I'll be honest with you.
When I first looked at the candidates for House of Representatives in NH-02, I was most immediately struck by the falsehood of Charles Bass's claims to being a moderate. Votes with the Republicans 89% of the time? Not a moderate. End of story.
Paul Hodes is a Democrat. That was all I knew, and given his opponent, that was about good enough. Short of certain kinds of craziness, I was supporting him. When I saw the various Swing State Project posts on him, I thought "oh, good, it's actually a race." And I figured that if the guy was actually nuts, it wouldn't be a race anyway, or at least one of the SSP posts would have some kind of caveat about that. So I figured Hodes was reasonably solid, and I started doing a little research and I liked what I found.
Focused a
little more on
Bass's record and continued not to like what I found. But I understand why name recognition is a challenge for people like Paul Hodes, because I
wanted to learn about him and it was difficult.
So I went and met him. And I was impressed, based on a very brief conversation. But this sunday I got a more complete view at a Meet the Candidates event put on by the Alstead Democrats. And now I'm more impressed.
I was a little late getting there and he was already speaking, so I missed however he began, and I was exhausted so my processing speed was poor, but he never hit an off note. He talked about how the US is faced with "great challenges and great opportunities," and needs a government that can do something other than "talking tough and acting dumb," how the technical and entrepreneurial skills exist to meet a whole range of problems but we lack the leadership to do it. He noted that it might take sacrifice and hard work to do so, but that can and must. Call me silly, but I like to hear the word "sacrifice" coming from a politician, rather than just sweeping promises with no recognition that there may be tradeoffs down the road.
The thing I like best in what he said is that he's so clearly committed to reaching out beyond the core of the Democratic party. It's not that he seems to want to participate in the current horse-trading notion of bipartisanship in which people cut cheap deals with each other to be able to brag that they can work with the other party; rather, he seems open to considering a range of opinions and consulting with a range of people. He said "As Democrats in New Hampshire, we must talk with independents and thoughtful Republicans." As he talked, it was clear how genuine a sentiment this was; it was also clear that he would be willing and able to talk to different wings of the Democratic party, as for instance when he called for universal healthcare but rather than laying out one plan as the only way to go, referred respectfully and knowledgeably to both a single-payer system and to other plans that might perhaps go over a little better in the current American political atmosphere.
In addition to what he said, though, there's something else that really, really impresses me about Paul Hodes. When I talked to him, he was incredibly nice. I've also now spoken, at least briefly, with maybe six of his staffers and with his wife, and they were also all incredibly nice. I don't like the kind of politics where you vote for the person you imagine you'd most like to have a beer with, but there's something to be said for nice. Nice is a cheesy word, one that doesn't say much necessarily, but in this case I think its simplicity and generality are appropriate, because I don't mean solely that they are good at being schmoozy and affable. I mean that I'm a judgmental bitch who dislikes plenty of people basically on sight, and even I think they're good people.
So I'm finally following shermanesq and doggie's lead in putting Paul Hodes in my signature - something I've been meaning to do for a while but really feel motivated about now.