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)

On being a small fish...

So much for depending on my own kind to get things done here.
As requested by its editor, I made application through the Union Leader for tickets to the June 3 Democratic Debate up the road in Manchester. They asked for some personal details to which end I had to use my husband's name since they seemed to wish for legitimate NH voter credentials.
No tickets were forthcoming.
Indeed, no word was forthcoming. Nada. Silence.

Perturbed, nay, gobsmacked, I contacted the Hillary campaign who directed me to the New Hampshire Democrats' office, the helpful press officer of which directed me to the Debate's co-host, the NH television station, WMUR. What a friendly and charming response - but no tickets. Their quota all went yesterday. Yesterday!

How frustrating is this!
I realise with a jolt what a spoiled media person I am. I am used to people knowing who I am. I am accustomed to people actually wanting me to be at events or to picking up a phone and having doors open. I am used to a diary bulging with in invitations.
But, as much as I feel at home here, I am not on home turf. I have no strings to pull.

At least I am carrying my media union card.
So, I followed the WMUR advice and have appealed to the Debate's other co-host, CNN - this time asking for the only access left, media accreditation.
My regret in this context is that being among my own kind will distance me from the special people of NH, the discerning voters, who are, to a large extent, what this blog is all about. Then again, being with my own kind in another country would be an interesting study in its own right.
And, of course, it would give one a yet closer look at the candidates - which can't be bad.
My fate, however, rests upon the kindness hands of strangers.
They don't owe me a thing.
I can only wait and see.

Meanwhile, there has been good news.
Hillary will be back in NH next week and she is scheduled to do a town walk in Nashua!
I will be there with bells on.

Songs of praise and mutters of dissent

The hunt is on for a Hillary song.
I've noticed the prominence of music at all the candidates' major events - not always liking what I heard. In the Hillary case, it would seem to be because the campaign theme song has yet to be chosen.
Now, as the action revs up, the time has come.
It's tricker than one may think. One needs something that falls between familiar popular song and an anthem. Something that creates the right mood and delivers the right message. And, bloody hell, it turns out to be a can of worms - or so I am thinking now I have listened to the selection thus far chosen for the Hillary Clinton campaign. The campaign has asked us all to vote and, if we don't like the choices, to suggest something else.
One by one, I eliminated the nine proposed songs - one was too dirge-like, one sounded like a lesbian love song, one did not sound positive enough, one sounded too girlie...
So, if I don't like them, I have to think of something else. OK. So I have surfed around and listened to things I thought would be good options and, guess what, none of my ideas is perfect either!
I'll just have to wait and see what other supporters come up with.

Meanwhile, we await the forthcoming Democrat Debate in New Hampshire. It is being hosted by CNN and the Union Leader newspaper in Manchester - rather a good paper, I have noted, with a terrific web presence. Getting hold of tickets to the debate is not easy. They are very strictly rationed and one has to apply by email, giving personal details which include date of birth. Then one has to wait to see if one is accepted. This makes me very tense indeed.

Methinks New Hampshire also is getting a bit tense. The other US states are doing their best to close in and undermine its first primary status. We've had the date changes from the other states with Florida pushing hard to turn the presidential candidate campaign into a rush, to squeeze up those dates and force New Hampshire back into 2007. Now we have Associated Press (the Australian version of which I once worked for) and its analysis of the America census statistics to show that NH is not the perfect archetypal American state. It does not have a "national average" demographic. AP says that Illinois is the average state. It also is a huge state. Too intensely populated for the sort of hands-on intensity of the NH political activity.
The criticism of NH is that it does not have the diversity of population, the percentage of blacks. But what it does have is a political tradition and a population geared to undertake the responsibility of scrutinising each and every candidate as a state mission and a national obligation. Of course this is not average!

Doorknocking for Hillary

A fat folder full of names and addresses, a map, an instruction sheet complete with "script" and "tips and tricks", a stack of postable Hillary support cards and a "Hillary for President" lapel sticker - and we were off on the canvassing trail.

It had been a strange gathering of the volunteers at Number 2 Clocktower Place. It's one of Nashua's former cotton mill buildings now transformed to apartments and when we eight or so volunteers had gathered in the foyer, we were told we had to leave since management did not approve of "political meetings". Having been given a brief rundown on the principles of cavassing, we adjourned outside to be handed these terrifying folders of names and addresses. Hardly a morning's work. A week or two, maybe, lay in my Ward 6 folder - and something of a navigational nightmare. Definitely not a walking job.

The up side was that we were not expected simply to walk door to door sounding out sympathy towards our candidate. The list contained only the names of people who already had expressed interest in supporting Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire presidential primary. Fear of terse rejections, door slams and abuse evaporated. Phew.

My doorknock partner was Aunt Libby from Virginia - a retired history professor and a staunch lifelong Democrat who offset my Australianness with elegant American cultural credibility. With husband map-reading and chauffeuring, I scanned the instruction sheet and decided to ignore it. It was too late to be learning a script. The brief was to ascertain interest and, if it was positive, to ask if people were interested in volunteering in some way or, perhaps displaying an election sign in their garden. If they were not interested, one bade them a polite farewell. As Libby pointed out, we were supposed to say "have a great day" to those who supported our candidate but only "have a good day", if they did not.

Our canvassing area was pretty much Nashua working class - small homes in quiet back streets.
Our first voter was in the garden tending her mass of spring flowers. She was keen on Hillary but not entirely decided. Then again, she was happy to have a Hillary sign in her front yard. She had a lot of issues she wanted to talk about - the exportation of jobs overseas and the health care system. Both things had affected her life. Several companies for which she'd worked had closed operations to outsource to China and, at the end of her working life, she'd found herself working at WalMart and coming down with asthma. She'd had a nightmare of doctors and pharmaceuticals and this had driven her to becoming an expert in all things that had ailed her - and her husband.
She was quite the talker, segueing into her childhood and the way in which people could live from the land and not depend so much on electricity, how you can get an education at night school...
These are some of the most salient issues of this election and here was a first-person example of the political casualties for whom the Democrats are fighting.
However, Libby and I were beginning to worry that if all our voters were so keen to talk at such length to strangers, we wouldn't be covering too many houses.

Fortunately, that did not turn out to be the case. In fact, we found ourselves not talking to anyone at most houses. Either people were not at home or, I often suspected, they were lying low because they just did not want to answer the door. I could relate to that. There is nothing I hate more than canvassers coming to the door.


Those who did come out to us were warm and enthusiastic. The definite Hillary supporters are emphatically positive. Not that they wanted to volunteer or display a sign. But at least we knew where their vote would go.


The Hillary team had told us that once we knew this, the campaign would leave these people alone until the end of the campaign. No need to pester them or waste resources on them. We love them just as they are.

And thus, for an hour or so, we drove to and fro around the sunny suburban streets, being confounded here and there by bizarre numbering arrangements, entrances that were hard to find and, most commonly, by doorbells that did not work. Indeed, it occurred to me that there was a good business opportunity for door-to-door doorbell salesmen.


We only had to bid "have a good day" to one person - a pleasant gay man who announced that he simply was not "into politics". We wondered how he got on the list.

We were in and out of the car, over and over and over, jotting results notes on the list beside each name. There was a coded system for this - but I had not found the key, so I wrote an approximation. We were moving so fast in and out of the car, up and down the streets, trying to get as much done as we could which, looking at the fat wad of names and addresses, barely dented the load.


We completed about five or six streets before running out of time and returning to Clocktower Place to return the folder to the campaign volunteer.

It had been an interesting, if somewhat hot and tiring, experience. It had also been a positive one, thanks to the careful selection process of the doorknockees.

This had been the first foray of its kind for the Hillary campaign but there are seven months to go...and it is all very well organised.

McCain's blame game

John McCain's campaign has not been going well in New Hampshire. The Republican might have trounced George Bush here in the 2000 primary but it looks as if, this time, he will lose to Bonzo the clown, or almost any of his party rivals. He is panic-stricken because, as his campaign has explained, the NH primary is of primary significance.
McCain's reaction has been to fire his NH campaign manager, as if this hapless organiser is the reason for McCain's lacklustre showing. Methinks that no matter how many scapegoats 70-year-old McCain finds, his poor polls are because the Repubs simply don't see him as up to the job.

Meanwhile, it is Hillary Day of Action in NH today - and we are off to hit the streets.

Bill Richardson's six-day plan

First things first. The increasingly controversial date for the New Hampshire Primary was the subject of Bill Richardson's introductory remarks. He'd just heard that it was going to be on January 8 - in response to the impertinent move forward of Florida from March to the last Tuesday in January.
"You should be the first Primary," declared Richardson, adding that this sudden scrunch of Primary dates put great pressure on the campaigners.
New Hampshire house parties are very informal and interactive - and immediately someone pointed out that NH is first "by law". Assorted very early dates were jovially suggested.

Then the New Mexico Governor launched into his address, prefacing it with some of the ways in which he believed he was the most outstandingly qualified of all candidates for the presidency. These were not only his administrative experience as a state governor, but his extensive CV as a Congressman and the country's Secretary of Energy - not to mention his time as a UN diplomat wherein he had liaised with leaders in world trouble spots such as Iraq, North Korea, Cuba and Sudan.

From these experiences he had learned the essence of making peace with enemies and turning them into friends and, indeed, the most pressing thing he'd do as new President would be to bring people together in a bi-partisan thrust to terminate the "nightmare" of the Iraq War.

As a succinct format, he cited his policies in the form of "six issues and what I would do with my first six days in the White House".
Day 1 would be Iraq. He would not only withdraw the forces but he would install diplomacy and an all-Muslim peacekeeping force and apply some of the $400 billion war into "the domestic needs" of Iraq.


Day 2, Richardson would dedicate to Energy Independence, liberating the country from the 60 per cent oil import statistic and the "stranglehold" that "unfriendly" countries have over the USA. He would call on private and public investment in a blitz of auto greening with all cars at 50mpg. "I don't care what Detroit says," he challenged. He added a list of energy alteratives including green buildings, solar roofs on schools...
"You gotta sacrifice. It's a sense of community because energy efficiency is for the common good. We generate 25 per cent of the world's pollution," he said.
Interestingly, his state, New Mexico, is the only US state which abides by the Kyoto Protocol. This man has a track record.
He gave fulsome credit to Al Gore for his service in informing the country about the urgency of environmental reform, adding: "Al, stay out of the running."


Day 3, said Richardson, would be for education. Here he absolutely soared in recognition of what the US really needs to bring itself back to the future - science and math! India and Korea have left the US, and the rest of the world, behind in these vital subjects. Australia needs to pick up its socks, too. Richardson is on the ball in knowing that this is the foundation of a knowledge economy. He also spoke of languages and, particularly, the arts - to engage "and stimulate the mind". Yes!

Day 4 he allocated to his National Health Care plan to which he gave scant outline, since, he explained, the complexities and funding thereof requires lengthy extrapolation.


Day 5 was for his job-generation plan. "The Democrats would be the party of economic growth and science and math," he underlined. "The Democrats have been the party of the poor, which I endorse, but do you what what? We have forgotten the middle class."
He went on to speak of tax incentives for new technology and employment iniatives with an emphasis on renewable energy, technology and aviation. "The future is renewable energy," he reiterated.
When someone interjected a question about nuclear power, he acknowledged that it was non-pollutant but still worried about disposal of its by-products. It was not an energy option of his choice.

Day 6 would be devoted to "restating our commitment to civil rights". Richardson strongly supported "a woman's right to choose". "If you have different sexual orientation, I'll be on your side," he added. He sought "fair immigration laws and not that wall - that's not American".
"We're a nation of immigrants," he emphasised, suggesting that immigration regulations should incorporate speaking English and passing background checks.

The American voting system was also a target. Only 48 per cent of Americans voted in the last election. "One of the problems is that we don't trust the ballot," he said. "I want a shift back to paper."
The New Hampshirites interjected that they had a paper trail here, despite an electronic ballot.

Richardson finished by saying that he knew he was an "underdog" in the Democratic Presidential candidate polls "but I've got nine months to go - and a lot of house parties".

And, just to add levity to his list of credentials, he confided that "I'm holder of the world handshaking record - 13,000 hands in 8 hours. That record used to belong to Teddy Roosevelt".

The party guests were keen to question the New Mexico Governor - and threw some tough ones at him, particularly about tax, Iraq, mental health and health funding. He fielded them all with amiable ease, at home on all issues, it seemed.



And he added some interesting snippets - insight about North Korea which he has visited no less than six times and which he still finds very different in thinking.
He told of talking to President Bush about negotiations with North Korea and the way in which using China as an intermediary was a mistake since the North Koreans hate China.
Bush replied: "Bill, I don't talk to countries that exhibit bad behaviour."
Richardson retorted: "Pretty soon you're only going to be talking to the Vatican."
He half-expected an angry response from the President, he said. But no. George Bush thought it was funny.

The Richardson campaign aides were keen to get him moving along - next stop an interview with CNN. Richardson, however, was reluctant to short-change these voters and his lingering to answer personal questions, shake hands and sign his book was clearly agitating his clock-watching aides, as we slipped quietly out the door ahead of him.

A good man, I'd say, who came across poorly in the Democrats' television debate. Gun supporter or not, he shone as an example of the extremely high quality of candidate being fielded by the American Democrats. If only politics was dominated by such people. If only.

Governor Richardson on house party tour

The house party is one of the particular characteristics of New Hampshire primary campaigns and it turns out to be Governor Bill Richardson's favourite form of exposure to the voter. Or, so he said, after being introduced to the crowd of locals who had gathered at the home of John and Marie Anne Knowles in the neighbouring township of Hudson. The Knowleses both are elected members of the New Hampshire State Legislature.

John Knowles had kindly agreed to squeeze me in to the already well-subscribed party in their pleasant, book-lined home set on a sweeping cul de sac in a rather gracious and spacious modern housing estate cut into the New Hampshire woodlands. Richardson is not a front-runner at this stage, but he is a former Ambassador to the UN and US Energy Secretary and most definitely a superior presidential candidate. Interestingly, he also is half-Latino. His Mexican mother graced him with swarthy good looks which, frustratingly, are very hard to convey in photographs.

It seemed a particularly civilized group of thinking people at the party - one felt that one would like each one of them if given the opportunity. The Knowleses had turned on a spread of sweet and savoury snacks along with wine, soft drinks and, amazingly, casks of hot coffee from Dunkin' Donuts.

Candidates usually are running late on these hectic campaign schedules and, indeed, Richardson has been criss-crossing NH at a rate of knots for three days. But he was only a few minutes late to the party and a round of applause went up as he entered the living room.

Shame on Florida

New Hampshire is known around the world for this one thing, its crucial role in the Primary. The reason the Primary works so well here is all to do with the size of the cities and the political commitment of the people. In the same way that big international arts festivals only truly work in compact cities such as Adelaide and Edinburgh, a hands-on political exercise can only truly work when the cities are not vast and the populations overwhelming. In the latter context, political appearances turn into impersonal rallies. They lose their intimacy and the opportunity for voters to ask the hard questions and meet the candidates in person. This has always been the magic of the New Hampshire Primary. The close scrutiny and the earnest way in which the New Hampshire people embrace it has given this Primary not only its legitimacy but a gravitas. These people have been a national political barometer - only because they truly measure the air. One needs to be here to see how very properly it plays out.

However, the USA is a fiercly competitive country and, as I have written before, the other states have become fiercly jealous of NH's role in national politics. This little northern state. How dare it be important!

So the fight to unseat NH has become nasty.

Florida has just tossed a savage spike into the wheels of the Primary, announcing that it will go to the vote on the last Tuesday in January - instead of March, or even February, which it had suggested was its early target.

One is not surprised to learn that a Republican Governor is behind all this. Governor Charlie Crist has said that he wanted Florida "near the front of the line in determining the next leader of the free world".

Hell, Florida has never needed a Primary to do this. Methinks it is a "by hell or highwater" business for the fourth-most-populous state to throw political weight around.

Who can forget the year 2000?

Florida was key in the 2000 election - with all its recounts and dramas of disenfranchised black voters, missing ballots, duplicated postal votes, malfunctioning machines... It was a disgraceful performance in which we all learned that weird word "chad".
It made Florida internationally famous for its political ineptitude and, perchance, corruption. That shameful 2000 election became known as "Floridagate".

And this is Florida's qualification for trying to destabilise the country's traditonal Presidential Primary process?
Shame upon you, Florida.


Image: Mike Collins' famous 2000 cartoon from taterbrains.com

Websites and electronic friends

In this lull between visits, Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign has been beavering away in Manchester - getting the office humming along, the campaign outreach liaised and, most importantly of all, the NH campaign website up and running.
It is full of juicy details about the groundswell of support following Hillary's five NH visits and the plans afoot for a Hillary Day of Action on May 12.

Meanwhile, one can see a very different support base growing on My Space. This community is so vast that no one can afford not to be a member. Even I have a page. Hillary and the other candidates most emphatically are on board. It is interesting to see the growth of "friends" in that arena. Hillary had 52199 this morning. John Edwards had 30276. Meanwhile, John McCain had 25367 and Rudi Giuliani, with several aggressive My Space sites, seemed to have only 192. Giuliani's unofficial site had some pretty ugly anti-Democrat material. Hillary's has this:





The Republican Debate is happening tonight and the Repub candidates, all 10 of them, are out and about claiming their moment in the sun. Mitt Romney, the movie star-handsome Mormon with only 14186 friends on My Space, scored an airing on Jay Leno last night showing what a smooth operator he is with his well-scripted jokes and constant family references. He's a "family values" man and recommended that America "look at my wife and me to see American values". Jay did corner him on a question about the Mormon history of racial discrimination to which Romney replied: "One of my best friends is in Ghana bringing people into the church right now". Shudder.

Only in America, eh. Like this whole fascinating process.

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)

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.

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.