Thoughts on New Hampshire

I was up in Keene, NH this weekend volunteering for the Edwards Campaign. On Saturday. I canvassed a couple of neighborhoods, then phonebanked for a while, and then spent the night at my friend Tyler's house and watched the debate there. The debate was quite good. On Sunday, I canvassed one more neighborhood, and that was that. The campaign had more volunteers than they had expected and easily met their weekend goals.

Keene was a very nice little town. It had a very strong college-town feel too it. The people were nice and pretty much everywhere you go and everyone you see is either electioneering or has been electioneered by someone else. Granted, there are many people not participating, but I think they try to get out of NH or hide in their basements.

Anyways, I had a lot of fun and felt good for the most part.
Good things:

• Often people would thank you for participating, even if they were not supporting your candidate. I remember a McCain supporter and an elderly gentleman who was supporting Clinton in particular being very kind.
• The enthusiasm of the Obama youngsters... these young folk may be naive, but they are inspired and active. If only we could turn them onto JRE.
• The relaxed attitude of the area and countryside.

Bad things:

• Elderly female Clinton supporters.... oh my, after having 3 or 4 negative experiences I decided to not even to attempt to speak to someone that we had recorded as being a Clinton supporter/leaner, female, and over 70 or so... I think they are quite upset that Clinton is in trouble.
• The lack of JRE outreach to the younger (20's) voters around the college. I was really surprised by this. Post-Iowa, you have to realize that these people will be turning out. Most of these younger voters are NOT high information voters, and if we do not reach out to them, they will certainly vote for Obama. If we reach out, there is a chance some might see JRE as the more likely candidate to enact positive change and reform.

I think I will keep this post short. It became clear to me (I already thought this, but it became more clear to me while in NH) that Obama is going to trounce Clinton+Edwards in NH. The real battle is for second, and Edwards has a fighting chance. If only the media would pay him SOME attention. While volunteering, I would run into people who had not heard that he finished in second in Iowa. These people new Obama won... but not that JRE had finished in second. It is really hard to win when the media ignores your candidate.

Predictions to come shortly.

-Zen Blade