Elections '08 • LAPD • Presidential Race

The Desire to Matter

January 8, 2008
by Celeste Fremon
17 Comments

new-hampshire-voters.gif

The above photo of New Hampshire-ites lining up to vote can’t help but be a cheering one, no matter your candidate or party.

According to the Union-Leader, 500,000 voters either have showed up or are still expected to show up at the polls before the voting shuts down tonight. That’s half the population of the state. If those numbers are right, that’s 50 percent of the state’s electorate. (New Hampshire’s total population is a bit over 1.3 million.)

I realize it’s not quite as dramatic as purple fingers, or people braving very real threats of violence in East Timor. (In the American presidential primaries one mostly has to duck and dodge all the flying cynicism.) But it’s a heartening sight nonetheless.

Maybe cynicism isn’t as sturdy an attitude as we originally thought.

17 Comments

  • If one-half of the populaton of the state is actually voting, then let’s give credit to the Democrats for getting out the votes of the dead.

  • Last comment on NH – this thing isn’t going to happen magically on your TV. Compared to the predictions and polls of just a month ago, Obama is doing incredibly well. My advice in moving forward – Get involved or STFU.

  • The funniest line from the link about election tampering…

    Tobin’s lawyers countered that he has suffered enough: “Mr. Tobin is a man with high ethical standards and a deep love for his family and community. Seeing his reputation destroyed, his family publicly humiliated and a profession [politics] he loves made unavailable to him has caused him great pain.”

    I think a jail cell might help alleviate some of his pain.

  • There is something really wrong with the numbers being cast about, and it still looks fishy even after the correction above. If 500,000 is one-half of the state’s electorate, then 1,000,000 are eligible to vote in a state with a total population of 1,300,000. Don’t people in New Hampshire believe in having children?

    On the final outcome, consider this: The polls showed Kerry winning Ohio, Bush won Ohio, the left accused Bush of vote fraud. The polls showed Obama winning, Rodham-Clinton won. I wouldn’t put it past her campaign to bring in thousands of people from other states just to boost her numbers. I have more respect for Richard Nixon than the Clinton’s.

  • LINK: 603, 503, whatever, just vote
    by Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett, Crosscut’s Oregon editor, based in Portland.

    I got a call at home in Portland (Oregon) this morning, and the number on my Caller ID started with 603, which is the area code for New Hampshire, that quirky New England state where I lived more than 20 years ago. I pounced on the call, imagining some long-lost friend on the other end — the ideal distraction from actually working.

    Me: (excitedly): Hi!

    Stern Female Voice: Hello. I’m calling from the Clinton campaign. Will you be voting for Hillary Clinton tomorrow?

    Me: Well, I won’t be voting tomorrow, because …

    Stern Female: (urgently) Oh, it’s crucial that you participate in this important primary because …

    Me (more urgently): No, wait, it isn’t that, I just …

    Stern Female: … this vote gives you a voice in a time of …

    Me (loudly): OK, listen, first, I don’t give out information about who I vote for and second, I won’t be voting tomorrow because I don’t …

    Stern Female: Fine. That’s your right. (Click.)

    Getting hung up on by a Clinton volunteer would have been unsettling enough, but then I couldn’t get a dial tone for the next two hours. Coincidence? Hmmm. You can be sure of one thing, from now until Wednesday morning, I’m not answering any calls from 603.

    Why should Clinton care whether you can legally vote or not–as long as you vote for her?

  • Woddy is becomming a tired, pathetic old loser who cries fraud when his side is shown up for what it is. A bunch of reactionary, racist, yahoos, who assume they rule by divine right. And now they will spread the kind of vicious rumours and insults on their betters as they sink into their own muck!

    Enjoy the ride!

  • I don’t think that we have to spread any vicious rumors about the dishonesty of the Clinton’s. The proof has been and continues to be offered by them. But, don’t you think calling me and others racist yahoos describes you as the type to spread vicious rumors? Liberals just can’t stand to have light shown on their own corruption.

  • Emergency Broadcast System, try using the term “blockquote” rather than “quote” to accomplish what you seem to be trying.

  • The only vicious rumor would be alleging you make sense. Woody loves to defame then gets all soft and abashed when called on it. They’re corrupt? 70 million and an ideologue of a special counsel couldn’t find anything. But you know better, right?

    Boy I sure hope your accounting clients get better advice!

    (and considering the current WH I’d suggest you suffer from projection)

    (That’s Freud by the way – maybe there is a “For Dummies” on him so you can get the idea)

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