Unification in Unity - a top PR job

Oh to have been back in New Hampshire for the extraordinary Unity unification of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I would have been there like a dart of shimmering lightning - to read the mood, the faces, the nuances of this alliance. Unity turns out to be not too far from Nashua - just up the road to Hanover, out of Concord...well placed, albeit a small place. But a canny choice. The Primary State with a primary move in the Primary. A perfect piece of PR play.

My respect for Hillary soared as I watched her there on TV, gracious, generous-spirited and positive beside Obama. Accepting defeat and standing up for the larger benefit of the country is what courage and integrity are all about.

Obama also has been gracious. Well, if the words "she rocks" are really a political plaudit.
Michelle has been conspicuous by her absence - certainly on the footage being shown here in Australia on Fox. She has not been sighted on that dais. I try to imagine her state of mind but can't seem to move past my feeling that her streak of racist bitterness is too powerful for her to be happy about this turn of events. Vindication might be nearest to her response.

The Fox commentators are going to town on what a drawback Hillary brings to the Obama campaign in the form of Bill Clinton. I am just over this American hatred for Bill. I am over the whole anti-Clinton agenda which is just so full of sureness. In fact it is old fashioned poppy-lopping.

No one is going to find the perfect politician. Everyone is flawed. No president has a perfect record. It's a tough business. We seek the best thinking-on-the-feet, best informed, best-advised person for the job. It may well have been Bill Richardson.

I think Hillary's failure lies somewhere in the realm of her strategists - and a blinkered sort of limiting paranoia I observed in NH. As much as I enjoyed my foray into the campaign, I did not like the fact that some of those Hillary team workers thought that my venturing into rival meetings was in some way disloyal - when, in fact it was plain intelligent research. What the hell is wrong with people who want to be blind to their opposition?
Then there were some Hillary workers, I was told, who thought I was dangerous to have around because I am a journalist. Yeah, a journalist offering services to them! For free! A highly experienced journalist and a political animal with a lot of knowledge to share. Not all of them, I hasten to add, were so Just a thread of them who never even bothered to speak to me. Those ambitious and territorial young people looked a gift horse in the mouth. Even when I subbed their amateurish writing on the Hillary website, they were unprepared to accept professional help - and preferring to leave their errors in place.
There is a risk in having passionate, youthful devotees with closed minds throwing their weight around behind the scenes. That worried me from the outset.


I am heading back to the US tomorrow and will be keen to immerse myself in the feelings of the people. I'll be in the Southern states - a far cry from my beloved New Hampshire.
Then again, who could not love the South, eh?

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..
;)

Hillary ain't no actor

Celine Dion's You and I was not my choice as Hillary's campaign song. It's a bit, well, Celine Dion, albeit that the sentiment is good. Now I am wondering if one would define that strident voice as "soprano", thus giving a double entendre to zany little home video with Bill and Hillary doing a Sopranos final episode spoof. What a stroke of genius that little video. It shows that Hillary is ready to have a bit of fun. More importantly, it shows that she is a lousy actor - which is a good thing in a politician.
Let's hope she gets and keeps the day job.

With the campaign trail still in quiet mode, I am engrossed in Carl Bernstein's A Woman in Charge which I am finding to be a fastidious, well-written and illuminating biography - so far. Certainly I am learning a lot about what influences have formed the Hillary Clinton character - a "mind conservative and a heart liberal".
I was intrigued about her young experiences as a Republican and now see that she moved steadily so far to the left of the GOP that she clear fell out the side.
I also feel much clearer about her religion now I know of her Methodist upbringing. She is no holy roller, just a straight-laced and self-disciplined Metho.
Her "ambitiousness" is constantly flagged in the media as such a wicked, evil, unfeminine quality like some form of rampant hubris. In the book it emerges as a steady wish to play a role in social reform, equality and fairplay. She believes she can do it!
But I have more to read...

Meanwhile, while the New Hampshire political action is in the doldrums, the e-campaigning is going strong. Every day I get hammered by emails from the candidates, each and every one of them asking for campaign donations.
I am finding the begging mail very tiresome. I wish they would stop asking me and let me decided if, where and when I would like to contribute.
This fundraising preoccupation, I think, is highly alienating and the campaigns should cool it and, at least once in a while, impart some information which does not come with a money ask.