There are other campaign staffers who played an important role in assisting Senator McCain clinch the Republican nomination, but a solid chunk of the American Hero's key Republican Primary staffers are in this picture.
And if you didn't know that - or you don't understand - you haven't been paying attention.
Taken right before the New Hampshire Primary.
Salad days for us all.
We don't know but one thing about it.
And that is that Nick Clemons is helping run it for the Senator.
You know, the guy who ran New Hampshire for Clinton.
And we all know why the New Hampshire Primary turned out the way that it did.
So is Nick Clemons a rising star? It certainly looks like it.
And tomorrow we find out if he's even more than that. When he goes toe-to-toe with the Obama juggernaut. Again.
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(UPDATED) You pro-Obama folks are quick.
Yes, Team Clinton doesn't want for many resources, so it is fair to say that she is a mini-juggernaut.
But Team Obama is still the 500 pound resource gorilla in April of '08.
And yes, if you had asked us 12 months ago (hell, 6 months ago) if we would ever believe this could happen we would have laughed in your face.
McCain field staffer Matt Flanders, who already made one accidental visit to Jon Martin's blog earlier this year, is in the news again.
This time it's the Concord Monitor.
The. Kid. Is. Legendary.
We got a couple of phone calls regarding the picture we posted of Hillary and Bill Clinton dancing in their bathing suits.
A friendly caller told us, "Please, in the name of everything holy, take that picture down."
We can't do that. Because on the Internet once you're up, you're up.
But we can take the sting out. With laughter.
Can anyone tell us what NH campaign office this advertisement represents?
"Like a lawn chair."
Snark.
McCain's Gilford Town Hall meeting this morning was so packed that we couldn't get through the front door. Which explains our lousy photograph.
We estimate about 250+ voters turned out to hear the Senator speak before tonight's GOP debate. On a workday. At 9am.
To give a point of reference, Mitt Romney drew 150 people at a similar campaign style event in his NH (second home) hometown over the Memorial Day holiday. And we're not sure if Rudy is even doing events in NH without built-in audiences.
Also in the audience this morning was Dan Balz of the Washington Post, Mark Halperin of Time Magazine, Jon Martin of the Politico, Carl Cameron of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The AP, Campaigns and Elections, The New York Times and most of the NH Gang of 15.
Hey, you throw a campaign event the morning of a big debate and the Gang of 500 is going to show up. Which carries potential risks equal to the potential rewards.
If McCain's NH event had stunk, it would have been the story heading into the debate tonight.
But the Senator, and his NH staff (from Dennehy/Barnett/Crawford on down), came through once again. Big time.
And, even though the Senator is fielding immigration questions more often than he would probably like, there is no denying that New Hampshire still loves John McCain.
A lot.
Which speaks well for McCain's chances in the first-in-the-nation primary.
And that's the story heading into tonight's debate.
Lilliana Mason, a graduate student in political science at Stony Brook University, is conducting a survey designed to examine "people who frequent political blogs" and how "those people" plan to vote in the 2008 election.
The data will then be published in a "national political science journal".
The survey is long. But, for all you restless (bored) NH field teams who are lacking something to do on a Wednesday morning while the Granite State is at work, it might be worth your time to give the survey a whirl.
Especially since there is a section that asks who you plan on voting for in the 2008 election and you don't want your candidate coming in behind another candidate.
The survey is confidential. Here is the link.
GreenMountainPolitics1 remembers a kid in high school who was so proud (so proud!) of his ability to pick up a telephone and make anonymous, prank telephone calls late at night.
It takes a real man to yell anonymously into a telephone without any fear of getting caught.
Even Monday Morning Clacker, who enjoys his pen name very much, is widely known by his real name. And we've been known to throw a verbal bomb or two (or eight).
Now it looks as if our little punk telephone prankster from high school has gone to work for Mitt Romney.
A "unnamed" senior-level Romney aid responding to McCain's charge that Romney Mitt-Flopped on immigration told Newsweek's Howard Fineman:
"That’s what happens to a guy of McCain’s age when he doesn’t take his Metamucil. I don’t think he is the kind of angry fellow we want to let alone with the nuclear arsenal."You unnamed pussy. And how boring - anonymously huffing Bush/Rove '99 talking points into a telephone like a pimple faced 16 year old who isn't going to get laid for at least another decade.
The St. Petersburg Times' Adam Smith has a story up about how seriously Rudy Giuliani is taking the Florida Primary.
Give Hiz Honor credit, at least he's taking one Primary seriously.
Because RUDEy sure as heck isn't taking the NH Primary seriously.
We've been reporting that fact for months.
Now our good friend James Pindell is getting in on the action. From today's Primary Source:
Rudy Giuliani’s travel schedule says he is supposed to hold a town hall meeting in Keene tomorrow afternoon. Apparently to Giuliani, speaking to insurance company employees and spouses in the office cafeteria counts as a town hall meeting. Usually, a town hall meeting actually takes place in a real town hall -- or at least a high school gym -- and the public is invited.Peerless Insurance confirmed this afternoon that the event is not open to the public. This means that Giuliani, who has already been criticized for not campaigning among the people, will spend his Wednesday attending a local Republican Party fund-raiser, touring a cabinet factory, and attending a closed-to-the-public “town hall” meeting.Ouch.
We like to think that GreenMountainPolitics1 is in the "informed opinion business". And being in the "informed opinion business" we try to talk to as many people in New Hampshire as we can get our hot little hands on.
Earlier this week we contacted Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign and asked them if it would be acceptable if we dropped in and saw what was cooking at their campaign office.
"We want to kick the tires a little bit," we told them.
"Sure, what time is good for you," came their quick response.
We've said it before and we will say it again - we have been pleasantly shocked (SHOCKED!) at the level of access we have gotten from Hillary's campaign. We are just a humble (HUMBLE!) Blogspot Blog after all.
And so this afternoon we dropped by Hillary's campaign office at 34 Fir Street in downtown Manchester to "kick the tires."
Sarah Foy, Hillary's NH Director of Online Organizing, acted as our guide and introduced us around the office.
Mind you, all of our conversations were off-the-record. GreenMountainPolitics1 is only on-the-record when we say, very clearly, "ok, we are now on the record."
The "informed opinion business" doesn't mix very well with the "gotcha journalism business". We want people to feel comfortable talking to us. Not clam-up and stomp the other way.
Not that there was anything particularly juicy said this afternoon. We were there to look around, not get Hillary to engage Obama for the first time.
And, having kicked the tires, we came away impressed.
First, you could practically smell the "Metrics" at work in that office. There were charts, graphs, diagrams, check-off lists, other types of lists and colored maps hanging everywhere. The place screams "measured accountability". Which is a good thing if you're in it to win it in New Hampshire.
Second, Hillary Clinton must (MUST!) have the largest NH staff of any campaign. There were people everywhere. And, although we can't prove it, they all looked busy as hell. That's a good sign.
And finally, Communications Director Kathleen Strand told us (again) that she is still working on nailing down our lunch with the Senator. And, when a press shop is as dedicated as she is to taking care of the needs of The Clacker, well, that campaign is going to do just fine.
We're just saying.
Who: Phil Elliott, Mr. New Hampshire AP, is having a birthday bash.
Why: Because he likes parties. And so does everyone else.
When: Saturday, May 19th, 8:00pm
Where: Strange Brew Tavern, downtown Manchester, New Hampshire
We are quite sure that every single Presidential campaign in New Hampshire will have a representative(s) there (yes, most likely even John Cox).
Note To Various Communication Directors: Phil has made it very clear that this party is all off the record. And everyone is required to play nice. We respect that.
Note To Various Gang of 500 Members in town for the Obama/41/42 visits: Sure, anyone can sit with David Axelrod in DC and get spun. But why not come on down and party with the first-in-the-nation "little" people?
You know, where the real action is.
GreenMountainPolitics1 has learned that Jim Martin, John McCain's New Hampshire State Director, has left McCain's campaign effective immediately.
Jim Barnett, formally McCain's New England Political Director, has been tapped to take over as McCain's new New Hampshire Director.
McCain's New Hampshire Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker told GreenMountainPolitics1 that, "Jim Martin is no longer the state director. While we appreciate his hard work, Jim Barnett will assume the day to day responsibilities moving forward. Barnett is talented and experienced and will be a termendous asset to the campaign as we move forward."
Before joining the McCain campaign, Barnett was the Chairman of the Vermont Republican Party and one of Vermont Governor Jim Douglas' top political advisers.
During his tenure as Chairman, Barnett was credited with helping keep the Vermont Republican Party relevant in a state that often considers the politics of the San Fransisco Bay Area to be "a little too conservative for Vermont's liking."
Vermont's Rutland Herald newspaper said of Barnett, "He already runs the most effective - some would say ruthless - communications shop in state politics." (Rutland Herald, 11/6/05)
Peter Freyne, a political columnist for Vermont's Seven Days newspaper, called Jim Barnett "a major dose of Viagra for the Vermont GOP." (Seven Days, 6/9/04)
And that's a compliment coming from Peter Freyne.
Jim Martin's departure comes only a few days after another Granite State native, Mike Dennehy, stepped down as McCain's National Political Director to return to New Hampshire to spend more time with his family.
Dennehy, who retains an active role in the McCain campaign as "Senior Consultant" in charge of New Hampshire and South Carolina, personally recruited Jim Barnett to work for McCain's campaign late last year.
Mike Dennehy told GreenMountainPolitics1, "Jim Barnett is smart and effective. He's been a key player in our political organization and I look forward to working closely with him to ensure a repeat victory in New Hampshire for McCain."
The New Hampshire campaign staff directly below Barnett will stay the same.
Bottom line? Obviously this is not something the McCainiacs want to be talking about right now (duh!). And this story will certainly give the chattering classes something to chatter about for a few days.
And then it will go away.
Because the only constant in campaigns is change. And everyone knows it.
Full Disclosure Alert: GreenMountainPolitics1 knows Barnett personally from a relationship built in Vermont (over beers, pub food and politics) long before the McCain campaign.
Can you judge how importantly a presidential candidate takes New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation Primary by the size of his/her staff on the ground in the Granite State?
We think you can. At least among the Big Six who all share approximately the same financial resources.
The campaign dinner party we were invited to last night was great (hey, we're writing a book and people want to be in that book). With enough food for an army (take a look at the pork chops everyone enjoyed), which is about the number of staffers that showed up.
After they made their phone calls of course.
Size doesn't always matter. Until it does.
Traveling the Primary Trail in '07 we are reminded of an expression we learned at a Washington cocktail party in '04.
The expression comes compliments of a Hastert staffer who, exhausted by our constant (and consistent) criticism of "Fat" Hastert, put down his beer and shouted at us, "We're game players! We're not rule makers!"
Which he quickly followed with, "Who the f@C# did you say you were again?"
GreenMountainPolitics1 sometimes has that effect on people.
But point taken - We must learn to deal with the world as it is and not as we wish the world would be.
Which is, we are sure, a point that Hastert's people appreciate now more than ever.
But hold that thought for a moment.
Senator McCain was back in New Hampshire this weekend for the second time in 10 days.
Holly Ramer of the AP has the story here.
Eyeon08.com has the story here and video here.
Marc Ambinder of Hotline has the story here.
Noted: Marc, good to meet you this weekend. We would like to point out that GreenMountainPolitics1 did scoop Hotline on the Rudy's Manager Tracks McCain story you wrote Saturday. We wrote about it last weekend. We're just saying.
Joining McCain on the campaign trail were senior campaign staffers John Weaver, Mark McKinnon and Mike Dennehy.
These three are "Game Players" - they deal, effectively, with the political world as it really is.
That's not Snark. That's not sucking-up. It's the truth.
Noted: In the interest of full disclosure we were tickled pink (and gushing about it unprofessionally) to spend 2 hours with McKinnon in a car on Saturday talking off-the-record about the '08 landscape and we were just as happy to listen to Weaver/Dennehy, on background and over beers Saturday night, talk about the way that they see the race.
Absolutely fascinating.
New Hampshire is a unique place. Dare we say that GreenMountainPolitics1 is a unique Blog?
What we (continue to) find so interesting is that as professional as McCain's presidential campaign is (run as it is by the best Game Players in the GOP), the candidate still remains the Maverick Rule Maker he was in 2000.
Which leads us to ask, "Can you be a Game Player AND a Rule Maker at the same time?"
We think McCain is doing just that. And we think it is one hell of a strategy.
Now, we know that some of you out there will scream "Bullsh@t!" and accuse us of drinking Kool-Aid spoon fed to us by McCain staff.
That's fine.
And, we will admit that lots has changed between McCain '00 and McCain '08, at least on paper. The Senator is older (who isn't?), better funded and yes, he is the establishment candidate this time around.
But, at the end of the day, the majority of his time is still built around taking unscripted questions from Town Hall audiences and taking unscripted questions from the press corps.
That's (mostly) all he does. Check his schedule.
He's the only Big Six candidate running for President to have such a high level of candidate access and in doing so he's turning conventional campaign wisdom on its head.
Again.
McCain '08 is still a Maverick Rule Maker who's running a presidential campaign as if the world was as we all wished it to be.
And he's got some real Game Players working for him.
Rule Makers AND Game Players? We think it's going to be a kick-ass combination.
We're just saying.
Because you are looking at one of the best (if not the best) presidential-level Field Director on any campaign. In any state.
Even if that car is (a tad) over-the-top.
Hey, sometimes you can be all show AND all go.
And, where else would you rather be all go than on the ground in New Hampshire?
Hint for the Romney staff: This Field Director/race car driver has never impersonated a Fidelity Employee while dining at Margaritas.
Any guesses?
