I'd been avoiding reading my e-mail. I was depressed about Senator Clinton's prospects. Finally, I looked, and there had been three consecutive requests for me to go to New Hampshire. I went into headquarters and asked the volunteer coordinator's intern if help was still needed. She introduced me to Nicole, who was responsible for assembling people for the trip. Nicole was eager to sign me up. Since one of the requests for assistance had come from someone at headquarters that I felt I had let down, I felt morally obliged to assist, despite feeling that it was an exercise in futility.
Thursday afternoon at 5:30 PM, January 3rd, three buses left the Capitol for New Hampshire. My own bus was bound first for Concord, where half of us were to be let off and the other half of my bus was to make its way to Laconia. Mike, a young staff member, was telephoned at 4:00 AM and told that he would have to make provision for twelve volunteers who would have been on the bus from DC for fifteen hours.
When I’d talked to my parents before I left Virginia, my father expected that leaving ‘promptly at 4:00 PM,’ the earliest we could arrive would be 1:00 AM, and that if we really pushed. Well, we finally left the Capitol at about 5:00 for Baltimore, and then left Baltimore with some more volunteers at about 7:00 PM. We went straight up New Jersey, past New York City and we even made a short detour through Boston. The Concord contingent was let out at about 4:00 AM. We were let out at about 5:00 AM, and most laid out their sleeping bags on the floor and slept for a few hours.
The following Sunday morning, those of us who were staying at the Tilton, NH Super 8 Motel got up to our continental breakfast and generic coffee to see Mark Shields and Robert Novak on Fox News predicting Obama’s victory in New Hampshire, then two days hence.
Out of loyalty to Senator Clinton (I’ve been a devotee for almost thirty years), I went through the motions, avoided snarling at the kids at Laconia headquarters who were clearly pushing us as hard as they could, and avoided smoking a cigarette primarily because of all the verbal support I received from the other Hillary volunteers.
Making our way back after four days of mostly walking, it had become a compulsive, sadistic exercise for me to ask if anyone else was craving cheese pizza (it had been a staple at the HQ in downtown Laconia). The young lady behind me on the bus was reading her Blackberry in the dark and keeping those around her apprised of the returns, as they were reported. To our astonishment, the results kept coming in with Hillary holding a narrow lead. Once a majority of precincts had reported, I turned around and told the woman behind me (who was an employee of Hillary’s, in some capacity) that I hoped someone would be smart enough to declare victory, if she finished within five points of Senator Obama. She nodded, agreeing that it was a good idea.
Senator Clinton’s lead held. Senator Edwards conceded early, and Senator Obama later (with about 2/3rds reporting). Other people on the bus, as we listened to someone’s cell phone rebroadcast from the internet on speakerphone, suggested that Mr. Obama hadn’t prepared a concession speech. Everyone was stunned, then cheered. A more perfect pitch of ecstasy I’ve never in my life heard.