Voting

I managed to get to the polls relatively early (by my standards). The birds were chirping as I went along, as if they were heralding this momentous day. There was hardly a line at my polling station and I picked up a ballot and went to the little enclosed space to mark the ballot. As I stood there and looked at the names, a wave of emotion swept over me. It surprised me completely and I was taken aback. I had increasingly become a strong supporter of Obama, but was somewhat detached, content to observe the campaign from the outside (unlike my eager involvement in the Howard Dean and John Edwards campaigns). I do not know why the act of casting the ballot today made me emotional. Was it because the questions and thoughts Obama has in his first book about bringing about social change echoed my own sentiments as I struggled with similar issues as an Asha volunteer? Was it because a President Obama embodied the fact that the United States of America was truly a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country? Was it because it is amazing and humbling that after 9/11 and after Saddam Hussein is known as a reviled dicator the US can still elect someone called Barack Hussein Obama? Or was it simply that the election of Obama would finally bring to an end to the appalling governance of President Bush?

Perhaps it was all of the above. What I know is I was moved to tears.

Taxes

I think this would be a good non-profit to start (if one does not already exist that does something similar). A non-profit that explained the purposes of taxes, and how taxes can help provide infrastructure that will help taxpayers and their children in the long run. Let us take one example, education. The US has an education quality crisis in schools, and it has to do something to have more youngsters get a college degree. The jobs one could get out of high school are rapidly diminishing and if they want to compete with people outside the US who are working on outsourced projects more and more Americans have to really become part of the knowledge economy. All this requires an investment in education. Subjects like basic Science might not appear to have an immediate monetary benefit and thus cannot be left to private enterprises to manage. Government intervention is necessary. Such intervention is also necessary to guarantee quality education for all as a basic right. It will help the families of Joe the Plumber and Mary the Waitress if an investment was made in education. Of course the taxes have to be fair and reasonable. But the anti-tax folks don't bother to even look at the nature of the taxes - they just say, "we don't like taxes!".

Anyway, a non-profit that focused on discussing this with the people from the grassroots on up would be very beneficial. Then maybe people would not get swayed by sound bites during the general election.

(Amazing how the election has become all about sound-bites, this has been the case pretty much after the two conventions. This is why primaries are fun - issues are discussed. In the general election the targeted voters all seem to be people who don't have the time or inclination to do in-depth research and serious thinking, but are instead be swayed by a convincing speaker who has a good screen presence.)

Socialist! Socialist!

'Socialist' they call Obama - in almost the same tone they would call someone 'thief' or 'a fraud'. If they can successfully make that stick, then they would indeed get some traction, since Americans don't like socialists. Growing up in India in a socialist environment I can see the good things of 'socialism'. But for someone who has grown up in the US that word, and anything that can even be remotely connected to the notion is such anathema. Bred as they are in the environment where wealth is 'infinite' and can 'continue to grow', where supposedly anyone can come up if they work hard, they are opposed to the socialism with a vengeance. It is all a matter of what you are exposed to growing up!

Similarly, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was considered a liberating group, a group fighting for freedom when I was growing up in India, because of the Indian government's policy at that time. It came as quite a surprise to me that the PLO is considered a terrorist organization in the US. So much of all of this is just what one is subtly influenced to think.

Going back to socialism, portraying someone as socialist also seems to be one way of portraying someone as the 'other', as someone different from yourself. Instead of saying, "he is black so he is different", the refrain now is, "he is socialist so he is different". People don't want to vote for the 'other'.

Spreading the Wealth Around

Overhead a Dutchman say on my flight to Amsterdam a few days ago - "We spread the wealth around." And he went on to say, "the gap between the rich and the poor is much less in The Netherlands than it is in the US."

"No country in the world has succeeded with socialism", says Palin at rallies. I wonder what she would say if she went to The Netherlands.

Oh, and while we are talking about The Netherlands - it is such an public transport friendly country that we could not get a taxi back from the customer site back to Amsterdam airport. The customer was not particularly apologetic, and pointed us to the train station, where we had to take one of the frequent, very comfortable trains to Leiden and change there to a train straight to the airport. While my colleagues were trying to find a taxi at the train station a couple in their sixties went merrily cycling by. It was raining, but no matter. They wore raincoats and cycled on. It is good exercise too.

It was such a delight when I bought something at a store and the storekeeper did not give me a plastic bag but default.

"Angry Leftists"

Hmmm.....the speakers at the Republican National Convention (RNC) seem to like an enemy. "Angry Leftists" and "the media" seem like favorite targets. Sly digs at "change we can believe in" and "hope" pepper talks, even from those who appear mild like Laura Bush. I don't recall this in the Democratic National Convention (DNC), though I grant that some biases might be coloring my view. :) Fred Thompson went much further accusing the democratic nominee as incompetent, inexperienced and liberal (what a bad word that is at the RNC) who will take the country back ten years etc. etc. The worst I can remember from the DNC is people saying McCain was more of the same from the last eight years. Well, I suppose McCain's heroic personal story makes it harder to attack him with vengeance, but still .....

And oh, women seem to be rather prominent at this convention, from speeches by woman leaders like the captain of fire-fighters in the Minneapolis to Laura Bush highlighting all the women in her husband's administration. Very subtle digs.

It is very entertaining to see the differences between the two conventions. Starting with the attire of Laura Bush and Cindy McCain I was struck by the relatively dressy skirts they both wore (not to mention the pearls around Cindy McCain's neck) compared with the relatively professional suits and pant suits of the women who spoke at the DNC. Michelle Obama wore dresses, but somehow they felt more bold than dressy. Then there is the heavy emphasis on the Christian religion, one could be forgiven for thinking the US is a Christian country and not a secular country. It was an unexpected realization that so many Americans seem to want a "Christian" America. And of course the interspersing of military pictures and scenes throughout the events. I wonder whether the RNC always has that or it is more now because McCain. Perhaps both, and the need to be seen as being right about the Iraq war makes highlighting military action necessary. Country music appears to be predominant and you may laugh when I say I quite like that. :)

Fred Thompson has been the most polarizing speaker far, aiming strongly worded verbal slaps at the democratic party. Am I glad he is not the nominee! I wonder that he was not picked as the vice-presidential nominee. Would have satisfied the evangelical base as much as the current nominee I think!

Obama night

Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention

It was brilliant. A speech suffused with hope, full of promise and possibilities.Hillary Clinton's speech had appeared brilliant when she spoke, but when Obama spokeI forgot it, and I forgot every other speech I had liked at the convention. Obama's speech eclipsed themall. There is something in his speech that makes everything possible. It reaches intoone's soul and makes one work towards possibility.

And interestingly, he is not exactly left leaning or right leaning. The best example is whenhe talked about how the government should help in various things while at the same time saying government cannot interfere in everything and that parents are the first and important influence in a child's life.A feeling of true bipartisanship comes across when he speaks.
On reading his biography and hearing some of his speeches I had gone from thinking I would vote for thedemocratic candidate to voting for Obama the person. After tonight I desperately want Obama the person to win.

He made even me, in my current rather cynical state of mind, believe.

After the Elections

I was driving home when a friend called me to say that Clinton was leading by 4 points. I could not believe my ears. 4 points??? I thought polls had said Obama was leading by 10 points or so, and as I had told the friend earlier in the day, polls are rarely wrong. What was happening?

I got home and switched on the TV, and sure enough Clinton was leading, at times by 5 times, before settling down on a final win by 2 points or so. Pollsters and analysts will be analyzing this for days to come, whether her becoming emotional helped her or not. It appears as though it did – that combined with a perception during the debate that the other candidates were all attacking here seemed to bring out women in large numbers. The final tally for Obama and Edwards did not wary much from the poll predictions, but Clinton’s had, prompting people to think that women turned in large numbers at the last minute. Her campaigning style in the last few days also probably helped get voters who were deciding at that stage, as she was down into lots of detail at that point, whereas Obama was giving high level speeches, with the goal of not doing anything wrong. I myself had liked her speech and answers to questions at the Nashua High School. At work I saw Clinton became a candidate again with colleagues who had been thinking of Obama or Edwards. A lot of people were indeed changing their mind till the very last minute.

Earlier in the day I had spent some time at the Edwards campaign office with last minute calling as part of get out of the vote operations. Most people had already voted (though there was one who had said she had not, but intended to, and was still undecided with one hour for the polls to close). Some folks who revealed who they had voted for said they had voted for Clinton, and this was different from my sense while canvassing over the weekend – then folks had said they had decided on Obama (of course all this is just an observation from one person, not a scientific study). The mood in the Edwards campaign office was somber, with noone talking about the results but still working hard. The volunteers seemed to take it more in their stride, used to it as they probably were of candidates they believed in not winning for a variety of reasons. Some answers brought weary chuckles from the volunteers – someone who could not decide between Obama and Edwards had voted for Richardson, someone who had been leaning towards Edwards had voted for McCain. Election decision thought processes can be funny indeed!

In the end it was very disappointing for me that a candidate who had worked so hard and had started so early, a campaign so focused on issues and a grassroots operation, could do so poorly. Edwards had been in the state from early summer, holding countless town hall meetings. Every question was answered, and if there was no time at the meeting one could email the campaign and get an answer. The campaign had 80 paid staff in the state and a large network of volunteers, and had been working from very early on to build up the grassroots network. They had organized house parties on issues, had visited the Nashua Peace Group and various other neighborhood groups, had been slowly and steadily working towards their goal. I had seen first hand how the folks at the Nashua campaign office had worked their hearts out, out of a deep sense of belief in their candidate and what he stood for. The Edwards campaign had been the first to come out with a detailed policy document on complex issues like healthcare, and had very early on published a detailed 100 page policy booklet outlining all of Edwards’ positions and planned policies (one in particular I had liked was the college for everyone plan). Volunteers had knocked on doors, called countless people on phones, had had extensive policy discussions with voters. But in the end Edwards lost, lost to the media hype, to popularity based on what I considered more superficial characteristics, and to the frenzy that accompanied the process after Iowa. So much for grassroots democracy I cannot help think. So much for deciding based on policy that the early states’ voters are famous for. In the end the feeling in the gut seems to matter substantially (if not the most) – the likeability factor, the desire to vote for a woman or an black president, the desire to be part of history, the desire to vote for a winning candidate.

Driving to work the next morning past sagging signs in melting snow under a gray winter sky, I had the sense that New Hampshire was happy to get back to normal life after the elections. It had enjoyed its moment in the spotlight, as it always does, and is now ready to quietly retreat to its every day life, to the rest of its long winter with plenty of snow, to its range of activities ranging from skiing to the free state project to the peace groups. It is content to be left alone, till the next presidential election cycle brings it into the spotlight again. Volunteers carrying their candidate’s signs were leaving town in the bus I took to Boston that day, and the Edwards campaign office would be closed by now – they had planned to clear out by 2.00pm.

I asked the cab driver who took me to the bus station whether he had voted, and he said he had been working all day. I asked the youth who sold me the bus ticket and he said he really wanted to but had been working all day. How many of the working class had voted? Even the most widespread of grassroots operations that mark the primaries had not involved these people. Democracy still does not involve every single person, and democracy depends on a lot on one’s gut feeling.

I am disappointed. But hey, tomorrow is another day.

Election Day

Election day has dawned, a very atypical warm day in January (in 2004 when I was volunteering for the Howard Dean campaign I almost got frostbite in the 2F temperatures ;)). Temperatures are supposed to reach 60F today.

I opened my front door to walk to my voting booth and there hanging on my door knob was a Obama pamphlet, giving the address of my voting booth and urging me to vote for Obama. Hmmm..... I have an Edwards sign on my lawn, and I told Obama folks when the stopped by Saturday night that I am voting for Edwards. They still think I will change my mind???? I guess the Obama wave is expected to do things to people!



At the voting booth (at the elementary school), the parking lot was jampacked with reporters. Mitt Romney's bus was just pulling out after his stop at that booth, and McCain was expected shortly. McCain, Romney and Ron Paul signs almost obliterated all the democratic signs - I had literally look to find them. I found the Edwards signs folks and went over to say hello (not surprisingly they also had been Howard Dean supporters in 2004). There were a couple Hillary signs, but no Obama signs. They must have left to go to another voting booth because Obama was arriving there or something. Apparently a large group of them had been around in the morning.

The inside of the voting booth was very quiet. I voted and left just as a bus dropped a whole group of McCain supporters to greet him when he arrived.

Hillary's not done yet!

Clinton had an event at the same location as the Obama event. Again I was just on time, and again there was a *huge* line! She is not done yet, she is fighting back. The crowd was almost as large, perhaps a bit smaller, with people again in the overflow room.

Behind me in line were three folks who had driven all the way from Central Vermont to be part of the action in New Hampshire this weekend. They were quite envious of me living just across the street in Nashua :) As they said, "noone every campaigns in Vermont" (it is not an early primary state and it is a very blue state). The mother had brought her 12 year old daughter to experience the various events, and especially see Hillary. There seemed to be several people like that in the crowd - mothers with daughters, from young girls to teenagers. The idea of a woman as president was appealing to them.



The mother from Central Vermont had pretty much decided on Clinton, though she liked Obama and Edwards too. She said she felt both were a bit naive compared to Clinton. She was quite a pro-peace person, but still liked Clinton because she said Clinton had to say the things she said to get elected as a woman commander-in-chief and later govern with the Republicans. She felt one had to be tough, very smart, and at times say certain things to appeal to everyone. She had also loved Bill Clinton when he was president.

The crowd was not as young as Obama's crowd - lots of women, lots of middle aged folks (again more women I think), and quite a few old people. Several people from non-white ethnicities as well - quite a few Indians. Earlier in the campaign, when she had a big lead, she was barely in New Hampshire. Obama was here week after week, holding town hall meeting after town hall meeting, taking lots of questions at each one. Now things have become a bit reversed. Obama did not take any questions at his event, but Clinton said she would take questions as long as there were questions. And the event went on and on! I left at 2.30 (about 2.5 hours after the event began), and when I looked out my window an hour later, the event was still going on! She did answer all questions I guess.

She did a very good job speaking - went it a lot of more detail than she has done in the past, and borrowed talking points from both Obama and Edwards - talked about how she has worked with Republicans to pass bills, and talked about ending poverty. She also focused heavily on how hard work was necessary to bring about real change, saying that it was easy to just talk about it but actually doing required hard work. She mentioned her early work right after her law degree with the Children's defense fund, because she wanted to help people who were not born to privilege (again echoing Edwards and Obama). All in all, if not for her centrist positions on so many things I think I would quite like her.

Last weekend of canvassing

This weekend of door-to-door campaigning was markedly different from the last time I did this in December, just before the holidays. At that time we were still getting a lot of undecideds, now people had more or less made up their minds. And a lot of them had decided on Obama.

"I voted for Edwards in 2004, but I want to give Obama a chance now", said one. "I really think we should give him a chance".

"I think Obama has all the characteristics that are needed now", said another. "My wife is voting for Clinton, so we are all set".

There were still a small number of undecideds, though.

We kept running into other canvassers - for Obama, Clinton, Ron Paul (who are also targeting independent voters). We kept trying to switch streets so that are not right behind one of them. At almost all homes people had been there before us, leaving fliers at the door. After we got told politely that we are the 25th door bell he was answering and this was just putting him off completely, and got told by another that we were the 3rd or 4th Edwards team to visit in the last 2 weeks we decided to stop. This was just resulting in voter fatigue.

The Edwards' campaign conventional wisdom does not agree - they think saturation brings voters out. I guess the die-hard canvassers agree - I got visits from Ron Paul and Obama volunteers, in spite of having an Edwards sign on the lawn (which the Ron Paul person saw but the Obama person did not notice in the dark). The Ron Paul person thought there might be someone else in the household who might be a Ron Paul supporter :)

A lot of out of state folks have come in to volunteer. The date of the primary also enables political science students to come and be part of the campaign during their winter break. The Edwards office is full of them. One of the things they do is march up and down main street waving Edwards signs, and I joined them for a bit, The press was also marching up and down interviewing volunteers and supporters who were marching up and down :) We got a lot of car honks which was encouraging.

".....in this defining moment in history ..."

"...on this January night, in this defining moment of history .....", said Obama after winning the Iowa caucuses. People like to be a part of history.

People are thronging to his events and rallies across New Hamsphire wanting to be part of this phenomenon. My friend and I went to the Obama event at Nashua High, just across the street from my home. She had wanted to be there early, but I had demurred, pointing out that candidates are late, and boy, was that a wrong decision.

We walked to the school, and oh my. Broad street, which leads to Nashua High, was jampacked, with cars inching along. As we came up to the school we saw the very, very, very long line to enter ...... a rapidly growing line at that. The parking lot had two press buses and was filled with cars not with NH plates but with plates from all over - MA, VT, NY, NJ - people were pouring in to see Obama. The line was at a halt, presumably because the first room was full. Around us in line were people clicking away, taking pictures of themselves in line, of the line itself, of the crowd in front of us, of the signs held by people. I heard one person say, "these are pictures I will one day show my children". Two youngsters from Boston could hardly keep still and were excited about going to the debate later that evening. And there were guys selling Obama stuff - pins for $5, T-shirts and caps with the Obama logo! It has become time to commercialize the Obama brand!

The line kept growing and began curving at the end of the long road. It began to move when the second room became ready, and we all filed in - all that was available in that second room were two speakers to hear Obama speak in the first room. My friend was very disappointed. This room was rapidly filling up too, the seats being all almost taken people were sitting on the floor. A very multi-cultural sense was in the air - there were several African Americans (I had not realized this many lived in the area), racially mixed couples, several Indians and other Asians. We ran into two other friends there, and as a group we also represented diversity - being from Indian, East Asian and Trinidadian heritage. What seemed to be a Spanish reporter/television station was interviewing people in Spanish.

Obama spoke in the other room and we listened. They set up a stage in the second room for him to come and speak for a few minutes after, and the crowd just swarmed around it. It was a good speech as usual, but again failed to fire me up. He talked about various struggles in the world, and how it was hope that had been a key ingredient. "Hope is what helped abolitionists end slavery"....... Hope? I think it was more anger, a sense from the down-trodden that they are indeed equal and should not quietly accept the current situation, and a sense of empowerment that motivated them to work (and fight) for change. Hope? I don't think its as simple as that. He also talked about how one should be able to go to college whether they came from a wealthy family or not, and invoked his own humble beginnings. Talking points borrowed from Edwards' speeches I think - he had not mentioned anything about the disadvantaged early on in the campaign ! :) He also talked about everyone getting on the change bandwagon - true (one only had to listen to Mitt Romney talk about helping found Staples as change to see that).

Everyone was getting very excited, and there was a lot of clapping and thumping of feet. Chants of "Obama, Obama", and "Fired up, ready to go", filled the air. People had come with their entire families with little kids wearing Obama buttons and stickers. When he came to the second room, everyone surged forward to get a handshake - a much, much, much larger crowd than just a few months ago! The atmosphere at the event also made a real town hall meeting impossible. There were no questions, 3000 people at an event does not allow for questions. So now people would decide based on charisma, how they feel, how they "like" the candidate, instead of deciding based on a substantive discussion on issues. Charisma and Hope sell at such times. It is harder to sell substance.

Hope is a powerful message. People like it, it feels positive. I guess the fact that Asha for Education was called "Asha" (meaning hope; Asha is an organization I volunteer for) had something to do with the strong organization it is today!

Is this the beginning of a movement?

"We want to see him on the White House lawn"

6.15am. 0 F. In Manchester NH in the morning after Iowa, the welcome rally for Edwards attracted what appeared to be 500 people! And it was not just us - at the corner where we turned to get to Tower Mills, the venue of the rally were over a dozen folks holding Hillary signs. What did they expect - that those of us driving by would see them and change our minds? :)

The venue was plastered with John Edwards posters. Some folks had worked hard through the night. The stage seated dozens of volunteers, including Dave Gottesman, the state senator from my ward (he is supporting Edwards so visibly without concern for his own political future - a truly progressive person).

The energy in the air was tangible and electric. What a lot of dedicated supporters! Coming out so early in the morning in the bitter cold is no joke. They totally were for Edwards. If one saw only this rally one might completely expect Edwards to win New Hampshire - but I suppose the Obama and Clinton rallies have a similar atmosphere as well. A lot of unions (Carpenters, SEIU, Steelworkers) were there, along with educators, veterans, retired folks, old people, young people, people with young children - all excited, all pumped up, all ready to work hard in the next four days. "We want John, We want John, We want to see him on the White House lawn" were some of the chants from the crowd. "We want John" punctuated and interrupted his speech. Tons of video cameras and cameras clicked away.

"In New Hampshire it will be an election, not an auction", Edwards said when he spoke, referring to the fact that the other two campaigns far outspent him in Iowa. He went on to talk about fighting for the middle class to much applause, and my door-to-door canvassing went through my mind - how we get more support from middle class and working class neighborhoods compared to well-to-do neighborhoods. The crowd here seemed to have a good representation from the working class as well, the challenge is to see whether the message appeals to enough folks to enable him to win. After all people vote for whatever benefits them .....

A friend sent me an email today morning asking, "So I hear that you are supporting Mr. Edwards and his anti-corporate line...". I replied, "No, I am supporting Mr. Edwards and his pro-underprivileged line".

The press was their in full force at the event as well (as Elizabeth Edwards said she had already seen us on CNN :)). The candidates have all arrived in New Hampshire - Mitt Romney came in at 3.30am to be greeted by 100 supporters at Portsmouth, and Hillary Clinton has a rally right now in Nashua (at 8.30am). They must all have barely had any sleep last night - they were all live on TV till late in the night. Edwards (after appearing on Larry King Live at midnight) was here at 6.15am. But he looked less tired than he had appeared to be on TV during the days before the Iowa caucus.

We shall see what the next 4 days bring!

So ..................

The Iowa caucuses just happened. Obama won. I am a little disappointed, at the same time very happy that its not Clinton who won, and also happy that Edwards' did not lose with more of a gap.

Now we have to see what happens next. Already (in the last couple of days) a couple of friends who were committed or leaning towards Edwards were vacillating - Obama was looking attractive, he looked viable, and the notion of voting for a black man was very appealing in an idealistic way. Now the Iowa results have reinforced that. A black man winning a white state? Amazing.

But the Edwards campaign continues to be enthused (just spoke to the Nashua office). So am I - after listening to his speech after the caucus results were out. Absolutely fantastic speech - focused on the underprivileged. Which is why I liked him in the first place.

On to New Hampshire!