North Conway, NH

I DON'T GET IT. Zogby shows Kerry and Dean in a statistical dead-heat at 31% to 29%, with only 3% undecided. The Arg poll has Kerry with a double-digit lead over the Governor. Our neck of the woods is a lot like Zogby's poll, and we've found that Kerry voters are pretty easy to flip. Many of them were Dean supporters before Iowa anyway. Anyone care to explain the discrepancy in the polling results?

ABOUT THE SCREAM, or the "I Have a Scream" speech: the snowballing reminds me of the reaction to Paul Wellstone's memorial. Some of the volunteers here were among the 3,500 volunteers that Dean spoke to that night. They had worked their butts off for a week in horrible weather and were nearly crushed by the election results. Gov. Dean tried to console them, to rejuvenate them, to lead them to the next contest. His cheerleading reached its crescendo with the now infamous scream. At the time, no one thought it was extraordinary--it was in context. They left the rally knowing that the Governor understood them, appreciated them, and they were ready to campaign again.

Then they saw the clip of the scream all over the tv networks and heard it on the radio. Everyone was saying that Dean had "imploded." Removed from its context, that minute or so of a much longer rally confirmed what the rightwingers have been saying for several months: Dean was "unstable."

If you read Al Franken's "Lies..." you know how one moment of Paul Wellstone's memorial was removed from its context, making it appear that Republicans were booed out of the arena. Franken followed up every accusation of partisanship in the major media and learned that no one had actually watched the entire ceremony, which was a bipartisan, filled-to-the-rafters outpouring of sadness. They had only seen the clip. See, you can sum up rightwing disinformation in three words: repetition, repetition, repetition. Oh, and "ridicule," too. Hmm. And "Karl Rove is Evil" too.

Next time maybe I'll tell you about my new Dean Volunteer Upper Body Workout plan. All you need is two yard signs and a brisk wind. For now, I'm off to bed. I have to be in the office by 6:00 for Primary Day.

North Conway, NH

Election Canvassing Tip #1
Compare MapQuest directions with a reliable map.

Election Canvassing Tip #2
Bring reliable maps with you.

More on that later.

The "event" with Martin Sheen at Josiah Bartlett Elementary was very successful--the gym was full of Sheen fans, Dean fans, and the curious. Someone from the statewide Dean campaign came to stage manage, but our volunteers did everything else. I signed up for "visibility," which is a euphemistic term for standing on the shoulder of a country road after dark, waving Dean signs to direct cars to the school's entrance, and generally frightening the neighbors.

I went inside after about 90 minutes of this and was immediately put to work by one of the interns as a Spotlight Guard. I directed everyone around the back of the spotlight so that they wouldn't interfere with the beam and cast shadows on the stage. An important and difficult task, as you might imagine, but I think I pulled it off with grace.

Martin Sheen spoke for nearly 30 minutes about how he came to support Gov. Dean, how he believed in the governor's plan for health care and respected the governor's opposition to the war. He took questions for another 20 minutes and then stayed to chat, take pictures and sign autographs. He said, "I'll be around for as long as you need me." True to his word, he greeted, autographed things and posed with people for an hour, until the gym was nearly empty and he was whisked away by a handler.

Throughout the event he was funny and thoughtful and real. He said, "Bush wants to go to Mars. As far as I'm concerned, he can leave any day now." Lots of laughter and applause. He talked about returning to "The West Wing" after the Iowa caucus, where he and Rob Reiner had worked feverishly to get out the vote. Castmember Dulee Hill offered his condolences.

"Sorry about your man losing, Martin," he said.
"Yeah, it's tough, but there are other primaries," Sheen said.
"I suppose he's going to ask you to go to New Hampshire."
"Yes, he has."
"And you're going to go?"
"Yes, I am.
"I don't know, Martin. I don't want to say anything bad, but it seems like Dean was doing pretty well in Iowa until you all got there."

Meanwhile, the Golden Globe awards were being given out in New York or L.A. Martin Sheen was nominated for his work on "The West Wing," but he was with us instead.

The media coverage was mostly local, except for a crew from WMUR-TV in Manchester and Jim Spencer, a reporter for the Denver Post. I wonder if he filed a story last night?

Julie, I didn't get Martin Sheen's autograph. I touched him.

I'm off to the volunteer office. Today will be frenetic, I'm sure.

North Conway, NH

Transprovincial Traveling Tip #1:
Compare MapQuest directions with a reliable map.

Transprovincial Traveling Tip #2:
Bring reliable maps with you.

So I got a little lost, okay? It just hurts that I got lost looking for the Bridge and Tunnel to Windsor. It’s kind of like my backyard as compared with, say, Quebec. Then I missed the 401 out of Windsor (the 401 is the great, big highway that goes to Toronto and Montreal.) I figure that my wandering contributed an hour to the 15-hour trip. Regardless, I arrived and that is good.

At the campaign office, I was indoctrinated: no talking to the press and no talking about the campaign. Anything you say can and will be used against us by Karl Rove. Loose lips sink ships and all that--standard operating procedure for even the smallest election campaigns.

The big news is that Martin Sheen will be here Sunday at 7:30. We volunteers will be advertising for him all day. Julie asked me to get his autograph for her or, because she’s not an autograph hound, I could just “touch him” and she would touch me. I told her, perhaps too emphatically, that I would get the autograph.

Tonight I met my hosts, Bill and Mary. He’s a retired-but-working physician; she’s a retired nurse with her own consulting company. We’re staying in their skiing condo, which is a modern, three-story, three-bedroom affair with a hot tub. I have the downstairs guest room and rec room to myself. (I had imagined sleeping on the hardwood floor of a drafty 19th century farmhouse, but I’m sure I’ll recover from my disappointment.) My gracious hosts have asked me to make myself at home, offering food in the fridge and even a swimsuit and towel for the hot tub. Dean attracts some pretty nice people, I must say.

It’s cold up here. The overnight forecast calls for clear skies and a low temperature of absolute zero, without the wind chill. We’re near “Hurricane Mountain,” and yes, the winds are bitter, probably at 40 or 50 mph. Tomorrow I will wear my thermals--all three pairs.

Sorry—no pictures tonight. I’m having trouble with Open AFS.

Rental car--check.
Laptop--check.
Many pairs of thermal underwear--check.
Mapquest directions--check.
Lots of sleep prior to leaving--ummm, no.
Time for bed.

I thought that the Dean's interview with Diane Sawyer went really, really well. She invoked the comparison with the interview of Bill and Hillary during his campaign and, well, there's no comparison.

The press has complained alot recently that they haven't seen Judy Dean, culminating in Michael Kinsley's essay in Time about "Why We Need to Meet the Missus." So Howard asked Judy if she would submit to her first ever television interview. She agreed because she thinks Howard would make an excellent POTUS. Besides, the interview worked into her patients' schedule. I liked her immediately just for that response.

Judy Dean is simply adorable. You see no artifice, no media savvy, nothing but the real person. She spoke of their solid relationship, of Howard's forgiveness (it seems that she forgot to mail something that he asked her to mail, and she still frets over having forgotten, while Howard has moved on), and his lack of anger and temper around the house. Call me simpleminded, but I believed her every word. She just oozed credibility. Like when she told Diane that she watches so little television, and how she doesn't just leave the TV on so that her high school son could become enamored of it. (That's a view I've heard from other parents, neighbors and coworkers, btw!)

Howard did a fine job reading the Top Ten List on Letterman's show. He didn't write it, but he made Dave laugh when he read it.

All the Dems performed admirably in tonight's debate, I thought. (I caught snippets of the compressed broadcast on Nightline.) I somehow missed all of the questions for John Kerry, though. Dr. Dean batted aside Brit Hume's snide reference to the now-infamous Iowa concession speech with a bit of self-deprecation. Every answer was on target, as compared with, say, Dennis Kucinich, who seemed to answer the questions he wished they'd asked, and Al Sharpton, who rebutted the previous 10 minutes of questions before he started to answer the question that was asked of him.

Anyway, I'm left with this assessment:

Kucinich-- Good platform. Completely unelectable.
Sharpton-- Good comebacks. Completely unelectable.
Lieberman-- Belongs in the Republican party, except that we need his vote in the Senate; we should make him an Honorary Democrat.
Edwards-- Nice hair. Good teeth. Nice NC accent. Positive message. No experience.
Clark-- Could get my vote.
Kerry-- Could get my vote.
Dean-- Will get my vote...unless someone proves better able to beat Bush.

Nostalgia: My Life As a Four-Year-Old Japanime Fan

Prince Planet was the proto-Anime cartoon hero and my favorite superhero at age four. His otherworldly power resided in his medallion but in every episode it managed to run out of juice, putting Bobby--that's his adopted earth name--in mortal peril. I remember once telling Mom that I would be back as soon as I saved Prince Planet. Then I tried to climb into the TV screen. When that didn't work, I screamed at Bobby to watch out and that I was really, really trying to get to him. I screamed for Mom, too, crying that I wasn't going to get to Bobby in time and that he really, really needed my help and she should get me into that TV asap.

Maybe I was feverish, but god he was cool. And definitely worth rescuing. His theme song was pretty kickass, too.

So far, David Corn at The Nation has the best analysis of the SOTU.

The State of the Union address was proof positive that Dubya wants to be the president of 40% of America. The rest of us can go to hell. Paul Krugman's column yesterday proved correct.

I'VE GONE AND DONE IT.
A month ago I volunteered to help the Dean Campaign in New Hampshire on the weekend before the primary. I'm truly excited about this, my first turn at national politics, because I feel I can make a difference in the course of the presidential process. I want Dean to win, of course, but I would be satisfied with Kerry or Clark winning the primary. At heart I'm an ABB voter. But Gov. Dean has hit all the high points for me--he did that on CSPAN last spring when he appeared on Tom Harkin's "From the Heartland" series. No one else captures my anger and frustration with the Democratic Party like Howard Dean does. Where were all the Democratic Party leaders (Kerry, Lieberman, Edwards) during the party's massacre in 2002?

I like Dean's track record in Vermont, especially in the way he managed to get medical insurance for so many people...and children. Repeal the Bush tax cuts? Hell, yeah! Taxes are what we pay to operate our society. The wealthy benefit more from our society (and our government) and therefore should pay more in taxes. Period. Even if you believe that cutting taxes is going to spur the economy, wouldn't you cut taxes for the people most likely to pump that money back into the economy? That ain't the rich folks. That's the poor and middle income population. By the way, tax "relief" is a peculiar phrase. It means being relieved of your responsibility to support your country. Tax "fairness" is a much better construct: supporting your country based on what you get from it.

Anyway, I'm off to NH on Saturday. I intend to keep this blog updated with notes and pictures...stay tuned.