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Politics at its purest
Date: Friday, January 23, 2004
Location: Merrimack, New Hampshire
Place:John Edwards rally
At a bowling alley in Merrimack, John Edwards speaks to more than 500 supporters.
Edwards is at his charismatic best, but not all are happy.
Bowlers had expected a typical Friday night of bowling, and now they are complaining about the shoulder-to-shoulder mass of cheering Edwards supporters. The bowling alley manager has called the fire marshal. Tonight's crowd is three times the alley's fire-safe capacity.
John Edwards hops on a table and gives an abbreviated stump speech. He finishes before the fire marshals remove his audience.
Speaking without a sound system, the candidate is only partially audible to most of us. I enjoy the speech without hearing the words, perhaps because even an inaudible Edwards conveys energy and optimism, and perhaps because I've heard this speech enough times to recite it from memory.
Despite the setting's drawbacks, I love that our politicians speak in places like the Merrimack Ten-Pin.
I love watching candidates at local libraries, middle school cafeterias, Elk's Lodges, YMCAs, town squares, diners and bowling alleys.
I love that John Kerry must answer voters' questions over the flushing sound coming from the "boys room" of Maquoketa Middle School.
I love that America chooses its presidential nominees not through glitzy television ads but primarily through a long face-to-face job interview between each candidate and the citizens of Iowa and New Hampshire.
In Iowa and New Hampshire, the pretenders reveal their true colors.
The strong survive.
The gauntlet that candidates run is a great test for them and a great service to America.
It's also a lot of fun to watch.
Next stop: Henniker
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