two poorgradstudents

Apparently, Clinton and Obama are "sparring" over Clinton's comments that Lyndon B. Johnson produced "change" by passing the Civil Rights Acts of 1964. According to Clinton, this "began to realize" Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "dream." According to Obama, "some folks" feel that this diminishes the efforts of MLK, Jr.; Obama, though, swears that he isn't (necessarily) part of these "some folks."

Given Edwards' stated interest in producing real change, can anyone explain to me why he is not campaigning for admission into a theological seminary and is campaigning to become, again, a Washington politician? I am fundamentally baffled about this.

It didn’t take long for me to register to vote in New Hampshire. I showed my passport, which, oddly enough was described by the official as feeling wet; I told her that I ran it through a washing machine long ago, but I didn’t think it was wet. Then I showed a utility bill and filled out a form. That effort earned me a white piece of paper that said, “Okay to vote.” Excellent!

More notable was my utter confusion about where to go and where to be to accomplish anything. I initially stood in the wrong line to register. After receiving and completing my ballot, I stood in the correct place to submit it, but wasn’t told that I was in the right place. After lolly-gagging there for a minute, I made eye-contact with another voter, who seemed like a veteran of the process, and she indicated that I needed to be in the line that she was in. I stood there for a few minutes before learning that that was, of course, the wrong place and where I’d been before that was the correct place. Though all the necessary posters – what to do if you needed assistance, who to contact about your voter rights, and how to mark a ballot – were in place, a few signs indicating the function of all the lines would have helped me. That said, I had nowhere to be and the lines weren’t long at all. I was in and out of Town Hall in, I’d guess, 15 minutes.

Finally, it’s sickly warm here. If this report is correct, we reached a record high for today and the air is 27 degrees above the average high. This should facilitate voters’ treks to their polling places. I wonder, too, if we’ll get any quotes from undeclared voters about being finally moved to vote Democrat because, today, t-shirts and jeans are appropriate outdoor dress and, well, that’s a little worrisome.

Or she’s human. Or something like that.

As I’ve already written, I intend to vote for Senator Obama in tomorrow’s primary. Still, I’m concerned with the collective response to Hillary and her campaign. Apparently, the woman isn’t likable – &, get this, has to prove she’s capable of imitating humans by tearing up and parroting the other candidates’ rhetoric about politics being personal.

Today, a neighbor told me jokes about Hillary Clinton.  They involved body parts, Monica Lewinsky, and cigars.  Even a show as renegade as South Park does nothing more with Hillary than joke about her vagina.  (South Park did more or less the same with Oprah.  Brilliant, eh?)

Even Edwards and Obama, those damn radicals, play with the innuendos and attitudes about clothes and about likability.

Change, change, change, right?

(We are a goofy people.)

PS: I remember a bumper sticker that one of my high school coaches had.  It went something like, “Impeach the President and her husband too.”  Given that sentiment and given the joke today about Lewinsky, it seems that that scandal benefited the President Clinton in one way – by endearing him to those of us who really believed that a woman like Hillary was no woman (&, it follows, no wife) at all.   With Lewinsky, President Clinton righted the gender wrongs of his White House family.

Some highlights from media coverage of the events that I’ve attended.

(1) Of President Bill Clinton’s visit to the University of New Hampshire, The NY Times’ writes

Former President Bill Clinton has been drawing sleepy and sometimes smallish crowds at big venues in the state that revived his presidential campaign in 1992. He entered to polite applause and rows of empty seats at the University of New Hampshire on Friday. Several people filed out midspeech, and the room was largely quiet as he spoke, with few interruptions for laughter or applause. He talked about his administration, his foundation work and some about his wife.

“Hillary’s got good plans,” Mr. Clinton kept saying as he worked through a hoarse-voiced litany of why his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is a “world-class change agent.” He urged his audience to “caucus” on Tuesday for Mrs. Clinton, before correcting himself (“vote”). He took questions, quickly worked a rope line and left.

Those of us who attended Clinton’s talk did note the meager line, as well as the empty seats. But I don’t think sleepiness and politeness adequately account for the passivity of the audience. No doubt, we were polite, but the opening ovation seemed sincere enough to me. Moreover, unlike at Senator Obama’s rally in Exeter, there was no aspiration on behalf of the campaigners to generate (nauseating) “pep”; at least one Obama volunteer attempted to get us to participate in The Wave while we waited for the Senator. Egh. I think, too, that Clinton’s talk was sufficiently cerebral – more detailed and less bombastic than Edwards’ or Obama’s – and, I hope, what looked to the reporter like passivity might have been careful listening.

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I did end up attending the event. Got there in time to be one of the last people who had the good-fortune of waiting in the sickly warm entrance of the impressive Exeter High School. That meant I had a seat in the bleachers of the gym; a good number of the others who had to wait outside from about 10:30-11:15 stood once they were let in, although their view of Obama was no worse for the wait. The Senator was introduced by a local, non-profit worker (or director, I can’t remember). She asked how many of us were “undeclared” voters. Something like 1/2 the people in attendance raised their hands; my guess is that included those officially registered as undeclared, NH’s equivalent of independent, and undecided Democrats. Those of who aren’t undeclared muttered, “wow.” I’m not sure if the number of undeclared voters in attendance indicates that so many undeclared voters are leaning towards voting for him. … Or, even, if Obama’s speech convinced them, produced in them the epiphany he told us that he aimed for. … Or if, in the first place, they were attending to figure out for whom to vote. My sense, so far, is that the primary in NH, especially when it involves Obama, is as much spectator sport as it is politics. But that the crowd wasn’t only converts seems important.

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We Agreed to Agree, and Forgot to Notice

From the primordial goo that is our natural sciences, social sciences, cultural mores and attitudes, and consumer choices can emerge decent and sane politics?

Really…, what a stunning article.

This blog is getting a few incoming visits from people searching for information on Tuesday’s New Hampshire Primary. Specifically, people are trying to find out whether they can vote in one party’s primary if they are registered as a member of the opposing party. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that is a possibility, since New Hampshire has a deadline for changing party affiliation prior to the primary; the deadline, unfortunately, was last October. Because this may not hold for those registered to vote in other states, does not hold for those registered as undeclared, and because I’m not an expert on New Hampshire voting law, I strongly urge those of you confused about voting, party affiliation, and voter registration in New Hampshire to contact your local clerk’s office on Monday. In the meantime, here are some helpful websites…

How to Register to Vote in New Hampshire – If you’re not registered to vote in New Hampshire already, you’ll likely need to register on the day of the primary. This site has information about doing that.

New Hampshire City and Town Clerks – Your city/town clerk can often answer your questions about registering to vote, as well as questions you have about voting on Tuesday, including the most important one, “where do I vote?”. When I wanted to find out what kind of ID that I needed on the day of the primary to register, I checked with my town clerk’s office.

Voting as a College Student – This link downloads and opens a helpful .doc file for college students.

Voting Rights Poster – This .pdf contains contacts for those who think their voting rights are being violated.

Voting Assistance Poster – This .pdf contains information for those who need assistance marking their ballot.

Most of the above links are housed @ The N.H. Secretary of State’s Election Division.

NHPrimary.com
&
The New Hampshire Primary.

I haven’t attended a rally since they involved that dreaded three letter word – pep – and involved me feinging interest in a god-awful football team, but, if I can wake before 10:00 am, which I haven’t been doing lately (oh the life of a poor graduate student), I’m going to drive myself to Exeter, NH and try to attend Barack Obama’s rally. &, perhaps, if I’m feeling game for it, I’ll try to make it to Hillary Clinton’s appearance in Dover on Monday.

I wish somebody would poll me…

I registered to vote in 1999 in New York state as a Republican. Turns out, affiliating myself with the Republican Party was a grand mistake, not because of what that party was about to unleash on us, but because I did not, not in 1999, and do not reside anywhere in the vicinity of the political right. I registered as a Republican (sigh…) because my twelfth grade, Government teacher told my class that there was no Democratic Primary in New York State.

Perhaps I misheard my teacher, perhaps he misspoke, or perhaps, as one of my high school friends contends, he manipulated me for the sake of the G.O.P.; there is, in fact, a Democratic Primary in New York. Not that my mis-registration really mattered; I made no effort to vote in the 2000 or 2004 primaries and voted in those year’s presidential elections, both times for a losing candidate, through absentee ballot.

Soon after registering to vote in New York in 1999, I moved to Massachusetts for college. I didn’t know it then, but I’d spend most of the next eight years in the Bay State, long enough to convince myself I’ve earned the right to root for the Celtics, Sox, and Patriots, even against any NY’ers complaints. But it wasn’t until the 2006 mid-term election that I registered to vote in MA, this time as a Democrat. That decision came only after hearing that a very weak Republican gubernatorial candidate was running a very, very nasty advertisement against a very impressive Democratic candidate. The Democrat, Deval Patrick, won “in a romp,” though my vote wasn’t enough to earn Boston undergrads the mid-term election consolation prize to end all consolation prizes … booze in grocery stores. (Big liquor-stores helped defeat “Question 1.”)

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