Campaign Whistle Stops

Day Three of our trip to New Hampshire was completely unstructured. There were no candidates with scheduled public events today. Actually, Tom Tancredo was in New Hampshire, about 76 miles away. For the obvious reasons, we skipped it. It was too far to drive, and no one knows who Tom Tancredo is. Those that do know don't care. So it was to be a day of local campaign headquarters drop ins. If we couldn't see the candidates, we could at least see their staffers and ask the tough questions. I was hoping to hold Marra's attention as long as possible, and she surprised me with her stamina and enthusiasm for the whole enterprise.

We began with breakfast at The Merrimack Restaurant, only a block away from the hotel. Ideal weather again, so we walked. The Merrimack is a landmark stop for any presidential hopeful, a place described in various publications as a place for political debate and banter over eggs and bacon. I did not know what to expect, but I was hungry for the partisan atmosphere of this famous eatery.

The outside wall of the restaurant facing our hotel had a giant painted cartoon mural of past candidates who had stomped through Manchester in years past - Lieberman, Dole, Clinton (#42), Gary Hart. The inside, however, was much more sedate, one might say old and tired. It had dark red carpeting and plain wallpaper. Neither looked to have been updated in several terms. The cashier stand was in front of the wall of framed photos of candidates gone by posing with the owners and staff of the restaurant. Bob Kerry, Bill Bradley, Hart again, and Al Gore everywhere - he was clearly favored. The frames were cheap, similar to frames you have probably thrown away when cleaning out your grandparent's attic once. Thin black borders of plastic made to look like wood. All the pictures were hung randomly, and were hanging crooked. Politicians in crooked frames - insert your own joke here.

The hostess called me 'hun' and allowed us to sit anywhere. We had missed the morning rush, if there was one. We chose one of the booths along the right wall, and slide onto the cold red vinyl supported by what felt like the original vintage 1940 springs. It was a bit lumpy. I hoped the food would not be. I think we were the only non-regulars in the place. Marra actually heard the waitress greet a customer with, "You want the usual this morning?" We were in the breakfast version of Cheers.

Marra and I discussed the plan of attack. Start at one end of town, and visit as many headquarters as possible, asking a lot of questions and collecting as much campaign memorabilia as possible. We ate our first decent breakfast of the trip, and headed out.

The Visitors Center of the city of Manchester was across the street. We went there with our list of campaign street addresses and grabbed a map of the city. An elderly woman working the desk was kind enough to listen to our story, and help us place the locations in a logical order to visit. Start with Romney, next to Dodd, back to the center of town for Edwards and Clinton, head north for Giuliani, and further north for Richardson. Obama's digs are south, we'll hit that later. At least we wouldn't be going more than 10 miles total the entire day. How lost could we get?

Romney headquarter was street front on the main drag of downtown, Elm Street, but south of town in the less desirable part of the strip. It was an abandoned store, from the looks of it. Large rectangular windows with the candidate's name spelled out in the panes. Hard to miss. We parked right in front.

We opened the door and went up a small landing to the main floor. It was a wide open space with desks around the walls spaced generously from one another, for either privacy or just because there was so much room to fill. An old sofa sat dead center, unoccupied. It felt like a fraternity house great room, with its furniture in disrepair and its residents so young and without a trace of self-consciousness. I counted ten staffers were working at the desks, all staring at Marra and me for what seemed an eternity. "Who is the old guy with the kid, and what are they doing here?" I was afraid that since I didn't have my wife with me, we didn't look like the perfect "strong family" that Romney keeps crowing on and on about. Perhaps we didn't fit in.

A polite gentleman of about 22 approached us. I introduced myself and Marra, and told him our story. "My daughter and I have come to New Hampshire to spend a few days seeing various candidates for president from both parties, and visiting their state headquarters. Our goal is to find someone we can support in 2008. I'd also like to show my daughter what it takes to participate in the campaigning process. So, can we get an overview of what you do here, and tell us why we should vote for your candidate?" After all the "That's so cool" stuff from the volunteers who were eavesdropping from their desk perches, we heard his pitch. Not too impressive, so I told him one of my reservations about Romney.

"Everything I hear from Romney is platitudes about 'Strong Families, Strong Economy, Strong Everything'. I think Democrats and Republicans can agree that we want things to be 'strong'. But what does that really mean? I feel like Romney is all rhetoric, no core values. That's not the media telling me that, that me listening to him."

The staffer took a breath, and gave me the reasons to vote for Romney:

Proven business experience that he can turn things around and get results;

Leadership experience running a Democratic state as a Republican;

Real change. (Everybody wants "Change"...does Bush have any friends left?)

I couldn't let him off the hook, and I wanted Marra to see how smart her Dad was. "OK, but I don't see how handling the figure skating judges at the Salt Lake Olympics counts as foreign policy experience." Maybe I was beginning to wear out my welcome. I had to prove I was a serious questioner. "I read a book about Romney that touted all his business success, and Romney himself says that it comes from his ability to hire the right people. So, more so than any candidate, I feel like I need to know who he respects enough to place in his Cabinet." Of course, 22 year old volunteer staffer didn't have inside knowledge of Romney's short list of appointees. But that is a question I have.

I asked if I could get a picture of Marra in the office, and he graciously offered to take one of the both of us. Nice finish for him, since his preparation for my questions left much to be desired.

We grabbed a few pro-Romney stickers, and left. I felt the same way about Romney when I had entered. A good resume, a good head of hair, and a few empty slogans does not motivate me to vote for you. In the words of the late Walter Mondale, "Where's the beef?"

JS