national TV (C-SPAN, but in a good
way).
Since
Wendy is now an NH Edwards delegate for the 1st congressional
district, we feel obligated to show up for the events in the area.
It was scheduled for noon down in Nashua, but we left Merrimack at 11am to get
a good seat -- we knew it was going to be mobbed
after the huge crowd we saw Saturday night at the bowling alley.
We got there about 20 after and Wendy and Trevor stood by the
gymnasium handing out the remaining campaign literature we had at home
-- it will be useless after Tuesday. I headed into with the rest of
the kids and found some seats on the side in the middle. While we
waited a CNNreporter was making the
rounds taking notes. She was interested to know if I had decided
(yes, for Edwards), were
going to vote (of course), and when decided. I told her that we say
Kerry a few weeks ago and he
said to vote for him and not vote to send a message. Wendy and I
seriously talked about it quite a bit and decided
now was the time to vote for who we wanted and not just who may
beat Bush. The reporter also
was curious if there was anything that turned us off of
of don't like but like better. I explictly told her that the Dean
Scream had no impact and made us see him as more human and passionate.
After that one of the Edwards advance team asked if the kids and I
would like to stand on stage. Sure! Later Wendy and Trevor (with
crutches) found us and came up to. They were trying to get a variety
of people up there -- a number of folks
from NH, but also people that came just to support Edwards. If
you see the streaming video (
rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/c04/c04012504_edwards.rm) you see
most of the family about from about 41 minutes in through the end. We
are on the right side of the stage and you'll see
sign the girl's "Go, John, Go!" signs. Past meetings were pretty low
key -- just a local Democrat doing the introduction, but now they have
a staffer to warm up the crowd ("Who is from NJ? Who is from NC?"
"Have you heard this song E-D-W-A-R-D-S sometime, something, now you
sing", etc) before the introduction. There were a fair number of
people (25%?) from out of state.
The actual speech was pretty similar to his standard stump speeches
we've heard before. There seems to be more emphasis on "Two Americas
-- one for Bush and his special interests and one for the rest of us".
He also took a few questions from the crowd which were again the usual
healthcare, job/economy, etc. Also new was directly asking for
support and getting the vote out. As usual he introduced Elizabeth,
his wife, but his college senior daughter and Glenn Close who were
also on stage.
The gymnasium was packed and a few hundred people in an overflow room.
On the way out we saw the MTV Rock the Vote people and someone
gathering 'Repeal the PATRIOT act' signature which I signed. It was
around 1:30pm by time we got out of there and rewarded the kids' good
behavior with a
McDonalds.
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
-----
John Edwards in Nashua, NH Fairgrounds Junior High School (25 Jan 2004)
is another view of the same event,
someone who arrives early enough for these things...
