There has been a lot of hype about Obama, and I was really curious to see him. So when I heard he was going to have a town hall style meeting outside his Nashua office I was quite excited.
I was just back from India, so the significance of what these events mean in a democratic nation hit me with full force when I got there. In pictureque rural New Hampshire, with a day care center and a pizza place in the background, cars going by on the country road on one side of the green field, here we were, a couple of hundred people, listening to a potential US president. My third election season in New Hampshire and it still amazes me.
Obama came and spoke. It was a speech which talked about positive things, about optimism that change is possible, and about how we can and should come together to solve the nation’s problems. He made all the right comments about various issues that concern democratic primary voters – the war in Iraq, shutting down Guantanemo Bay (which brought applause), global warming, universal health insurance, etc. Questions from the audience covered pretty much similar topics, and as usual showed knowledgable voters – one person asked, “can you give us specifics of your healthcare plan”, and another asked him to comment on the palestinian situation. What struck me was the people, especially the staff and volunteers – they all seemed to be young and wealthy. Quite different from Howard Dean’s campaign (that I volunteered with in 2004). But they all clearly believe in Obama, and are quite keen on getting you to sign the “I am committed to Obama” card. I came away thinking that if it came down to Clinton vs. Obama, as seemed likely, I could vote for him.
My friend Nicole and I went to the next event in Dover, NH. Driving there on rural back roads, I was again struck – here voters don’t have to go somewhere to see the candidates, the candidates come to them. This is how it should be! The event in Dover was an ice-cream social and his wife and daughters were also there. The speech was very similar to the one in Nashua, and then he worked the crowd. Nicole shook hands with him and his wife and got pictures shaking hands with them both.
People in NH take their duty of vetting the presidential candidates very seriously. A mother brought her teenage sons and asked them what they thought and discussed some of the points with them. Two friends walking away discussed their impressions. An older woman volunteer said the last time she volunteered for a compaign was for John F. Kennedy’s campaign, and now Obama gave her hope.
I went to the third Obama event in Derry, NH and that was when it struck me why I was not getting that enthused. Obama was OK, but I was not enthused. It was because he was not self-critical of America at all. He talked only of the glorious values of America (I do believe America has some glorious values), and that the current regime was the bad one, and with change we can restore everything that is good. It is not a negative speech at all which is perhaps the goal, but it also meant that it had nothing of looking inward to see what was wrong. That bothered me, and that was different from Dean’s speeches. While talking about energy conservation Obama said we should all play a part, and as one example described energy saving bulbs. Later I asked him whether he had energy saving bulbs throughout his house. He chuckled and said, yes, except for the lamps on the roof that they had not been able to reach yet. He then patted my shoulder said he had a hybrid car.
I ran into Fern at the event. Fern and her husband Tim had been very active in the Howard Dean campaign. Fern had been bowled over by Obama, but now said she was having second thoughts. She said, “he doesn’t fire me up like Edwards does”. Obama talked to her son and asked him how many tests he took each year and when Noah (a fifth grader) said, “five”, Obama shook his head and said, “too many” (of course no democrat likes “No Child Left Behind”). Walking af
ter our group picture with Obama Fern and I talked about how we love living in New Hampshire in the primary season :-). Here we are, discussing which candidate interested us, with one of them standing not 10 feet from us :-). I could understand Fern’s comment about not getting fired up – it was odd, because his books are extremely well-written and do fire one up. And it was his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that led to his fame at the national level. But his speech now on the campaign trail somehow comes across as tame. Was he dumbing it down deliberately, as a strategy to appeal to the maximum number of people?
I was just back from India, so the significance of what these events mean in a democratic nation hit me with full force when I got there. In pictureque rural New Hampshire, with a day care center and a pizza place in the background, cars going by on the country road on one side of the green field, here we were, a couple of hundred people, listening to a potential US president. My third election season in New Hampshire and it still amazes me.
Obama came and spoke. It was a speech which talked about positive things, about optimism that change is possible, and about how we can and should come together to solve the nation’s problems. He made all the right comments about various issues that concern democratic primary voters – the war in Iraq, shutting down Guantanemo Bay (which brought applause), global warming, universal health insurance, etc. Questions from the audience covered pretty much similar topics, and as usual showed knowledgable voters – one person asked, “can you give us specifics of your healthcare plan”, and another asked him to comment on the palestinian situation. What struck me was the people, especially the staff and volunteers – they all seemed to be young and wealthy. Quite different from Howard Dean’s campaign (that I volunteered with in 2004). But they all clearly believe in Obama, and are quite keen on getting you to sign the “I am committed to Obama” card. I came away thinking that if it came down to Clinton vs. Obama, as seemed likely, I could vote for him.
My friend Nicole and I went to the next event in Dover, NH. Driving there on rural back roads, I was again struck – here voters don’t have to go somewhere to see the candidates, the candidates come to them. This is how it should be! The event in Dover was an ice-cream social and his wife and daughters were also there. The speech was very similar to the one in Nashua, and then he worked the crowd. Nicole shook hands with him and his wife and got pictures shaking hands with them both.
People in NH take their duty of vetting the presidential candidates very seriously. A mother brought her teenage sons and asked them what they thought and discussed some of the points with them. Two friends walking away discussed their impressions. An older woman volunteer said the last time she volunteered for a compaign was for John F. Kennedy’s campaign, and now Obama gave her hope.
I went to the third Obama event in Derry, NH and that was when it struck me why I was not getting that enthused. Obama was OK, but I was not enthused. It was because he was not self-critical of America at all. He talked only of the glorious values of America (I do believe America has some glorious values), and that the current regime was the bad one, and with change we can restore everything that is good. It is not a negative speech at all which is perhaps the goal, but it also meant that it had nothing of looking inward to see what was wrong. That bothered me, and that was different from Dean’s speeches. While talking about energy conservation Obama said we should all play a part, and as one example described energy saving bulbs. Later I asked him whether he had energy saving bulbs throughout his house. He chuckled and said, yes, except for the lamps on the roof that they had not been able to reach yet. He then patted my shoulder said he had a hybrid car.
I ran into Fern at the event. Fern and her husband Tim had been very active in the Howard Dean campaign. Fern had been bowled over by Obama, but now said she was having second thoughts. She said, “he doesn’t fire me up like Edwards does”. Obama talked to her son and asked him how many tests he took each year and when Noah (a fifth grader) said, “five”, Obama shook his head and said, “too many” (of course no democrat likes “No Child Left Behind”). Walking af
ter our group picture with Obama Fern and I talked about how we love living in New Hampshire in the primary season :-). Here we are, discussing which candidate interested us, with one of them standing not 10 feet from us :-). I could understand Fern’s comment about not getting fired up – it was odd, because his books are extremely well-written and do fire one up. And it was his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that led to his fame at the national level. But his speech now on the campaign trail somehow comes across as tame. Was he dumbing it down deliberately, as a strategy to appeal to the maximum number of people?
1 comment:
Yes that's the impression I got from many presidential candidates. They are too afraid to say the wrong word that they end up not saying the right word. Guess that's what seperate from a good politician and a great politician.
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