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.
