While the rest of us were wallowing in Wild Card Weekend, our New Hampshire correspondents Kevin Flynn and Rebecca Lavoie were attending the presidential candidates’ debates. Here’s their report:
The build-up to the Saturday debates was unlike any other in recent memory. Everyone here seems to have gone crazy shit since the Iowa caucus results rolled in. There are signs cock-blocking other signs on every corner. TV crews from Europe and Asia are everywhere. And the campaigns are making nuisances of themselves trying to win votes.
Since the Iowa Caucus, we’ve fielded eight telephone calls and had four people come to our door from different campaigns, asking if we knew where our local polling place was. Just want we need: some dorky volunteer from West Virginia offering us a ride to the elementary school. Of course we know where our local polling place is--we live here.
An interesting phenomenon during Saturday’s Democratic debate: web viewers could see real-time reaction from focus groups watching the event. (The select group of party and independent voters used dials to register positive and negative reactions to the dialogue.)
Barack Obama and John Edwards did well among the focus group, as the line graphs remained in the positive for most of the night. Each time Hillary Clinton began to speak the graph began to sag, with independent voters particularly unimpressed by what she had to say.
(Insert your own Hillary couldn’t get it up joke here, Playboy.com reader)
It was hard for those of us in the Press Room to follow focus group reaction during the Republican debate, as someone hacked into debate’s wi-fi system just before the proceedings. Romney supporters suspect Ron Paul.
There are mixed feelings here among New Hampshire purists about ABC’s decision to exclude certain candidates from the debate based on the network’s rubric of “viability.” Many here embrace the idea that New Hampshire gives lesser-known, lesser-funded candidates an equal opportunity to be heard. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are probably the best examples of dark horses who benefited from the traditional primary.
But few of us doubt that the debate was more informative and better run without 10 or 12 candidates on the same stage (as happened in the June CNN debate). In fact, back then most of the second-tier candidates used their time in the spin room to bitch about how little time they had.
And what about that moment when candidates from both parties were on the stage? Contrived, but surprisingly moving. The best part was when Giuliani and Hillary crossed paths; hoots and a small standing “O” overtook the press room when they pretended they didn’t have bad blood for a millisecond. Sometimes, a picture’s worth a million words. Was one of those words “unity?” Probably not. But it was entertaining all the same.
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