Political Winds

Hi Everyone,

My blog is back after a hiatus resulting from a broken laptop (coffee splash, really) and some surgery (on both me and the laptop).

On Sunday I stood in the Daniel Webster College gymnasium in Nashua, New Hampshire talking with a reporter from Yomiuri Shimbun, the Tokyo newspaper that is the Japanese equivalent of the New York Times and USA Today rolled into one. We were surrounded by hundreds of supporters of Wesley Clark. They sat on folding chairs and jammed the bleachers, holding up signs like “Combat Vets for Clark,” “Albanian-Americans for Clark,” “Teachers for Clark” and others reflecting additional subcategories of mostly (but not all) Democrats. The Japanese reporter said he was bewildered by the scene. He couldn’t believe, he said, that all these people had left their homes on a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon to hear Wes Clark speak. In fact, several hundred people couldn’t get in. The day before, at the beautiful old Music Hall auditorium in Portsmouth, it was the same story. The orchestra and balcony were overflowing. The hall’s capacity was 950 people, and again, many had to be turned away. More than a hundred stood on the stairways outside of the auditorium, hoping to sneak a look at the rally. Clark paused on the steps going in and promised he would come out and chat with the crowd after his speech.

I hope that the Yomiuri Shimbun reporter does a better job of describing scenes like that than have his colleagues in the US media (although even if he does, I guess the Tokyo readership won’t help Wes Clark). For the mainstream media, the facts on the ground matter less than the Kerry momentum/Clark slipping story line. Here’s how Tom Curry of MSNBC characterizes Wesley Clark on the campaign trail: “Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, although drawing respectful crowds in New Hampshire, has spent the final days of the New Hampshire campaign reasserting his credentials as a Democrat.” On NPR’s All Things Considered last night, a reporter described a straggling group of 50 at a Clark campaign stop, leaving the impression that it was a typical Clark crowd.

So we have the spectacle of the news media covering their rear ends by cautioning that the New Hampshire polls are notoriously inaccurate and that the electorate is volatile. Despite the repeated admonitions, most of the media goes right ahead and allows their reportorial agendas to be dictated by the polls rather than their own observations and instincts on the ground. Then, of course, the media pack’s predictions can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Oh, I’m going crazy…

I mentioned veterans holding up signs at the Clark rallies. This is another story being underplayed by the media. Vets are trooping to Clark and Kerry rallies. They’re angry at Bush. I talked with one vet, a tall and burly young man with neatly trimmed hair and a booming voice. He’s volunteering for Clark. The vet told me that when he was a kid, his mother taught him that people who are big and strong have a special obligation to help those who are weaker and that he must never be a bully. Bush, he said, doesn’t understand that principle. This vet was also very angry about the coffins coming back from Iraq being blocked from public view by the administration, by Bush’s actions on veterans’ benefits, and of course, by Bush dressing up in the flight suit. I asked him about the Michael Moore comment that Bush was a “deserter.” The vet said Moore was right. If Clark or Kerry are nominated, the veterans’ vote will play a significant role in the campaign.

A couple of other notes on New Hampshire… I introduced my 7 year-old son, Daniel, to General Clark as he made his way through the crowd at the end of the rally. Clark bent down, shooked Daniel’s hand and said, “Hey Daniel - thanks for wearing my buttons, my man!” Clark has great personal appeal when you see him on the stump. Again, you wouldn’t know it from the Washington pundits, who focus almost entirely on Clark’s “rookie mistakes,” etc.

I met an interesting guy who works for Harvard University. He was a Rhodes scholar and was at Oxford for three years. During that time, Wes Clark, Bill Clinton and Bill Bradley all attended Oxford. Being in the “anti-war camp” at Oxford, he said he didn’t know Clark well. Thirty years later, he’s volunteering for the Clark campaign.

On Saturday night, I went with good friends from Andover, MA to a fantastic lobster shack in Seabrook, New Hampshire. It’s one of those places where you pick out a lobster from a tank, say goodbye to it, and shortly thereafter consume it. An Englishman, the brother and brother-in-law of my friends, was visiting from London and joined us to taste this tidbit of Americana. Peter got a taste of more than just lobster. Glancing at a wall of photos, he noticed pictures of George W. Bush’s campaign stop at the restaurant in 2000. Peter pointed out to the proprietor that I was wearing a Clark button. The lobster guy said, “Well, I guess they have to eat somewhere.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2004 at 11:04 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.