Southern Hospitality

We left the Huckabee House Party pretty jacked up. This feeling of accomplishment did not replace the feelings of hunger and fatigue, but it helped ease our pain somewhat. It was almost 7 PM Saturday night. Our day had started 12 hours and 325 miles prior, and our dinner was cut short by the ill-placed CSPAN2 cameras. All things considered, Marra and I were holding up remarkably well. Cherie had packed snacks in the car, and we were often grateful.

Marra and I chatted about the questions we didn't ask Gov. Huckabee. I wanted him to expand on his Republican debate within a debate with Rep. Ron Paul from Texas. Huckabee took the position that in Iraq, "we broke it, so we bought it", meaning stay until the 'job' is done. I wanted to hear from the candidate how he defined "done", and whether or not the United States had a breaking point with its' patience. I wanted him to defend his stance in favor of drilling for oil in ANWAR (Alaska), in light of his strong statements about protecting the natural beauty of his own state, Arkansas. Those questions would remain unanswered, at least this evening. Asking the perfect question, or asking any relevant question, was going to be a challenge. Any candidate contact seemed like it was going to be fleeting at best.

The Edwards Town Hall Meeting was in Tilton, about 20 miles further north, so we were headed in the opposite direction of home base in Manchester. The ride home after the event would be brutal, almost an hour in the dark in a strange place. I mean, there were Moose Crossing signs. I briefly considered packing it in for the night, since Edwards was on our itinerary for the morning anyway. I kept thinking, "I've planned this for 4 years, we have 4 days, we are going 'til we drop." What a great dad I am, huh? Marra was becoming numb from all the driving. Not sure she had an opinion at this point. She was just along for the ride.

Tilton, from what we could see in the dark, was a classic American small town. Lots of trees, a Main Street (New Hampshire has 1,000 roads called Main Street, and we traveled them all), a town square, statutes to fallen heroes of the past, not a Wal-Mart in sight. Few lights, a very still place. Walking around at night would not be a problem.

We got out of the car at the high school where Edwards would be performing, and Marra commented, "It smells like Christmas." There was the first nip of winter in the air along with some chimney smoke, creating that unique scent. We were wide awake now.

Inside the school, down the hall, past the team trophies behind glass, a small table surrounded by Edwards posters was set, and manned (if "manned" is the correct word here) by 2 attractive young ladies who greeted us warmly with their Southern accents. "Welcome, would you sign in please?" They told us that we had not missed anything yet - Edwards was running late. We had arrived about 10 minutes after the publicized start time, but were too tired to be concerned about maybe missing a few stock opening remarks.

The auditorium was small, and there were only about 150 people total in attendance. First thing I noticed was the lack of color in the room. Lots of white people as far as the eyes could see. I knew that New Hampshire had one of the lowest (if not the lowest) minority populations in the nation, but this was the first time it struck me. All the seats were taken, however a staffer pulled out 2 more plastic chairs for me and Marra. Even with all seats taken, we were in the third row from the center of the ring. Edwards would be performing while encircled by the mob. I chose to stand for a bit. My rear end needed some circulation after a long day behind the wheel.

At 7:45 PM (30 minutes late), Edwards arrived. White long sleeve pinpoint oxford, brown belt, Levi jeans, a touch of the Kennedy tan. The simple uniform of the working man's candidate. The man was attractive, and I try not to notice those things. His haircut was unimpressive, though. If he paid more than $30, he was robbed.

We were all waiting for the apology that never came, and he launched into his brief opening remarks before taking questions.

His positions: He is opposed to all nuclear power, and opposes any new plants in this country. Sees them as dangerous, particularly as terrorist targets. He wants to close Guantanamo immediately upon taking office. He did not say where all those prisoners would go once it closed. He favors a raise in the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour. He would fix Social Security by lifting the cap on the taxable SS wages from the current $97,000 per year. Under the Edwards plan, all earnings would be subject to the Social Security tax. Also, he is not Hillary Clinton. That point he repeated several times.

It was the end of the day, and he seemed to be reaching by the end of the evening. He wanted his mission as President to be ridding the world of nuclear weapons. After he finished that, he planned to educate 100 million children all round the world. He didn't say, but I will assume he meant these as goals for two terms, not one.

Marra and I were aggressive in raising our hands to be called on for questions, but we must have looked intimidating by this hour. We didn't get to ask him a question, and we didn't get to shake his hand. Frankly, that was OK at this point. Marra leaned over to me at 8:20 PM, and begged, "Daddy, I'm really tired and I want to go to bed. Can we go?" She never wants to go to bed, so this must have been serious. I asked for 10 more minutes, then promised we would leave no later than 8:30 PM. Seconds later, Edwards announced, "I only have time for one more question." Everything was coming together for us on Day One.

The questions we were prepared to ask, and didn't:

"In 20 years, 90% of all jobs will require a college diploma, but only 30% of adults today earn a college degree. Given this statistic, what do you view as the federal government's role in higher education, and in preparing students for the knowledge economy?"

"You have advocated establishing a government fund to bail out those citizens who were victims in the subprime lending collapse. How do you plan to differentiate those who were swindled by predatory lenders from those who understood the risks, and took these loans out anyway?"

"You talk about tax fairness, but how would you simplify the tax code so that ordinary citizens won't need to hire a CPA to take advantage of your proposed tax benefits?"

"You are proud to have opted into public financing this election season, because it fits your message that the system favors the rich. But isn't it true that the real reason you opted into the public financing system is that Obama and Clinton were out-fundraising you so dramatically, and you could never catch up?"

The town hall event was somewhat disappointing. Edwards was very charismatic, and you could see how well he speaks his message and works the audience. The disappointment was how few questions he took, maybe only 6. My expectation of the town hall was 15 questions, with lots of follow up questions when the candidate danced through a non-answer answer. The actual questions and answers were pretty vanilla, and I didn't learn anything I hadn't seen during a debate on TV.

But we were tired, and we had a 45 minute ride in front of us. We'd see Edwards again in the morning, so we called it a day.

McCain, Kucinich, Huckabee and Edwards in one day. We would sleep soundly, and we had earned it.

JS