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.

America's Most Influential Papers Converge

'Prince' reporter Matt Westmoreland '10 made his way onto the front page of Saturday's New York Times ... with a little help from Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Westmoreland, seen below in the bottom of the photo, was taking pictures of the Democratic frontrunner for the paper as he arrived at a Concord High School rally Friday morning.

Romney Raises the Bar (Scene)

After finishing Saturday night's Republican debate on ABC, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney made his way to Varick's Sports Bar in downtown Manchester to meet with an energetic group of supporters.

More than 100 people packed into the small establishment just west of Elm Street to watch the 90-minute debate and cheer on their candidate during a post-debate rally. Romney and his wife Ann joined the group for about five minutes, thanking them for their support and predicting a victory on Tuesday, before leaving.

Working for the Votes: Richardson

Bill Richardson’s Manchester field office is located in a strip mall about seven minutes from downtown Manchester. When we arrived about 50 volunteers, staffers and supporters had crowded into the largest of his three rooms to watch the New Mexico governor debate. Their ages were split, old supporters and young volunteers.

(Governor Bill Richardson, Jacob Aronson '11)

Jacob Aronson ’11, a Daily Princetonian copy staffer, was among the volunteers. He’s the one Princeton volunteer from the Pace program and has mostly spent his first few days calling voters around the state. However, at 2 a.m. Friday he joined other members of the Richardson team at the airport, greeting the governor as he arrived from Iowa.

Similarly, the entire group moved toward the door when Richardson arrived for a post-debate event. He made his way around the room, shaking everyone’s hand and thanking them for their support. A tired-looking Richardson then left without making a speech.

Huckabee: Two Slices To-Go

Between the Edwards rally this morning and visiting Princeton students volunteering at campaign offices in Manchester, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat at Caesario's Pizza Parlor on Elm Street.




Less than five minutes after we arrived, two buses pulled up outside and the Huckabee for President contingent made its way inside. Though the former Arkansas governor and winner of the Iowa Caucus did not take any press questions (and we tried...), he enjoyed finding another Southerner here in the Granite State when he learned I was from Georgia.

"They don't have any grits up here," he lamented. "Let me know if you find a place that has any."

Working for the Votes: Obama

The Obama for America headquarters seemed large and busy as easily 100 people worked on assembling groups to go out canvassing or to provide visibility, which means to stand on the side of the road and hold a sign supporting the candidate. The colors inside were bright and the volunteers were young.




There we met Toni De Mello GS and Melody Chan GS, who we followed as they canvassed to see the typical work of campaign volunteers. They drove out to Bedford, N.H., which looked typically New England from its white First Congregational Church to the snow on the ground. The snow is what causes the most problems for the canvassers. It’s difficult to walk from house to house. It was later in the afternoon and the pair had a Princeton car, so they drove instead.

They stopped at a home and rang the doorbell. While we were with them we saw them arrive at homes where no one was home, while another time they disappeared into the house to speak with a man for a good 20 minutes and try to answer any questions he had about Obama’s policies, and finally, another person announced that he had decided to vote for Obama. That was their favorite.