I’m in a New Hampshire State of Mind

By on January 10, 2012

Every political commentator in the US, except Pat Buchanan, seems to have crowded into New Hampshire today. Given the size of the state and its electoral votes, it suggests a telephone booth stuffing from the 60’s, with people hanging from the fixtures.  Hotels are filled. Restaurants have lines. The economy in New Hampshire is getting a nice bail-out this week. No fools those live-free-or-die(t) people.

Hordes of political spin doctors are everywhere, now augmented by PAC spokesmen giving the investors their money’s worth. The babble is mind-boggling. Everybody has an opinion, sometimes more than one. Predictions are as numerous as buttons.

Yesterday Mitt Romney, whose campaign had been getting high marks for discipline, opened his mouth and inserted a golden foot by telling a crowd that he “liked firing people.” He was talking about service industry folks like insurance salesmen, but no matter, it struck a chord in those who see him as an aging Little Lord Fauntleroy on a fresh air outing among the unwashed. He later strengthened this suspicion as he inserted his other foot explaining away the remark. He should be back to fewer outings soon.

Meanwhile in another part of the phone booth, Newt has been hammering away at Mitt as a modern Simon Legree, a symbol of greed who got rich exploiting workers. Newt channeling Samuel Gompers takes some getting used to. Whether he can sell the former Massachusetts governor as another ‘Chain-saw’ Al Dunlap remains to be seen, but I sense the public is open to this. There is a feeling out and about that the perpetrators of the 2008 economic collapse have not had their day of reckoning. Being the ‘can-do’ business type in this year’s contest may explode in Romney’s face. Herman Cain failed miserably as a symbol of corporate know-how. These men may end up confirming the public’s worst suspicions about ‘private sector types’.

Rick Perry has decided to play ‘The Swamp Fox’ and lies in wait for the front-runners down in South Carolina. No Yankee pot roast for this campaigner.

As usual a carnival atmosphere is taking over. If you enjoy a stroll along the midway in Concord or Manchester with the various barkers, including a few Obama people— he’s unopposed on the Democratic side of the ballot— hawking their wares, tonight will be your night. If you are waiting for the cotton candy and crackerjack to be consumed so we can get down to a meaty discussion of what declining Medicare reimbursements will mean to the current sorry state of affairs for the needy, you will have to wait until we find out which political groupies correctly guessed the candidates various weights.

And then, you will likely have to wait again.

Tom Godfrey

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