Only In New Hampshire

File this story under "You Can't Make This Stuff Up!"

It's too good to just post the link, so here's the full text from the Union Leader:

DOVER, N.H. (AP) -- There's been some sort of confrontation between two notorious New Hampshire inmates in Dover.

Officials say Gary Dodds and Leeland Eisenberg were involved in a jailhouse altercation on Friday.

Dodds is the former congressional candidate convicted of faking his own disappearance and Eisenberg is the man who held volunteers hostage in Hillary Clinton's Rochester campaign office.

Eisenberg says Dodds hit him in the face, but investigators say it's too early to say exactly what happened.

Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi says there's a preliminary report of an act that could be charged under state law as an assault. A sheriff's department investigator plans to interview both men on Monday.

Eisenberg told WMUR-TV in a phone interview that it started as a "silly conversation" about who appoints certain county officials.

"He was asking me questions about the structure of the county government. ... I gave him the answers," Eisenberg said. "He didn't like the answers, he started taunting me and teasing me."

Is this how I will keep myself busy until 2012 candidates start coming, in 2010?  Pathetic!

Update: Foster's has a nice twist on the story, even better than the UL!  

Change Agent

Were you wondering, like I was, how the transition to a new, Presidential brand was going to be managed, or how the old candidate-Obama brand would be replaced.  Wonder no more.  Introducing www.change.gov.  

Brilliant.  There's even a jobs section.  Nice touch, since as of Friday there are hundreds of unemployed community organizers who are chomping at the bit to work in the Obama Administration. 

The Day After

Let the post-mortem begin!  A few weeks ago, Colleen had the brilliant idea to watch the documentary The War Room, about the 1992 Bill Clinton victory.  All throughout, we wondered aloud what was really being said and one behind the scenes in the current campaigns, and were eager to get past the election to learn the real story.  

Voila: Newsweek comes through again.  And we can't wait.  If these early snippets are any testement, this should be juicy.  This is the stuff I love!!  I am so very eager to read more about how rogue Palin really went, who bought what to wear when, and of course, and all that truly useless political gossip.  

Other Monday morning quarter-backing: HuffPo has a final word on the brilliance of Obama's 

branding, which you know I love.  I'm wondering if, in the effort to begin appearing Presidential, we will see all these logos disappear...like Houdini 

magic.  ;-)

And, in a final, full-circle kind of way, my old pal from the days of the NH Primary, Susie, sent me a link to this photo.  It's from an Edwards Town Hall event in Dover in the summer of 2007.  We got there early, and I was letting the twins run around as the advance staff set up shop, until they became absolutely out of control and had to be reigned in.  This campaign has lasted almost 2/3rds of my kids' lives!  

Now what?  Well, it shouldn't be long until local small town Republican community groups start holding their own meetings in the living rooms of Concord, testing the waters for 2012.  

For once, I'm in no hurry for that.

Good Morning, America!

Well, what a difference a day makes!

Greetings from Blue Hampshire!  Is there anything I can say, without getting choked up?  Quite a night last night!

My party was small but spirited.  We never managed to get cable worked out, so we stuck with the NH ABC affiliate mostly, so we could check in on all the state & local races, and supplemented with three laptops.  New Hampshire is now very solidly blue, and we are very psyched for Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter and Senator-Elect Jeanne Shaheen!

In my household, much of the talk of the night was fashion-related.  The shiny blue suit seemed to be all the rage for women:  Carol Shea-Porter, Jennifer Horn (R, who lost NH CD2), and Sarah Palin!  Is shiny the new wool??  

Now, onto the Obama women.  What the HELL was Michelle thinking??  She's so striking and attractive, but that dress was hideous.  It did not flatter her one bit.  Lucky for her, my eyes were on Sasha & Malia.  I LOVE that they always coordinate colors with each other & their mom.  Sasha's dress was adorable.  She's such a spit-fire.  I can't wait to see pictures of her and her new White House puppy.

And, someone please send me a link with a close up picture of their matching necklaces!!  Are they new?  They look to be in the shape of an O.  Is it the Obama Symbol??  When did they get them??

So this morning, I can't look at any pictures of any non-Caucasian person or child without crying.  I loved the shots of Huffington Post of the celebration in Kenya, or the kids from Obama's former schools in Indonesia and Hawaii.

This is truly a global victory.  

Anyone up for a roadtrip to the Inauguration??

Evening Election Edition: 6:00pm

Just after that last post, things got a little hectic.  2pm was database-switch time.  Canvassers were called back, and new voter lists were distributed that would show only those who hadn't voted yet.  They were probably accurate as of noon or 1pm, so to me it didn't seem worth the chaos it caused as we had to swap out lists but keep maps and other info in the canvasser packs.  Just as I was packing up to leave at 3pm, I heard someone lament..."Good, that went ok.  And, we will do it all again at 5pm."  

I got home in time to start some decorating and cleaning.  Sure enough at 4pm a canvasser walked by.  He gave me the thumbs up and I tried to save him the walk to the end of the street by telling him the neighbor's already voted.  At 6pm the phone rang, and I laughed as I reported, "yes, we voted already!"  I've always said that Obama has the superior ground game, but now it's a little bit of overkill. We're all ready for the craziness to stop, and the polls to close.  

Two more hours.  Let's REALLY get this party started!  (How do you like our dessert??)

OK, so an update from Colleen at the office around 5:30pm:  database refresh at 5pm was cancelled and all hands on deck for GOTV phone calls to Dover, Rollinsford, and surrounding area, due to lower than expected voter turn out so far.  

Midday Update: Election Day 2008

Midday update from Durham/UNH NHDP HQ:

We've got so many vols here that parking is getting to be an issue.  The office is in a small plaza with a grocery store, Rite Aid, two banks and a few other small businesses.  Since we are adjacent to the university, the businesses usually get an "after work rush,' starting around 3:30pm.  Too many vols isn't much to complain about at all, so a bunch of us who work at UNH moved our cars onto campus lots to keep the community happy.

My job so far has been to give out canvasser packets as vols come in, and pass the people down the line to get instructions and materials to hit the road.  The message is just this: VOTE.  They are only hitting known supporters and keeping it short & sweet.  A few neighbors close to campus have been complaining about too much attention, so now I'm sending vols further afield. 

In a slow moment earlier, I did data entry as well.  The fancy system of entering voter IDs by cell phone seemed to be overwhelmed by 11am, so we had to enter the ID of folks who've

 already voted directly by hand.  Not difficult at all, and I nice diversion.

As I said, the place is crowded, and while there is enthusiasm and good energy, it's calm.

  Confident.  Even the two women in charge aren't frazzled or exhausted-looking.  The food here is great.  I bought some of my less-attractive Obama cupcakes (photo to come), and there is a huge table of donated goodies, lots of healthy choices, and around noon a yummy shipment of pasta alfredo arrived, in individual containers.  Rumor has it that it was supplied by the campaign.  Thanks, donors!

At 2pm our gears will shift here, and new canvass packets will be printed off & readied for going out. Those who have voted already will be purged, just to keep on the GOTV theme.  

Live, from HQ, it's Tuesday Morning!

Welcome to Election Day, 2008!  

I'm blogging from the Durham/UNH HQ of the NHDP!  I've been assigned a perfect job for an introvert: giving maps & packets out to canvassers.  So far, everyone is pumped.  Canvassing packets are organized by town & ward, so that the GOTV Door Hangers have each voters polling place.  Talk about glossy packets--full color door hangers, fliers, sample ballots, etc.  I'm in chum heaven.

First thing this morning, I checked online for the report from Dixville Notch, NH.  Traditionally, they open their polls at midnight & close them once all registered boters have voted (not long after, usually).  And, for the first time since 1968, a Democrat won!  

I voted with the kids at 8am.  There was about a 20 minute wait, but everything went smoothly.  As expected, I teared up as I filled in the ovals on the paper ballot.  The kids helped me feed it into the ballot box, and off we went.  So, now I'm dedicating the rest of the day to making sure other people vote too.

My old pal JJ (from Team Edwards days) stopped in.  I've been surprised at the age range of volunteers: from age 16 to 60+.  Because this is Durham, the crowd is mostly white.  There have been a few out-of-staters helping out, but not as many as I expected.  Moods are jovial, food is abundant, and all is well in ObamaLand.  

More later!

Chum & Lit III

Just a quick note to say I stocked up on Obama stickers, window clings, and tattoos today for my party.  Got the kids each a GOTV Water Bottle too, 4000 of which were delivered to UNH for GOTV promotion.  I even got a bright orange worker-shirt for Election Day.  They were happy to have me load up; seems that distributing all the booty is actually more work than they need right now.  I was happy to relieve them of the burden.

UNH Students for Obama haven't slept for a while and they are pumped.  And a little frazzled.  There will be a lot of sick kids on Wednesday.  They really need some healthy snacks and a nap.  But they are focused and ready for battle.  I did my best to make sure they follow the UNH solicitation rules over the next 24 hours, and went quietly back to my office.

Is anybody getting anything done today??

One More Day!

Is anybody still out there, reading this?  

One day to go, folks, ONE DAY!  It's been two long years here in New Hampshire, and now it is down to the final hours.  

With the time change, everyone in my house was up early today (Monday). First, I awoke to good news from my brother, who reported via email that he helped my mom fill in her absentee ballot over the weekend.  Despite her memory loss, she hasn't forgotten that she is a Democrat and voted accordingly, without coaching.  Over the years I could never get her to tell me who she voted for directly, but she had her way of making it clear that she has been a Democrat all her life, and having grown up in the Depression, she worships FDR.  And, she despises W.  So, she did her part to keep Massachusetts Blue.

Next task was to work on more party plans.  The USA Blue Jell-O mould is now solidified.  The Obama Cupcakes needed to be frosted, so I did stage one (white background) at 7am.  Blue circle and red stripes tonight.   The kids now like the Obama symbol so much they play I-Spy when we drive around, and can & have drawn it all over the place (appropiate places so far).  I let them stick some campaign stickers in the attic/crawl space.  Annie said "I like the one with Obama AND McCain on it."  Huh? Turns out she got her older white men mixed up: it was an Obama/Biden sticker.  Griffin took two of these & stuck them together, creating "Barack O'Dollars."  

So, I'm taking tomorrow off to help out at the Durham/UNH GOTV Office's Mission Control.  NH doesn't have "early voting," so I'm trying to decide when to vote.  I must bring the kids, so either first thing or after 3pm.  I've never experienced lines in Dover before, but I'm a bit concerned I may this time.  Lines with two 5-year olds...not a good combo.  But I like to build up some anticipation (like two years isn't enough??) and vote later in the day.  So, we'll see.  I may drive by at 8am and see how crowded it looks. 

So, enjoy the last day of campaigning.  I will complete my frosting mission tonight, and I hope to do a few blog entries during the day tomorrow.  Everyone I know who has been reading along here will probably be equally engaged and unable to check in here.  That's OK by me.  I'd rather you all work on GOTV (or GOTfV) than pay attention to little old me!

NOW, it's on to the election finally, to see if Obama lives up to my early prediction of a landslide.