Don't look at me, I'm from Vermont....

I'm renouncing my status as a native of NH. I refuse to claim it.

Doesn't anyone remember Edwin S. Muskie? He was the favorite to win the 1972 Democratic Primary in New Hampshire, that is until one of the Manchester Union Leader published two articles, one letter that proved to be a hoax (casting the former Maine governor as a racist moron) and the other attacking his wife. William Loeb, while he was still alive, was one of the really ugly men in American political history, he was survived by his wife, Whacky Nackie (whose real name I honestly don't know), as the publisher of the Useless Leader (as it is affectionately known by those in NH, I'm told, being as how I'm from VT and all.)

As a child, it always seemed odd to me that the editorial was published on the front page, above the fold ~ basically saying "my opinion is the most important news of the day!" We never subscribed to that paper, we read the Boston Globe in my house, but that's another story entirely.

Back to Loeb and Muskie... The letter was eventually proven to be a fraud ~ someone in the Nioxn administration actually took credit for it ~ but Loeb's attack on Muskie's wife crossed the line in the candidate's opinion. He held a press conference on the front steps of the Union Leader offices to defend his wife. Now, it was a snowy day, as it often is in NH in February, and Muskie was rather seething with rage as he made his remarks. There were no televisions to record the events, only print reporters and a single photograph. It's hard to say what actually happened, if it was melting snow or an angry and frustrated man pushed to his limit, but the story that came out was that Muskie had cried.

And that was the end of his Presidential candidacy.

**********************************************************************************

Now fast forward 35 years and we have a female candidate for President and she happens to tear up about how exhausting it is to get up look her campaign best every day (like she doesn't have staff) and NH is suddenly drawn to how "human" she is and votes for her in droves.

Keep in mind. It's not like she was talking about the millions of children that go without needed health care because they have no insurance. It's not like she was talking about the problem of women and girls being kidnapped trafficked as part of the sex trade. It's not even like she was talking about our own troops still stuck in Iraq and their worried families back home and the condition they are returning in and the poor care they're receiving after the sacrifices they've made.

I could be touched by someone tearing up over any one of those things, in fact, I'm having a tough time not tearing up just writing about them.

So, sorry guys. Mother nature isn't the only who's snowed you this year.

For the time being, I claiming to be from the upside down triangle...

Clearly, Everyone is NOT New Hampshire

Oh those crazy Presidential Primaries! And let's not forget the even crazier political parties!!

It's become a pissing contest of the highest proportion.

The states are jockeying for earlier primaries and the national committees are threatening to only allow half of their delegates to the national convention if they move their primaries ahead of the February 5th golden starting line. So the state's are flexing their electoral college muscles and swing state value, calling the threats empty.

Florida is even using double negatives!!!

“I am confident that the Republican National Committee or any eventual nominee will not allow the voices of Florida voters not to be heard,” he said. “Florida is too important a state as it relates electing to the next president.”

Oh, WHATEVER. Your Governor's brother can't run again. Everyone KNOWS Gore won the 2000 election and that your citizens are incapable of using the simplest of balloting systems.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire has maturely accepted the fact that they may be penalized for following their constitutional amendment that requires them to have the first presidential primary in the nation. The Democratic party has made an exception for NH and SC recognizing that they historically have early primaries while the Republican party appears to be incapable of making exceptions for special circumstances. How very Neoconservative AND Christian of them!



STILL...

No one seems to have figured out that all this jockeying for early primaries is going to give the later primaries more power.

Why?

With so many early primaries, there won't be a clear winner until the later primaries hit.

Think about it.

With so many primaries to focus on candidates are cherry picking the states they'll concentrate on. Many candidates are choosing not to even participate in all the state primaries.

In a normal primary season, the candidates run all out in the early primaries and several have dropped out by the time Super Tuesday comes around. With the field culled, candidates running low on funds, the leader(s) have effectively been chosen by the late primaries.

Now with all the early primaries and candidates selecting where they are (in effect) running, there could be several "leaders" coming out of Not-so-Super Tuesday and it will be up to the final primaries and those states will have the honor of hosting the BIG primaries that decide the elections. If we don't have too many media relayed self destructions, we could actually go into conventions without the candidates chosen.

In that case, Michigan and Florida could be very right. The importance of their delegates will depend on who the party leadership wants to get the nomination and who holds their delegates.

But let's hope not. I really hate it when Florida is right.

unintended consequences of biblical proportions

That's an actual quote from a member of the New Hampshire state legislature describing what will happen if NH passes a law legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples.

What exactly constitutes "biblical proportions?" Will the Atlantic part? Or maybe the state flower, the purple lilac, will spontaneously burn while the voice of an angel booms from above? Locusts, that must be it.

I seriously thought NH was free of religious zealots. I really believed that in New Hampshire, Jesus wasn't a charter member of the Republican party. Strange how things can change in only a matter of years.

Still, read the rest of the article (linked above) to learn all the evils that can come from legalized civil unions for same-sex couples.

Karen Testerman, executive director of Cornerstone Policy Research, a conservative group, citing AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, predicted that the law “could promote the acceptance of a behavior that is jeopardizing the health of our children.”

“Multiple partners when you’re doing something unnatural — it’s just not good,” Ms. Testerman said.

It is all about homosexuals. Promiscuity just doesn't occur in the heterosexual population, especially among high school students. That would be why we've never seen outbreaks of STIs among that group. RI-IGHT. And exactly how civil unions cause promiscuous behavior and the acceptance of multiple sex partners, baffles me. The whole concept of the civil union is to allow two people in a relationship to make a formal commitment to one another and to the relationship. That's generally the end of multiple partners, unless you're into threesomes or something, but let's not go there.

The law is expected to pass and the governor has agreed to sign it. I hope these people are embarrassed by their remarks or at least the ignorance they display.

Come on guys, if God was really serious about this mankind not lying with mankind as he does with womankind, wouldn't it have made it into the Commandments, say #11?

Who's on first?

With the Presidential primaries barely 11 months away, no incumbent, no obvious successor and one pissed off electorate, it seems like the fair question to ask ~ who's on first?

Do we even know who is running for President???

Maybe it would be easier to start with who isn't!

This is my list so far:
George W. Bush
Dick Cheney (although I could be wrong about this one)
Karl Rove
Scooter Libby
Al Gore
That guy from Ohio who just announced that he was dropping out of the race (who knew he was in it????)
Colin Powell
Bill Clinton (in his own name, anyway)
Any of the Kennedys (all of the good ones are dead anyway)
Just about anyone who has any business running this country

Conventional wisdom tells us that anyone who has been spending extra time in New Hampshire is suspect. That would include my Uncle Billy. He, like many other candidates testing the water, has a good cover story. He's visiting his sister and brother-in-law and helping to replace all the plumbing fixtures in their house after they became clogged with sediment when work was done on their hot water heater. Now we don't need Stephen Colbert to tell us how this tale of built up sediment from well water is completely bogus. It comes directly from the ground and there's no sediment there, it's all dirt!! My uncle will, I'm sure, also be making multiple public appearances at Home Depot, Sam's Club, WalMart, the Outback Steakhouse, the only Cracker Barrel in the state of New Hampshire and MaryAnn's Diner (a very popular hot spot for Presidential hopefuls). He'll claim the shopping is related to NH's lack of sales tax, but we'll know the truth. And did I mention his recent trip to Iowa??

But seriously, as a born political junkie, a veteran of SEVEN first in the nation primaries (not being able to visit for 2000 & 2004 made me so homesick), I am disturbed by the lack of information! Gone are the days when no one got elected President without first winning New Hampshire. I believe Clinton ended that streak. (And how proud was NH to be held blameless for that fiasco? Paul Tsongas was a much better man.) And good ol' W. didn't win NH the first time around either. Tell me the world wouldn't be a better place with President McCain!!

And people question the wisdom of New Hampshire having all the political power of the first primary....

In New Hampshire, we take the responsibility VERY seriously. Some people don't vote until they have met every candidate. There's actually a woman who has to dance with every candidate, she a little strange, but you're getting my point. In NH and now on C-SPAN, you see the candidates up close and personal interacting with real people. You see them try to court the truly jaded individuals who received the very first promises and were the first to see their promises broken. You don't get to lie in NH and you don't get to charm the local or schmooze or any of that crap. Folks in NH have been doing this for WAY too long to fall for that crap. They don't vote for the hair. They vote for the mind, the ideas, the plans, the individual. Are you getting why W. and Clinton lost NH now? For every four toothed moron wearing hunting gear in a diner that they seem to pull out for national news broadcasts, there are four well educated (or at least well schooled) individuals, most of whom work in the high tech industries surrounding Boston or the medical systems expanded from Dartmouth or Harvard led programs or for defense contractors or one of the many colleges in NH or MA or one of the green corporations like Stonyfield Farms Yogurt or Life is Good apparel or some other system set up to support everything else.

The truth is, in New Hampshire, they take the political system very seriously. They expect to see their national representatives back in town discussing issues with them. They vote. I worked on my first US senate campaign when I was 13. When I wasn't allowed to help count votes because I was too young, I stayed at the precinct just to watch the process. I registered to vote before I was even 18. (The deadline for the November election was before my birthday, but I would be 18 by election day.) Nobody needed to "Rock" my vote. I had been going to see Presidential candidates since before I could walk and talk. I had well formed opinions on national issues and candidates while I was still in elementary school. And unlike many children, lots of them were contrary to at least one of my parents opinions. (My parents have spent the better part of my life cancelling out each other's votes. The big exception was the senate campaign I worked on. He was MY candidate, so they both had to vote for him.)

So this is why I feel lost 2000 miles away from the Granite State. My favorite season has always been primary season. It's the ultimate circus.

But down here, beyond the spotlights ~ Barrack! Hillary! Mitt! Richardson! Rudy! McCain?

I have no idea who is in the running.

Who IS on first?