Edwards in Claremont - Sort Of
by Nathan Empsall, Mon Jan 07, 2008 at 04:48:16 AM EST
Though it's no longer the weekend, I'm going to continue making NH posts through Wednesday, given my bird's eye view. Jerome's given me the go-ahead.
The Edwards are doing another all night tour, like the one they had in Iowa. They had a rally this morning at 4 in Littleton, and it looks like they'll be going strong past midnight tonight. I woke up at 5 today to try and attend "Breakfast with John and Elizabeth at the DaddyPops Tumble Inn Diner" in Claremont, about half an hour from my apartment. I've yet to have the diner experience, and it's been a full year since I saw John Edwards. Unfortunately, along the way I had a flat tire, pulled over at a Claremont gas station, and missed the event. A friend who works for Edwards was free, and came to help me out, since part of my jack was missing. It took a full 20 minutes to get the nuts off, and then we discovered another tire was going flat anyway. I drove to an air pump, found it was out of order, and the spare had gone flat too - three flat tires. This required a tow truck, charging a remarkably-reasonable-yet-still-too-much-for-a-college-kid rate.
My friend had this to report about the event: the campaign was expecting a small turnout and was going to spend half an hour munching and schmoozing. The turnout was in the hundreds, and the event was relegated to ten minutes - so more of a rally than a schmooze with Q&A. I'm not sure what this kind of a surprise turnout means for Edwards - he's not polling here well and the crowd paled in comparison to the 3,000 Obama and Clinton had over the last couple days, but even if it was t-minus 26 hours, that's still a heckuva show for pre-dawn in a tiny town.
I'm back in Hanover, desperately trying to find a ride for the Obama event that's in Lebanon in 45 minutes. I think I've found one, and will report back later. Nathan out.
Tags: 2008, Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards, New Hampshire, New Hampshire primary (all tags)










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