"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!