"Who Do You Trust?"

After attending 2 Edwards events in 2 days and experiencing the candidate's energy up close, our expectations for his Manchester operations were high. We needed a lift after 2 mediocre visits to the Romney and Dodd offices. When you are this close to the political playing field, you want to feel the electricity.

We backtracked to the center of town, a few blocks from our hotel, to find the Edwards '08 office down a busy side street off Elm Street. The circa 1930s buildings were home to overpriced art boutiques and hidden ethnic restaurants street level, and law offices scattered across the 2nd floors. This was a higher rent district with lower visibility than our previous stops. Our destination was down a poorly lit narrow hallway badly in need of a fresh coat of paint. Handmade "Edwards for President" signs lined the hall. Inside, it had a much more low rent feel. I'm glad it was daytime.

Upon entering, it was clear that this operation was much more compact, and work appeared to be happening. Good sign for Edwards. Maybe the staff just knew that the boss was in town. That always motivates workers. The room was about 25 feet square, and looked like a regular office space with white boards on the walls and several desks either along the wall or in the center, back to back.

We were greeted by Matt and Ben, but others were doing their own thing, ignoring the distractions that were interrupting their efforts. Matt took the lead. I told him our story again (I was getting good at my 'elevator' speech), and expressed my doubts about Edwards right away. "Everyone has a bold plan for everything, but Edwards self described "bold" plan for tax reform doesn't seem that bold to me. Soak the Rich is not a bold plan for tax reform."

Poor Matt, all of about 21, did his best. Without directly confronting the candidate on this issue, however, I was not going to leave satisfied. He told me what I already knew - that the plan included rolling back the Bush tax cut for those making over $200,000 (I'm safe there, but that doesn't make it wise policy), and raising the capital gains tax from 15% to 27%. The Republican counterargument rings true in this case to me, that a higher cap gains tax will mean less investment and will hurt everyone in the long run. This kid was barely legal to drink, so I was not about to debate capital gains tax rates with him.

I asked him the Giuliani question - does Edwards have the executive experience to enact anything he is proposing? He only served one term in the Senate, and, as Giuliani pointed out, he has never run anything other than a law practice. I granted him that Edwards was staking out a real, tangible leadership position on many issues important to me, and his populist rhetoric was beginning to resonate with me. But was that enough when choosing leader of the free world?

Matt began a rant against the entrenched main stream media having a bias against his candidate, but I had to cut him off. Both liberals and conservatives LOVE to rail against the media because they are a politically convenient target. It's easier to blame NBC News than examine why your message is not changing voter's minds. In a polite way, I said, "Don't try selling me that line, I'm not buying."

Marra was absorbing all of this, sometimes without me knowing. Her eyes were darting all around the space, but her ears were present in the conversation. She seemed interested, not just indulging her old man. I think part of this interest right now was because she was leaning Edwards.

We asked for permission to have Marra's picture taken with Ben the Staffer in front of the white board that had campaign goals written on it. I assured them that I was not taking pictures in order to steal ideas for other candidates, and they assured me that there wasn't anything confidential in the office I could steal. In a way, that was disappointing. I was hoping that some new strategy memo would fall into our hands, accidentally of course.

Ben was nice enough to give us directions to the Ron Paul office, which he said was nearby down some alley. We joked about whether it would be safe to bring an 11 year old in contact with the Paul Crazies, but I really wanted to hear their case. Paul devotees have passion for their candidate, that's for sure.

We had already collected a poster from the Town Hall meeting in Tilton, so we loaded up on stickers instead.

We left, but there was a sense of loss. We had seen Edwards twice, visited the headquarters, but no direct questions. I was lamenting that fact especially because Marra seemed so taken with him. That's OK. We were on vacation, right?

JS