Unity, New Hampshire Is A Bust With The Locals, Which Is A Problem Considering NH Is A Battleground

The Union Leader's Drew Cline blogs all about it here (we should also note that we heard from other members of the NH press corp yesterday who were far more colorful in their description of the event than Mr. Cline in his blog post).

Cline's final two graphs:

Here’s why this matters. The campaign easily could have chosen to hold this event in Chicago or Manchester or in any place that could have accommodated a large crowd. But it chose Unity for the symbolism, knowing that the logistics were awful. Then it didn’t limit tickest to a number that could be trucked in and out in a timely manner should anything go wrong. So for the sake of symbolism, the Obama campaign knowingly inconvenienced thousands of people, putting the elderly and children at risk, and didn’t adequately plan for their removal from the site.

This is a campaign that imagines it can achieve an effective, rapid withdrawal from Iraq, but it doesn’t even have a competent exit strategy for Unity, New Hampshire.

Yikes.

"Simple Country Lawyer" Paul Hodes Hits The Blog Scene

Note: This post was created with the help of Kathy Radford, Kevin Bassett, Trevor Harz and Kristin Kemos at the Loeb School.

New Hampshire Congressman Paul Hodes came to the Loeb School this afternoon for a press conference with students. About 50 people crowded into the conference room to hear the Congressman speak, who arrived with one staff member.

Hodes, who was elected in 2006 when the Democrats took control of Congress, is the President of the House freshman class and is "still trying to meet all the Democrats in the House" 6 months after being elected.

The Congressman described himself to the students as a "simple country lawyer" who got elected to Congress.

Right before he began a 7 minute break-down of how new media and the blogosphere helped him get to Washington in the first place.

Farmers and bloggers. Living together in harmony.

While the students seemed mostly satisfied with Congressman Hodes "stock" answers to their questions on abortion, immigration and border control, there was a general sense in the room that "Hodes had a bit too much politician in him".

For a simple country lawyer.

Student Kevin Bassett, a 16 year old (almost 17), who statistically should be around on planet Earth a little longer than Congressman Hodes, wanted to hear a bit more about Hodes' plan to stop global warming.

Kathy Radford, who will be 65 in December (and is about to start her own photography blog), was surprised that bloggers got such a glowing description from Congressman Hodes and that bloggers were credited by Hodes with changing the political scene so dramatically in such a short amount of time.

Here's to us.

And here's to you.

Houseparty! GreenMountainPolitics1 Introduces Itself To Representative Paul Hodes, Guarantees Full Hodes Staff Meeting Thursday Morning

Dear Paul Hodes,

Our name is GreenMoutainPolitics1. We are a political blog covering the NH Presidential Primary from your backyard.

We know absolutely nothing about you or your staff other than you are a freshman Congressman who seems to be kicking some (good) ass in Washington.

Good for you. Truly. By all accounts you are a stand-up guy.

And, since we are merely guests in your state we try to walk softly.

But we do have one question for you - Can we party at your house?

We were at The Barley House in Concord tonight when a table of your staffers yelled out to the whole room about taking one of the new girls to your house to show her your spread.

The quote was, "You aren't a real staffer till you've seen Paul's house."

Sounds bitching.

We've got the Keg. What's the address?