Friday, January 11, 2008

Humerous Primary Coverage

A video-blogger who was in New Hampshire for the primary...apparently to make fun of Mitt Romney, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Chuck Norris. (link from kottke.org)

Emily Rocheleau's 15 minutes of fame.

Emily's a friend of mine. She worked for a group called the Carbon Coalition. Emily's a great organizer. Emily saw all the candidates multiple times when they were in New Hampshire. She could probably give their stump speeches for them. *grin*

Last week, Emily was interviewed by the New York Times and they included a few of her comments in an article.

The Times took things way out of context and put her comments into an article about Undecided voters.

Emily told them all about how McCain was talking about Global Warming and how that was a great thing. Because of that, people should consider voting for him if they really want to keep that issue out there.

So, a Portland, OR blogger made this comment:
Emily Rocheleau*, 22, is the stupidest person in New Hampshire

Emily was sad.

But Emily has wonderful friends and one of them wrote to the Blogger to explain the situation. (no, it wasn't me. I would have defended her, but I didn't hear about all this until after the fact)

His response:
Update: Emily Rocheleau is NOT the stupidest person in New Hampshire

Ah, I love Happy Endings!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Jan. 8 -- Awesome Global Warming and Climate Change folks!

I needed to be in my office on Primary Day, so I wasn't out-and-about doing things. I was OK with that b/c most of the action was at polling locations with candidate campaign volunteers standing out with signs. Candidates stopped by different spots with no notice given, so it wasn't possible to plan to see them.

Even so, the wonderful people who I volunteer with in the Carbon Coalition (with funding from the League of Conversation Voters which put together HeatIsOn.org) were able to keep doing good stuff! I haven't talked with them yet to hear all that they were up to, but I saw signs during news broadcasts, so they were out there!

For me, it had been a late night on Monday. After all these months, I was finally able to make it to a Hillary event. Even better than that, Bill and Chelsea were also there! Most of the events are done with the "divide and conquer" technique so it was great to see them all together. Of course, this was the same day that we saw our first glimpse of a softer Hillary, so that made it even more exciting!

The event was badly planned in terms of parking and logistics, but inside things were done alright. They said 8pm, so we got there around 7.15 to avoid some of the trafic and to try to get a decent spot to stand. Usually at events, you just wait and wait and wait for the candidates to come and this was no exception, but...there was a warm-up band. Apparently, Hillary wasn't to be outdone by Huckabee's bass playing (frequently) and Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt playing some John Edwards events awhile back.

So, some local band played for awhile as we waited. Not great by any stretch -- but they were a decent distraction and it was a refreshing change from recorded music or no music at all!

About 9pm the Clintons arrived! Very cool to see them all together. Hillary gave a strong speech with Bill and Chelsea looking on behind her. At times, it looked like Chelsea was going to cry, but she kept her composure and cracked a smile every now and then.

An audience?

Wow...there might be people reading this now (beyond those of you who I emailed). Thanks to David for talkin' me up!

Tired! (updated with news footage of me)

I'm running on not nearly enough sleep! I think that each night since my return on Jan. 3rd, I've gotten less sleep than I'm used to getting. But it's been worth it!

Last night the Hillary campaign had their Primary Night event at Southern New Hampshire University (the place good enough to issue my paychecks). It wasn't my first choice on an event to attend but logistics made it a good choice and it was a historic night!

I worked all day at SNHU and then had the opportunity to take part in some televised interviews about the Primary. ABC News Now wanted 6 students (that includes me, since I take classes) to talk about their opinions on various parts of the Primary process. We basically did a videoconference with the on-air personalities. Sam Donaldson was firing off questions and it didn't matter who got in his way! *laugh* He did say that our group had "a good grip on things". Nice to hear that!

First interview session (I respond to a question)
Second session (2 staunch Democrats who crossed over to vote for McCain talk, I sit)

In the end, we didn't have much time on-air and I only got to speak during the first segment, but it was quite an experience. They promised to send us links, DVDs, and goodies later so stay tuned!

When that wrapped up, I walked over to the Hillary primary party that was happening in our fieldhouse. It was the Hillary party. With the returns coming in slowly and media outlets refusing to call the outcome, you could feel the energy in the room building. I was in the overflow room, not even the main venue -- but people where I was at were really getting excited. With Hillary off to the early lead in the returns, I kept wondering if the numbers were going to start to turn -- but it just never happened.

When the Associated Press gave their prediction, the crowd erupted! Then just a few minutes later CNN chimed in and again the crowd came through with loud cheers and lots of smiles.

I had to watch Hillary's victory speech on a video screen, and people in the crowd really responded to it, but that was nothing compared to when she came out to see us. Granted, we had to wait until nearly an hour after she finished her speech.

First, Bill Clinton came through to work the crowd and keep us occupied while we waited for Hillary to finish up with the media. He looked drained -- it had been an emotional night and he probably hadn't been sleeping much! I was able to get close enough to say "congratulations" and he took the time to sign an autograph for me, along with items for probably 50 others near me. The room had maybe 200 people, but unless you were in the first 2 rows of people standing near the ropes, you weren't able to get close...

After father, came daugher -- Chelsea. Immediately, people started talking about what year she could run for President. She was full of smiles and very warm and energetic but she didn't look healthy. Her hands were overly-thin and she looked like a celeb in one of those "why is she so thin?" features.

To complete the hat trick, Hillary entered to a huge ovation (from the 200 or so in the room). Interestingly enough, the combined number of supporters was around 700 supporters in attendance as compared to about twice that number when Howard Dean had his event at SNHU 4 years ago.

So, Hillary took some time with the crowd and seemed very appreciative of people's support. A young woman beside me had made telephone calls for the campaign with Chelsea's roommate and another young man must have been very active in things too -- both got some special words on a few extra moments to talk.

I'm not moving over to the Hillary camp, but she's better now than she was a couple of days ago. I think a "kindler, gentler Hillary" is going to win over a number of people. Hopefully, she continues talking about environmental issues and in the few seconds that I had to say something to Bill, Chelsea, and Hillary, I asked them to keep that issue as a major one in the election.

A great photo essay from the night (with various candidates) by CBS news. This is the best compilation I've come across this morning.

The New Hampshire primary is over -- now I can Blog

Such is my luck -- I finally had a ton of exciting things going on in my life (all related to the New Hampshire primary), but I didn't have the time or energy to write about it. Well, there were plenty of other people doing that anyway. *grin*

What a crazy time, especially the 4 days following the Iowa Caucus. Darn you, Michigan! I could have had 4 weeks of fun like this, but you forced New Hampshire to move up its primary! *laugh* It's probably for the best that it was only 4 days of events all the time and not sleeping much -- I don't think I could have survived much more of it!

So, in an effort to share with people and to not forget fun things I've experienced, I'm going to take time over the next few days to Blog. Stay tuned!

The first thing is "New Hampshire Rocks the Vote" which is a YouTube clip made by Rock the Vote. The young people featured in the video are the crew who I've been volunteering with over the past few months to help raise awareness of Global Warming and Climate Change. They're standing in front of the "Action Center" in the middle of downtown Manchester. I'm going to miss that place and all the great people when they close their doors on Thursday night! *sniff*