Bob the Dean organizer for our town and Obama supporter this time, and I have traded letters to the editor and occasional phone calls over the course of the campaign. I of course, have been on Hillary's team as a volunteer since before she announced her candidacy. My Day at the Polls diary makes for good reading if I do say so myself.
So here is this morning's follow-up to Bob who had warned me to go to the monthly local democrats meeting with humility. He wrote Tuesday night to congratulate me on a successful, hard fought campaign and told me the Obama supporters were having a hard time.
Last night, two days after the primary, was the January meeting of the Londonderry Democratic Committee of which I am Vice Chair. Except for 1 other Clinton and 1 or 2 Richardson and Edwards supporters, the entire committee is old serious dems committed to Barack Obama.
Bob,
So last night I went to the library for our meeting. I went as you Bob, my old friend and Obama organizer for Londonderry, had warned me to. I went with the intention of being humble. I am not known for tack and I am on meds for Adult ADD.
Have you ever entered a room and a dozen set of eyes were looking at you like you've just raped their daughters?
People who you thought were new found friends?
I took my Hillary hat off and put it upside down on the table so as to hide the name and I kept my mouth shut. I didn't expect any congratulations like I got from you Bob but I also did not expect the open and obvious vehemence.
But I kept my mouth shut and I was humble.
The Secretary though, is impossible to muzzle and once or twice I backed her up when she made silly comments I can't even remember.
I almost left before the meeting got too deep because the Chair was shooting me daggers along with everyone else. With supporters like this I see part of Obama's problem. At the polls, we of all the campaigns, joked around all day, shared food and hugged each other at the end of the day. We were all doing our part for democracy and we felt a kinship. Joked around being the operative word. These bitter, old(I'm 56), boring, totally without humor Obama supporters at the committee meeting remind me of the farmer with the pitch fork and his wife.
I'm the one who bought into a campaign early, invested my last year to my candidate and never tried to sell her to this group. We Clinton supporters are so strongly confirmed we just don't need to go around convincing ourselves and fighting with others.
The vehemence became even more obvious. Months earlier, The chair had told be she did not want to be chair again. For months I said she had no choice because she is the best we've ever had and I did not want to do it at all. Finally she got to me and I said sure, I'd do the chair thing. I really don't give a crap for getting the extra work but when the "nominating committee" nominated the current chair as Chair and me as vice, She gave me one of those little gotcha looks and I realized how much this entire show was about the Obama crowd showing up the Hillary folks. Kind of sad for those who insist on coming together and adult behavior.
So my ADD won out and when the Chair went into the effort she and many others had gone to correct the weekly Londonderry Times error about same day registrations my quick wit took over. The Times had screwed up last week and said that the last time to register was 12/29. That was the last day at town hall but they missed the rest of the statute which explained about same day at the polls. The chair had sent out an email notice to the group to do what we could to fix this, then she had contacted many people directly outside the group and various people managed to get the truth put on TV and other papers. I was never contacted or knew of these efforts and I'm the Vice Chair.
When the chair was done with her story I calmly looked at her and said "The Clinton campaign thanks you".
Pretty quick if I do say so myself, and any others would have laughed.
A few did laugh, but most were in total shock at my disrespect. Chair's husband lambasted me for rubbing in the win 3 times and stared at me like I was the devil incarnate. This fellow dem who often speaks of going fishing together.
I sat there as the group of pus faces bore into me and considered, do I leave now or wait until later and resign this organization I think I've helped build over the past few years. I took the latter course and decided to not let my ADD drive a hasty decision. I decided to mull things over for a day or two, realizing that these children had just lost an incredibly close race that they were convinced they'd won.
So what did Obama do wrong and Hillary right?
That over confidence was one thing we very knowingly played into over the last three days of the chase. Those three days of "final" GOTV(Get Out The Vote) should be written about for many years as the Clinton team and all Clinton supporters pulled off a ground game like nobody has ever seen. 110,000 doors knocked on and all Clinton definites contacted at least three times at the door and numerous times by phone.
The over confidence. Every Hillary worker kept saying I know we're supposed to lose but I don't hear or see it when I'm out there. We never felt we were going to lose and we as the media got worse we only worked harder.
Our chat amongst ourselves those last three days and on Tuesday always came back to the same thing. "Where are the Obama supporters, where is the great wave". We were told that the entire Obama effort was out canvassing. So was Team Hillary, but we had enough extra supporters to also cover the polls and be highly visible to the undecideds we knew would be voting.
Team Obama consisted of Old Style Activist Democrats, you know those so 90's people and a field office staff of very inexperienced but dedicated kids. The imported weekend warriors were college kids.
Team Obama is exactly the opposite of the message he so eloquently sells.
Nearly every town or county chair and the core of the party were on team Obama. Those mostly retired folks who have been fighting the good fight for 50 years. All of them were veterans of Dean or Kerry and Gore. Their ground crew was mostly, but not all, imported college kids. Axelrod gamed the impression of a youth wave while his core workers were still fighting the battles of the 90's.
Team Hillary was local supporters like myself who faced local committees full of Obama supporters. We are almost all new to politics. I dabbled in the Dean campaign but never fully committed like my lovely wife had done. The local steering committee for Hillary was made up of one or two veterans but mostly 30 - 40ish newbies who engaged in politics due to the sheer pull of Hillary's message. People like Tammy, Tom, Tim and a couple of college kids who had never been through this before.
If you were to ask around the local Dem circles you'd be certain that Hillary had no support. Their field staff was all experienced, top notch and had been through one or two tough battles. The weekend warriors and closers were mostly older folks who had also been through many campaigns. Those I met and spoke with from Mass. all told stories of the Kerry campaign or the Deval Patrick campaign, the Niki Tsongas campaign or other campaigns down in MA, NY or DC.
The campaign likes to speak about the 110,000 doors we opened in the closing days. Those doors were knocked on by experienced, dedicated people who could speak to the issues. Obama's troops were college kids from all over and although they have spirit and energy, they just don't get it when it comes to speaking with a 50 year old Granite Stater about Health Care.
Hillary won by having the best ground game ever assembled and a Get Out The Vote program that.... no I won't discuss GOTV, that would be telling so I'll leave that until after 2/5/08.
We won through sheer determination and of course we were selling the best woman of the bunch.
I'm not sure if I'll stay with the local dems but I have now found politics and I'm going through what they call supporters withdrawal, I had hoped to dive into local politics to save my soul but for now I called the Shaheen for Senate campaign and signed up for the entire list of volunteer opportunities. I will also be down in Mass.for primary weekend, doing everything I can to ensure the good lady wins.
So Bob, how about breakfast or a drink one day.
NewHampster