With a hearty group of over 30+ Vermonters, I canvassed this weekend for Senator John Edwards. http://www.vpr.net/... I came away inspired from canvassing my microcosm of the New Hampshire electorate in Lebanon New Hampshire, which is in the Connecticut River valley just over the bridge from White River Junction, Vermont.
We also had a chance to watch Senator Edwards connect with an overflow high school auditorium (we needed to find an additional basketball gym to hold the extra people) and had a chance to watch Senator Edwards shoot hoops while the press set up in an overflow Lebanon High School auditorium.
The crowd was so large, the fire department came and refused entry to a long line that snaked through the hallways of the High School, and into the parking lot, as they waited to her Senator Edwards' speech.
More on the overflow crowd, the press being turned away (initially) and watching Senator Edwards play basketball while the sound system and press set up for the overflow crowd after the jump(shot). [UPDATE below, re: "Yes, please use my pictures"]
[UPDATE: Thank you to the folks who have emailed me asking if they can use my pictures for their websites & blogs. The answer is "YES." This is a campaign and the point is to publicize John Edwards to the greatest extent possible. So if you want to use the JRE pictures I took, please do. To go easy on the Tubz, the photos in this diary are lower-resolution versions. Please email me and I will send fully pixellated high resolution copies if you prefer -- cl]
After a morning of canvassing in pleasantly cold New Hampshire weather, (Julie Wolf did a fantastic diary on this) several carloads of us headed for the local high school where Senator Edwards was speaking. When we arrived, there was a line leading from the parking lot, through a couple of hallways and eventually to a large high school cafeteria.
I entered the school with other Edwards volunteers just as the local fire officials halted the line and blocked the door. They refused entry to any more supporters, or anyone else for that matter.
Approximately two minutes after I entered -- and while discussing with other volunteers how to accommodate the overflow crowd -- a trickle of reporters started to arrive. The first reporter who was turned away started to argue with the fire official saying: "I flew all the way from Chicago to cover the Edwards campaign and you won't even let me in to hear the speech?" His temper was starting rise and it was obvious that other reporters were going to be in a similar situation soon. Pissed off press is not the best way to start a campaign event.
For anyone who has never been to one of these events, the press arrives en masse, immediately ahead of the candidate, they place and climb their press riser and start shooting within minutes.
At this point, with a campaign already suffering from a virtual media blackout, we were witnessing a soon to be delivered JRE speech to an overflow New Hampshire crowd being potentially blacked out to the media.
The thing about a grass roots campaign is that much of the organization of this event was done by volunteers. There was little ability to coordinate with the official campaign staff as this last minute potential media/public relations nightmare was unfolding -- just minutes before the scheduled start of the speech to a crowd of enthusiast Lebanon New Hampshire supporters.
Fortunately, "Deb," whom I met that day, a local Edwards supporter and tireless volunteer who works at the high school talked the basketball team into giving up the nearby gymnasium in which they were practicing. This would accommodate the overflow crowd. Next, we (the volunteers) explained to packed house that we needed at least forty people (many of whom had been waiting for over an hour) to give up their places at the event to make room for the press. THIS WAS NOT A WELCOME REQUEST! We also had to clear two full sides of the room in the area between the chairs and the wall. These areas were standing room only at this point and the Fire Marshall wanted these areas cleared to allow unfettered access to the auditorium's three entrance/exits (blasted fire code!!). In other words, many people who were excited to see Senator Edwards, who had waited, traveled and were anxious to see him, had to volunteer to get up and leave.
The campaign volunteers explained to the assembled crowd
that while we, i.e., all the people in the building, support John Edwards' message, the key was to get the message out of the high school. And the only way to get the message out, was to get the press into the room. For that to happen, people had to please give up their places and go to the gymnasium down the hall. We assured everyone that Senator Edwards would go to the gymnasium first to speak.
NEXT --- In the basketball gym, the overflow crowd assembled as a sound system was put in place, which allowed the media, national and local reporters, to file into the cafeteria.
This is when the fun began. Within a few minutes, Senator Edwards entered the gym through a side door.
First he greeted many of us who were recently transplanted onto a basketball court:
then he walked the basketball court to the far side of the gym and climbed two plastic chairs hastily thrown together,
. . . where he started to speak
no notes or teleprompters for this guy
He then asked us to stay and listen to the speech he would soon give to the folks in the nearby auditorium, which would be piped in for us.
He then left for the auditorium as planned, . . .
But not for long.
After just two minutes, there was a commotion and Senator Edwards literally came dribbling back into the room.
Literally.
The campaign and the press were still (apparently) setting up in the nearby auditorium due to the re-shuffling of equipment.
With a few extra minutes on hand, Senator Edwards decided to treat us to a basketball clinic.
He was obviously enjoying himself.
And the crowd latched on to his sense of levity at the situation.
He was not exactly Downtown Freddy Brown . . .
. . . but he hit enough shots . . .
. . . to please the hometown crowd with his performance.
It was certainly not a big-money or high-production value media event. This was a grass roots volunteer driven campaign stop. Heck, it was basketball in a high school gym.
The key is, Senator Edwards gave a terrific speech; and despite once again knowing that we were being overshadowed in the media, we saw a candidate connecting genuinely with and enthusiastic crowd supporting him for his message.
. . . and if you are wondering
how I took pictures in the closed-off auditorium, well let's just say there is a side door over which the Fire Marshall did not pay the closest of attention once the speech started.
My personal impression:
Too frequently, my voting calculus is "what is the least worst option."
This weekend I was privileged to volunteer on behalf of a candidate who speaks for us, who hears our voice and whom I trust to take our voice to Washington.
Change, of some sort, will happen no matter who assumes office in January 2009. The issue is "who do I trust to make those changes and who do I trust to fight for the changes that are the most important."
I support John Edwards.