Meet Ethan Fletcher, Senator Barrack Obama's New Hampshire New Media Director. For comparison's sake, Ethan has a job largely similar to our friend Sarah Foy at the Clinton camp.
A lot of doors open with a law degree. A lot more doors open when that degree happens to be from Yale Law. While plenty of his friends from school are litigating with Sullivan & Cromwell, or prosecuting in Cook County, or just generally taking home bushels and pecks of greenbacks - Ethan's busy talking with bloggers with a candor and zeal that's refreshing. he's working towards something in which he wholeheartedly believes - Senator Barack Obama's ability to change our country for the better. I'd be deceptive if I said that Ethan's the standard at the Obama camp, but Ethan is certainly a good indicator of the type of person Senator Obama is drawing into politics. Symbolically, you can practically feel the fresh air when you walk into 60 Rogers Street.
New Hampshire primary voters are historically fickle - often times going against the grain of the nation. In '52, Granite state Democrats <font class="text">chose Estes Kefauver</font> over sitting President Truman. More recently the state has not been immune from surprises when it served as Bill Clinton's launchpad in '92 when he miraculously placed 2nd behind Senator Tsongas, or in '00 when Governor George W. Bush got the whomping of his life from Senator McCain. No, granite staters are a curious breed. Ask anyone - including Howard Dean. Despite breaking national fundraising records, annointment as the "likely heir" to the Democratic nomination by media, and massive grassroots support in 2004 Dean still lost by close to 30,000 votes to John Kerry in NH. Exposing a fundamental flaw in Dean's field strategy, the NH and Iowa primaries showed that the Dean camp had not gotten a grasp on reliable, tangible indicators of his support. <Translate please...> Dean hadn't evaluated his voters; he couldn't tell if Mrs. Marbury down the block was going to go cast a vote for him, or if he had gotten through to Jim Smathers at the barber shop. Come election nights in Iowa and NH, Deaniacs across the nation had their hearts broken Folks have taken a lesson from the Dean blunder.
Campaigns like Obama's have taken note of recent lessons and are proactively ensuring they don't repeat mistakes of the past. Yesterday in midafternoon I snapped a shot at Obama HQ that would make any campaign veteran smile...
Meet Obama's bright eyed brigade - tables and table and tables of volunteers! Perhaps I haven't nosed around other campaign offices as much as I should have, but hands down, this is the largest regular week-day phone bank I've come across in Manchester. What's more is that Ethan mentioned crowds of similarly energetic folks are piling into offices across the state in Concord, Keene, Portsmouth and Nashua.
It's exhilarating.
Those near the campaign have related a few guesses as to why Obama is packing in the crowds both young and old in a way that's leaving veteran commentators astounded. Whether folks are drawn to Obama's plan to end the war(and his original opposition to it), or his focus on cleaning up Washington, one things for sure - folks are listening. One reason might be Obama's commitment to a new level of honesty and transparency in the process. Past campaigns have organized affluent business leaders as group fundraisers - if an individual raises a certain amount of money from his friends and associates, he (or she) attains a certain prestige within the campaign that generally brings benefits (President Bush had the Pioneers raising $100,000 apiece, other campaigns have made different designations, but the concept is the same). For the first time in the history of political campaigns, Obama's disclosing his group fundraising (FEC laws don't require the disclosure of funds raised from a group rather than individual). Some find this type of disclosure exciting.
What's more is that the excitement isn't limited to the volunteers. As Ethan toured the office with me pointing out the columns on which every visitor signs his or her name, or the staff's wall of reasons why they work for Obama, he noted a set of desks left unattended where the field staffers reside. Instinctively I quipped "where are they?" pointing to the empty desks. "Well they're out there on the phones" Ethan replied. And that's awesome. That makes me smile just writing about it. Too often in politics staffers develop a complex that they're too important for the "seemingly" menial tasks delegated to volunteers. It's another testament to how hard this team is working, how they believe in their goal, and how bright their eyes are shining that everyone is pitching in.
All hands on deck, eh? It's great.
For the duration of the summer Ohio blogs, readers and elected officials have sent me to NH to cover the first presidential primary. To learn more about it, check out http://www.newhampshireproject.com