Just back from New Hampshire and just wanted to share a few thoughts with you before I crash.
First, the energy in the room today was absolutely incredible. I've really never seen anything like it, particularly when you consider that the New Hampshire primary is at least a full 388 days from now (the final date hasn't been set yet). Which is what I told the Manchester Union-Leader.
Second, it was a really eye-opening experience to be a member of the "credentialed" media. And being backstage with the press was really fascinating to watch. For instance, almost the entire media corps sat at their laptops writing stories while Obama gave his main speech, only occasionally looking up at the TV monitors in front of them. It's not what most of us would consider "watching a speech." The 20-ft difference between 1,500 screaming fans and the media was like being in an entirely different world. It reminded me of the difference between watching things during the 2004 convention from the floor and from backstage, those 20 feet changed the whole experience.
Luckily other members of the netroots were represented with MissLaura from DailyKos and Mike from BlueHampshire. Having been credentialed with DailyKos MissLaura was forced to explain several times that she was NOT Markos. There is a surprising lack of local blogs in NH and Mike and the rest of the BlueHampshire team are doing their best to fill that void, which should be a great source of information for the 2008 race.
Though my picture of it came out too blurry to use, the big-dogs really do sit up front, and at one point it was Maureen Dowd from the NYT, Adam Nagourney from the NYT, The Manchester Union-Leader, Jake Trapper from ABC, and John King from CNN all sitting next to each other in the front-row. From this picture it also appears that Carl Cameron from Fox News was giving me the Evil Eye during one of his live stand-ups.
As Obama spoke, the audience, 1,500 strong, watched in silence. Not quiet because they were uninterested, but the silence of an audience that is intent and engaged, as if enraptured. Obama spends more time on American history and context than any other political speaker that I have ever seen. More than any other politician that I have ever seen or studied, Obama's strength is turning a speech that is supposed to be about him into a speech about us. And about what it all means to us. And this is where he finds power with the audience. I also think one of the reasons that Obama finds himself so popular is that as much as people project what they want to see want onto, they simultaneously find a part of themselves to see in him.
Another word on today's sizable audience of 1,500. If you're an active Democrat in New Hampshire, you're pretty much constantly inundated with opportunities to see Presidential candidates speak. And to pay $25 dollars to see someone...forget about it. So for an event to gather this much attention, it seemed consensus among folks from NH that I spoke to that this wasn't just flavor of the month kind of attention. There's definitely something there. And holy shit, I've never seen a political candidate be mobbed in a crowd like Obama was. Rock Star might be the most accurate description because I can't think of anything I've ever seen that even comes close to comparing.
I will say that I think the massive acceleration of the presidential primary process has had the effect of upping the expectations of some activists and media folks, perhaps causing them to expect more of a full campaign platform at this point and eliciting frustration when they see something less developed. But it's still really early in the cycle, particularly for non-candidate candidates.
Finally, and I'm probably reading too much into this, but as Sen. Obama finished his speech and exited the stage into the crowd the song "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls came on. "Better Days" had became a sort of unofficial anthem for the city of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Campaign theme songs have sort of an unofficial resonance (John Kerry had Bruce Springsteen's "No Retreat, No Surrender," Bush in 2000 briefly had Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down") and I think that Sen. Obama's theme of hope and the symbolism of that song complimented each other nicely.
Special Thanks to the RunObama.com, DraftObama.org, and Students For Barack Obama for making today's trip such a success.
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