On Taking Questions
by Todd Beeton, Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 07:01:51 AM EST
When I saw John Edwards up in Lebanon, NH yesterday, I was struck by the enthusiasm with which he invited questions, even though he had apparently not intended to take any, or was running so late that he was advised not to. At the end of a rousing speech, he said "I can't hold a New Hampshire meeting without taking questions" and proceeded to take 4 or so despite the protests of his staff. Two of the questions were single-payer advocates wondering why they should support him when his plan isn't single payer. Edwards responded passionately, ultimately asking his critics to understand that we need to cover everyone as quickly as possible and that there is not consensus on single payer, there is consensus to cover everyone. He went on to say that he his plan could very well became single payer if that's what people want it to be and hit back hard when a questioner called his plan a "patchwork."
Edwards was also confronted by a woman who insisted that she loves everything he says about taking on the entrenched corporate interests but... "how are you going to do it!?" Edwards seemed taken aback a bit but clearly relished the opportunity to make the case. He said he'd bring the congress to the right place by galvanizing the American people, institute lobbying reform and seek publicly funded elections to name just a few things and ultimately appealed to the idealism of the crowd:
Together there is nothing we can't do and we will win this fight.
The point here is that part of my hope in going to New Hampshire was to get a sense of that retail politicking that New Hampshire is so famous for and I really only got a sense of it from John Edwards, and had to drive to way northern New Hampshire to see it.
Part of the problem, of course, is that I went the final weekend before the primary, when people's interest is at its peak, so it made sense for Barack Obama to hold larger rallies -- he does have "meet the candidate" forums scheduled for the next few days. And Hillary Clinton, to her credit, is back to taking questions, albeit (in the case of the event I went to Friday) at a distance from questioners that comes with standing on a stage above the crowd. But her questions were not terribly challenging, or if they were, as one appeared to be from the answer Clinton gave, she didn't repeat it for all to hear. Where John Edwards relished in being challenged by audiences, Clinton seemed to fear it, although I'm not sure why as she shines in that setting. As a sidenote, I was amused to run into a guy at the Obama rally yesterday who'd asked her a question at the Friday Clinton event and was accosted by media afterwards demanding to know if he was a plant; this guy couldn't have been further from a plant if he tried.
So I leave New Hampshire and head back west with the distinct regret that I didn't get more up close and personal time with the candidates, although certainly glad for the time I did get to see the candidates in action. I also can't help but think that if New Hampshire really wants to prove the value of the retail politicking that they boast of as a justification for their inordinate influence on the nomination and if they want to reward the candidate who embraces it the most, they should vote for John Edwards on Tuesday.
Tags: 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama, Democratic Primary, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, New Hampshire (all tags)
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