Notes from the Field: Portsmouth, near Parity

This Saturday (this morning and afternoon) I went to Portsmouth instead of Derry (in NH). The results were much different. Partly this was due to Kerry's reassurance via Iowa, and partly because of the demographics of the town. Busloads of Kerry supporters came by, as well as Dean buses. Three lonely wackos in a car came for Kucinich.

We left Alewife too late (8:30AM) for the pancake breakfast at an Auburn fire station, staffers told me that Clark drew an overflow crowd of more than 400 people.

When we came to the biggest intersection downtown, there was already a turf war going on between Dean and Clark folks. A Clark guy from Princeton told me (he bused up 45 people for the weekend) that they had gotten some good response honk-and-wave-wise in the morning before the Deanies had shown up. But I looked straight up behind him and it looked like the Dean Portsmouth office was right there.

The Dean supporters had patented Howard Dean brand warm hats, baseball hats, scarves and double sided 8x10s, as well as chants from the protest folks. "I say Howard you say Dean: [call] Howard, [response] Dean. I say Doctor and you say Dean: [call] Doctor, [response] Dean. I say Governor and you say Dean: [call] Governor, [response] Dean. I say President and you say Dean: [call] President, [response] Dean" You get the idea. One Princeton Clark guy poked fun at their chant, saying "I say Supreme Allied Commander of all Forces in Europe, and you say Clark!" OK, well he was a bit obnoxious how much he talked but it was extremely cold and it pissed the Deanies off, so I didn't mind.

There were swarms (dozens and dozens) of campaign volunteers (from Dean, Kerry, Clark, and Kucinich) on every corner, and tons of press too. I got interviewed by a kid at UNH who had a Newspaper class, filmed by two or three film crews, and saw multiple interviews going on around me. And that was all before the General showed up!

About the same time as Clark's van showed up, Doctor Dean got out and did the walk routine nearby too. Friends of mine (Gary) with Clark signs saw him get dropped off right next to them. Dean was none too pleased that the Clark folks were in his turf and crossed the street with a scowl on his face to see his supporters.

The number of volunteers was fairly equal. Dean or Kerry might have had more than another but Clark was pretty competitive. The "Arkansas Travelers" who went to NH for Clinton were there (very thick accents) plus some who knew Wes personally. Nice old ladies, who told me that the Dean folks had drawn a mustache on their "flat Wesley"-- a life-size poster cut out of Gen. Clark. I could see where they wiped off the 'stashe.

We went to a rally in an auditorium, where over 900 people showed up to hear Clark speak. About 100 people stood outside because the fire code barred more them from entering the building. [Don't believe my numbers? I saw a woman with a counter as I ascended the stairs to the balcony.] Clark met with them afterwards to say thanks.

Too bad he was introduced by Ted Dansen. But his wife, Mary Steenburgen, was a childhood friend of Clark's, so that was a neat story. "We've come a long way since Valentine Street," said the actress in Elf. Not as good as "I still believe in a place called Hope!" but it is a start.

They also were using it to film an ad for the February 3rd states, so they asked us to take off our jackets because the people in AZ wouldn't get how cold it was.

General Clark lost his much maligned sweater (ok so he's donating it to charity for homeless veterans in NH by auctioning it on EBay) and just got into a newer version of his stump speech. He still needs to learn not to step on the applause, but it was good otherwise. He said that family values are Democratic values. "Family values means valuing families!" He said, and went on to site Bush's poor record on jobs, education, and the environment. Clark then said what he would do to turn this all around. It was a pretty good speech and the crowd roared to its feet several times.

Overall, it wasn't as satisfying for me because I didn't get much time to talk to voters, save the UNH kid, but I think he was just taking notes and not necessarily being persuaded as to why I liked the General. So far, I see no need to change my projections. Kucinich is still crazy, Deanies are still mean and bitter, Kerry looks strong and they were pretty nice to us now that they are winning. In fact, the second time I stood on that corner with a 8x10, a Kerry man from Queens struck up a nice conversation with me. He liked Gert since she is from Brooklyn and said she was on the news for riding the F line. Another Kerry lady asked, "If Clark wins, who would he pick as his VP?" Which is surprising coming out of a person supporting the frontrunner who is supposedly coasting to the nomination now. To be nice, I said some one like Kerry.

"We all have to come together in the end," he said. And I agree and think we will. If it Kerry, or Clark, or Edwards, or even Dean. One of the Dean chants that we all liked was "My fingers are frozen, my toes are cold, Bush and Cheney are gettin' old" the other was "Hey Hey, Ho Ho Bush has gotta go!" But the toes one is more clever and appropriate for temps in the teens with hard Arctic winds.