Nashua, New Hampshire
Well, first the big news: Viggo Mortensen is campaigning here with Dennis Kucinich today. ("If by my life or death I can protect you Dennis, I will. You have my sword . . .")
Then there's the more mundane campaign stuff. There was some talk yesterday contrasting Barack Obama's morning rally, which drew, by various reports, between 1,000 and 2,000 supporters, with Hillary Clinton's morning event in a small bagel shop, which drew about 50 supporters. Crowds are a good indicator of energy, but aren't a perfect predictor of electoral performance. In addition, because the events were in such different venues, yesterday might not have been a real apples-to-apples comparison.
Today is different. Clinton held an event at the gym in Nashua North High School and Obama has an event at Salem High just down the road a couple hours later.
Nashua North has a big gym (it's where Obama had his monster rally yesterday). The Clinton campaign only has half of the bleachers extended. They're packed and a large section of the floor in front of the stage is full of people standing. All told there's easily more than a thousand people. The audience is raucous and high-energy, in part because the campaign has a spirited fellow on stage warming up the crowd. He leads them in chants and, in the spirit of NBA half-time shows, tosses t-shirts into the crowd. They eat it up; although I kind of wish he had a muscle suit and mini-tramp. That would be awesome.
In the event, Clinton begins by claiming that there are "about 3,500 people in attendance. That's an exaggeration; the number is probably closer to 1,500. It's impressive nonetheless.
Her stump speech is gone. She opens by talking about last night's debate and by introducing her new theme of "rhetoric versus reality." She says that she believes her opponents are all good people--and then she hammers them for their inability to create change, using an expanded version of the litany she used in the debate last night. She goes after Obama for flip-flopping (on the Patriot Act, Iraq war funding, etc.) and Edwards for having no actual accomplishments (other than the passing of a healthcare bill that never became law). After each example she says, "That's not change."
The crowd responds enthusiastically. By the end, they're even calling out "That's not change" with her. Perhaps this line would have been even more effective if she had used it four weeks ago, before Iowa got out of hand.
Overall, it's a good event for her, with one of the best crowds I've seen her draw.
As a postscript though, let's dip back to last night's debate and Clinton's discussion of the future of Iraq. Here's the exact quote:
"I don't think anyone can predict what the consequences will be, and I think we have to be ready for whatever they might be."
But she's for withdrawal anyway. And that doesn't seem to be bothering her supporters.
