eyes - and a connection which told them that she was absolutely delighted to see them.

I watched in growing awe. This was a consummate politician. The people came first. If someone had something to say, she listened with interest. Her face was a mobility of expressions, from friendly beams to suprise and amusement and even the fleeting shadows of one sharing a problem. She was moving steadily in the required direction, a very solid African American security man always at her elbow, but she was serenely unrushed, those amazing blue eyes sparkling friendship towards each and every potential vote. Oh, those eyes are good weapons for a politician. It was impossible not to like her.

She was, however, wearing a lot of makeup. I wondered how much exhaustion this must be covering. Her campaign schedule has been gruelling and she came to us in Nashua after giving a major economic policy speech at Manchester's School of Tecnology.
There, she had spoken of the “rising inequality and rising pessimism in our workforce.”
"While productivity and corporate profits are up, the fruits of that success just haven’t reached many of our families,” she is reported to have said, likening it to "trickle down econonics without the trickle."
The plan, it seems, is to "hit the restart button on the 21st Century and redo it the right way".


I did not stay on after Hillary had entered Martha's Exchange. There were hundreds of people in there all waiting to shake her hand - and I had no need to shake her hand. I have had that pleasure. And, looking at the mainstream media pack queued at the door and the further folk waiting in hope, I could only think of how hungry Debora was, and doubtless Hillary, too.
She was not making a speech. She was, after all, just going for lunch.
I drifted off into the glorious Nashua spring day, hoping that Hillary would, at least, after all that handshaking, have a chance to wash those hands before she got to break bread.