Comments on Letter from New Hampshire

So living in NH means a nonstop parade of camping volunteers banging on your door. Sounds great!

He looks hot. Is he single? What's his email address? Is he into the ladies?

If you really want to be deflated, read Dennis Perrin's blog today. I love him!!!
http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com

What an exciting thing to be a part of--thanks Josh

An interesting perspective. But Josh, are you sure you're not just hearing what you want to hear?

I guess we'll know later in the evening.

@5: he is there to campaign for Obama, of course there's some degree of hearing what he wants to hear.

will someone explain to me how evoking movements that had nothing to do with a government or a president have anything to do with running for president? it's not because anything any president or executive leader did that made any of those movements effective. it was collective, direct action by large groups of people who defied their government. which, i guess is a nice message to tell the kids about how they can affect their government, but it really doesn't have anything to do with whether or not barack obama is capable of moving groundbreaking legislation past congress, ending a war, helping us save the environment, overhaul public education, protect american jobs and interests overseas, be commander in chief of the armed forces, protect us against another katrina-like disaster, or restoring our standing in the world.

i'm not saying it's a bad message. it really is the truth that hope moved those things. but what's his point? i feel like a bit of an imbecile at this point that i don't see the extraordinary beauty of an obama candidacy. i do get chills when he says all that shit, so it's not like i have no soul. i just don't see how it has anything to do with what he's capable of doing as a change agent in washington. he really hasn't displayed, in his short time in congress, that he can back up his speeches with much. actual change and action.

and his environmental and healthcare plans are just not as good as his opponents.

Not that this NYC campaign volunteer is really fulfilling a journalistic role, but For more on this, Glenn Greenwald's "The role of political reporters"
[salon] is required reading.

Isn't this

"the biggest gamble is playing the same game with the same players over and over again and expecting a different result"

awfully close to the definition of insanity?
Just sayin.

The reality is that Sen Obama will make a great President.

But the fearmongers in the GOP and the Clinton-Bush camp want you to live in fear instead.

Americans are made of sterner stuff than that. We refuse to live in Fear.

(caveat, if you live in Fear, N.H. it's ok to live in Fear)

How about if you live in Hell, Michigan?

great report, thanks.

@5&6:

You're both right - I am sure there was some degree of rosy color to my perception of the political temperature in frigid Manchester. The article @8, applying the same principle to the press corps, is absolutely a must-read.

Nobody mentioned that I may have expereinced sampling bias because I was knocking on doors from a list given to me by the Obama campaign. That's why I was very careful to couch my perceptions in language referring to "the conversations I had" and was especially careful to say "I think" and use the word "seem" rather than "is." I-statements.

Still, I think we'll see my perceptions bear out. I heard similar things from the Clinton and Edwards volunteers who came up on the same bus, and there is the matter of the polling averages I linked to. (More here.)

I also think it's pretty hard not to see Clinton's attacks on Obama as un-hopeful, regardless of the other virtues of her candidacy - and I love her. It sucks that she's going to get slammed for what I believe was a completely earnest, incredibly touching, and noble sentiment in a moment of - heavens no! - emotion yesterday. It will take a little bit of the sweetness out of today for me if Obama wins. But that doesn't change the fact that in New Hampshire, you really can feel something in the air.

But I could be wrong. We'll know in about an hour and a half.

Tears for Fears.

Sorry had to say that. Its a bummer Josh, I really hoped you were going to be right. I don't know if Clinton's crying was real, but I wouldn't put it past her, after the cackle.