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The political pulse of a 92-year-old woman
Date: January 22, 2004
Location: Laconia, New Hampshire
Place: Elks Lodge
At an Elks Lodge in Laconia, I meet a 92-year-old woman who seems to speak for all New Hampshire. Rachel Brown has
strong opinions and is very blunt.
She supports John Kerry because "he knows more about whats going on in Washington than those other boys
do."
As she lists the boys running for president, Mrs. Brown tells me, "Now Edwards is a pretty good
man, too."
Like much of New Hampshire, Rachel Brown once supported Howard Dean. "At first, I thought Dean was good, [but] he never
was in the service and he don't know too much about what's going on."
Dean's performance on caucus night didn't help his cause with many others in New Hampshire either.
Rachel Brown wants a candidate who will help her afford the cost of prescription drugs, although not long ago she tried to solve
this problem herself. "We went on a big bus to Canada," she said. However, the inconvenience was too great
even for the indefatigable Mrs. Brown.
On Iraq, Mrs. Brown's opposition is personal. "My nephew was only 20 years old and he was supposed to come
home (from Vietnam) for Christmas and he came home in a casket."
In many ways, Rachel Brown is the typical New Hampshire Democrat. Iraq is bad. Prescription drugs are expensive. Edwards is nice.
Dean has lost her vote. She supports Kerry.
In other ways, Rachel Brown is quite atypical. Is there another 92 year-old in New Hampshire who visits campaign headquarters,
attends town hall meetings, and accurately articulates the pulse of presidential politics?
Mrs. Brown sits, impatiently waiting for her ride back to the senior center. She is the last to leave the meeting room. I suspect
that patience has never been her favorite virtue.
Duke senior Justin Walker, a "political junkie" from Louisville, Ky., is on the Democratic Party campaign trail as part of an independent study project. He is filing periodic dispatches for the Duke Web site.
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