Princetonians join Clinton for campaign finish

(Back, from left: Regina Lee ’08, Julia Kaplan ’11, Peri Rosenstein ’08. Front: Molly O’Connor '11, Jack Ackerman ’11)

Manchester, N.H., 9:30 p.m. - They’re due at work by 4:45 a.m., but tonight five Princeton undergrads made their way to Hillary Clinton’s final rally before polls open in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary tomorrow morning.

The students have logged long hours over the last four days as they canvassed the state’s snow-covered neighborhoods, phoned into countless homes to shore up support and stood on streets corners with yard signs to provide “viz” for the New York senator’s campaign.

Tonight they joined hundreds of other Clinton supporters in a large warehouse near the Manchester airport as Clinton, joined by her husband and daughter, thanked voters for their support and stressed the importance of getting out the vote.



At one point in her speech, Clinton began saying that “I know what it’ll take … [to be president]” but was interrupted by a male supporter who shouted “A woman!” to loud cheers.

Just like the Clinton rally at Nashua North on Sunday morning, a steady stream of people left the rally starting less than 15 minutes after it began. By the end supporters had steadily made their way forward to fill in the gaps. Nonetheless, most of those in attendance showed their support in what is likely to be an uphill battle tomorrow against frontrunner Barack Obama.

Other pictures from this evening’s rally:

McCain and Obama win (the first vote)

Dixville Notch, a town of 24 with 17 registered voters, opened the polls at 12:01 a.m. today Jan. 8, the first vote in the New Hampshire primary. They declared McCain and Obama the winners seven minutes later. Dixville Notch has voted just after midnight since 1960. They file in and vote by placing their ballots in a ballot box.

Results:

McCain - 4, Romney - 2, Giuliani - 1

Obama - 7, Edwards - 2, Richardson - 1

Sprint To The Finish: The Polls

NASHUA, N.H., 6:52 p.m. - The Democratic race in New Hampshire was turned upside down this after Barack Obama's victory in Iowa, according to the latest polls among Granite State Democrats. The Illinois senator leads by anywhere from one to 13 points in each of the 15 polls published since the results from the Caucuses came in.



New polls out today by CNN and Rasmussen show Obama with a 10-point lead over New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, while polls by CBS News and Marist show the lead at seven points and eight points, respectively. A Suffolk/WHDH poll shows Obama with a one-point lead over his New York counterpart. Former Sen. John Edwards is a distant third in each race.



On the Republican side, polls by the same organizations show Arizona Sen. John McCain with a steady lead over rival Mitt Romney. Romney had been losing ground to McCain since Christmas, and a tough loss to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee last Thursday made matters worse. CNN shows the Arizona senator with a six-point lead over the former Massachusetts governor, while Marist shows him with a four-point edge. Suffolk/WHDH numbers show a three-point spread between the two with McCain leading, while Rasmussen has McCain's lead at just one point, well within the margin of error.

Sprint To The Finish: The Events

NASHUA, N.H., 6:51 p.m. - The polls in New Hampshire open in just under 12 hours, and frontrunners from both parties are sprinting to the finish. As the sun sets on a relatively warm winter night, Democratic and Republican candidates continue to crisscross the state, rallying their troops and wooing undecided voters.

On the GOP side, Mitt Romney will make stops in Bedford and Manchester, while McCain ends his final full day of campaigning with a stop in Portsmouth. Later tonight, Mike Huckabee will make an appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman." Last week, Huckabee traded jokes and displayed his guitar skills on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" the night before the Iowa Caucuses.

Among the Democrats, John Edwards will hit Dover, Somersworth, Manchester and Durham tonight. Hillary Clinton will hold a final rally at the Manchester airport and Obama will wrap up his campaign with an event in Concord.

Bradley ’65: Country needs Obama

He is legend inside Dillon Gym. His number hangs from the rafters at Madison Square Garden. And today, Bill Bradley ’65 threw his support behind Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign one day before voters go to the polls in New Hampshire.



The announcement took place outside Obama’s Concord campaign office, the same facility Bradley used for his campaign headquarters during his presidential run in 2000. Originally scheduled indoors, the 15-minute event took place outside because the crowd of more than 100, most of them under the age of 30, couldn’t fit inside.

“I believe that Barack Obama is what the country needs,” Bradley declared. “I feel very much like this is history. We can be part of history.”

Bradley said Obama practices the “politics of greater possibilities” and credited him with being able to see the “broader picture.”



“When you look at Barack, we can see how far we’ve come as a country,” he said. “And that allows us to see how much further we can go.”

Bradley added that politicians today have to reach out to the broadest possible number of Americans and let them know they can be a part of the answer to the problems facing the country.

Bradley jokingly pointed out that, with his announcement, half of the four highest-scoring basketball players in Princeton history support the Obama candidacy. The other is Craig Robinson ’83. His sister is Barack's wife, Michelle Robinson Obama ’85.

"Princeton is for Obama," Bradley said with a smile, referencing the Illinois senator's many ties to the University.

The Obama supporters spent much of the afternoon holding signs along the town’s main drag, and they were joined by volunteers from nearly every other Democratic and Republican campaign. The competitive shouting between campaigners and constant horn-honking from drivers showing their support made for a rather chaotic situation.

Working for the Votes: McCain

Just two of the 20 PACE Center volunteers in New Hampshire are campaigning for Republicans. Bryan Gergen '08 and Chris Nenno '08 are campaigning for Arizona Sen. John McCain. We met them in McCain’s Nashua field office after they returned from a short McCain rally this morning. Short being the operative word, as McCain only spoke for two minutes, 40 seconds before moving on to his next event on this the last full day of campaigning.

The office was on the second floor of a building with more people than it could support. Volunteers were standing in the hallways and outside other companies’ doors to make phone calls encouraging voters to choose John McCain. That was what Bryan and Chris were doing this morning, contacting people who had expressed that they were divided between supporting McCain or another candidate. Sometimes they received answering machines, and other times they reached supporters of other campaigns, ranging from New York Sen. Hillary Clinton to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Yet they also had success , finding supporters to whom they offered rides to the polls. Each answering machine message ended with the phrase “This call was paid for by John McCain 2008.” Sometimes the people in the room sounded like they were speaking in a round.

The Daily Princetonian Moves Primetime

After the back of Matt Westmoreland's head ended up on the cover of The New York Times yesterday, you might have thought the 'Prince' had reached the pinnacle of national press coverage, but no. Today C-SPAN fed footage of Matt and me talking with Michelle Obama '85 about Old Nassau and the nation's favorite source for Princeton news, The Daily Princetonian.

More Potential First Spouses

In the film "Primary Colors," which tells the story of the 1992 presidential campaign, the character representing Bill Clinton stays late into the night talking to a worker at a small donut shop. This evening I saw what that characterization was based on. At a small event with perhaps 75 people, former President Clinton gave a speech encouraging people to vote for his wife and finished it by taking questions from anyone in the audience who wanted to ask one. I asked him about youth turnout in Iowa and how the Clinton campaign was planning to encourage turnout. He said, “She’s been doing a lot of events here, around the country … the Obama campaign simply did a better outreach.”

While Hillary never mentioned Iowa, Bill noted failures in Iowa and encouraged New Hampshire to have its own campaign and not simply follow Iowa’s results. He also spoke a great deal about his own presidency, comparing his record on jobs with that of President Bush’s and promising Hillary would offer a return to more prosperous times.

His audience was young, perhaps because it was located in a bar and in a university town. They were an excited crowd, though some started filtering out before the end. President Clinton stayed on even after the end of his remarks, having individual discussions among the mass of people who approached him.

Michelle Obama '85's (not) House Party

The Michelle Obama ’85 House Party we attended today was actually held in the Plymouth “Obama for America” field office. Its slightly misleading name arose because as people RSVPed for the event, it became obvious that there would not be enough room to house all the attendees, so instead the office was cleaned out and chairs were set before a podium. We arrived only 10 minutes before the projected 4:30 p.m. start time because Hillary Clinton’s rally ran an hour late and was halfway across the state.

The audience’s composition was in stark contrast to the Obama rally we attended on Jan. 4. That day most of the audience was under over the age of 50, but at today's event the most common constituency of the audience was people over 55, especially women. They were joined by small pockets of young people under 25. There were between 150 and 200 people seated and standing.

While the audience waited for Michelle Obama to arrive — she was also an hour late — they milled about and ate baked goods. Unlike all the other rallies and town hall meetings, there was enough room left to move around.

Michelle Obama entered to a standing ovation from the audience before moving into a about an hour long prepared speech. She used her time to address the common concern levied against her husband, primarily that he is too unqualified by laying out all the experience he’s had through his community organizing and state senate service. She echoed the campaign’s common themes of hope and change achieved through some level of sacrifice by telling of her own family’s experience of a father who worked a blue collar job, her stay at home mom and how they put two kids through Princeton. “A man like my father, of simple means, could send two kids to Princeton.”

She didn’t take questions, though she spoke with many people as they moved toward her to shake her hand and pose for pictures. When we made it to her we mentioned we were here from the Daily Princetonian, and her response was “Yeah Tigers!” accompanied by a high five.

Hillary Rallies Her Troops

We initially thought that the most exciting part about New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s rally today was that it was 15 minutes away from our hotel and started at noon, meaning that we didn’t have to arrive get there until 10 a.m. and could finally get some rest. After returning to our hotel at midnight last night from a short Bill Richardson event and then writing up our posts, we were exhausted.

The line to gain entrance to the event had already formed when we arrived two hours ahead of time, and the Nashua North High School gym was already set up with a stage and the largest American flag I have ever seen. When we left for the Secret Service sweep the line stretched the length of the school.

Fitting given its location, the event opened like a sports game with a Clinton staffer warming up the crowd by throwing pom poms and shirts and holding a game of Hillary trivia. (Sample question: Where did Hillary Clinton attend law school? Yale. Boo.) The crowd of around 2,000 was very active, screaming loudly. Hillary arrived about an hour late, accompanied by her daughter. She went straight into her speech without being introduced.

Her speech addressed the issues of change and experience. She used the words change and changes more than 10 times in her prepared speech. The vast majority of her speech was devoted to the topic of healthcare, the issue that has become the defining policy question of the Democratic primary. She indirectly criticized the extent of Obama’s plan, alleging it would leave 15 million residents uninsured. In comparison she brought up her work on the Children’s Health Insurance Program to emphasize her understanding and experience with the issue.

She also took questions from the audience, but often it was difficult to hear the speaker. There were several about healthcare in addition to some about the environment and foreign policy. During the questions audience members in the previously at-capacity crowd streamed out, the first time I had seen such a response. The event was also the longest one we’ve attended at about 80 minutes of Clinton speaking.

Bill Hits The Bars

As we left the Obama event, we learned from a handful of Hillary Clinton supporters walking along Plymouth’s Main Street that Bill Clinton would be greeting supporters at a nearby restaurant. We decided to check it out.



Arriving at 7:30 p.m., the former president was greeted by around 75 supporters in the basement of Lucky Dog Tavern. He took the microphone for almost an hour, stressing the importance of converting undecided voters and getting out the vote in Tuesday’s primary.



Clinton conceded that the Obama camp had done a better job of mobilizing young voters in Iowa but argued that his wife had the best plan for their future. He said that blunting Obama’s momentum from Iowa would be difficult, but that supporters could help the campaign by urging their friends to vote for the New York senator.

Obama '85 Makes Case to Plymouth

After the Clinton event, we raced up Interstate 93 from Nashua to Plymouth, a small community about halfway up the state. There we found about 200 Granite Staters packed into the Obama campaign office waiting for Michelle Obama ’85. The event was originally scheduled as a “house party,” but unexpected interest in the event required a change in venue.



Obama spoke to supporters in the crowded basement for nearly an hour, and her comments covered a wide array of issues. She said we live in a “cynical and fearful world” and that she wanted to help create a world of hope and change for her daughters and all other young people in the country. She spoke of her own childhood, the hard work and sacrifice of her parents and how all Americans must be willing to sacrifice for one another and the country. She cautioned that, while an Obama presidency would bring change, America must understand that change is painful and takes effort, involvement and sacrifice on the part of every individual.

Afterwards Obama worked the room for almost half an hour, was thrilled to hear that a couple of 'Prince' reporters made the trip up to New Hampshire and made sure that her beloved Pyne and Patton Halls were still standing tall back on campus.

Hillary: "Ready for Change. Ready to Lead."

We were back on the trail this morning, this time at a rally for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton at Nashua North High School. The event drew an enormous crowd, as literally thousands lined the sidewalk outside the school before the doors opened. Once inside, the campaign blared music from Bon Jovi, Rascal Flatts and others and threw out T-shirts during “Hillary Trivia” to keep supporters occupied for more than an hour.

Clinton arrived shortly after 1 p.m. with daughter Chelsea and immediately launched into a 40-minute stump speech that drew stark contrasts between her and frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama. Responding to Obama’s campaign themes of change and hope, Clinton said that hers is a record of action and not just words, and that both Obama and John Edwards had taken numerous positions in the last few years that did not represent change.



After her remarks, Clinton took more then 40 minutes of questions, no easy task considering the more than 2,000 supporters packed into the school’s gym, on everything from healthcare and education to social security, global warming and the war in Iraq. The 80-minute event was the longest of our trip, and attendees could be seen filing out of the gym well before it was over.