I'm afraid I'm loosing my enthusiasm for this primary, but it is NOT because it started too early or that I've got "Primary Fatigue." That would never happen! More likely, I'm not getting enough of it at the right time or in the right place. Besides being distracted by life (work, sick kids, sick mom), there's another reason I'm bummed: the primary will come too early yet end too soon.
Yes, too early, meaning that early January, when UNH is NOT in session and campus is dead. I thank Laura Jones of the UNH College Dems for planting this question in my head (when she reported asking it in POLT 600). Of all the colleges in NH, only Dartmouth will be in session in early January. How does this affect campaigning? Will anyone come to campus now? Will the whole point of my blogging from UNH be obsolete?
Many pundits & candidates will say (off the record, sometimes) that the youth vote doesn't amount to much. College-aged voters just don't vote in any big numbers to make it worth a candidate's efforts. I strongly object. Each cycle it gets crazier on this campus with student organizations and activism, huge get-out-the-vote efforts, and long debates over if a given student can/should vote in Durham or their hometown/home state. Ask Laura about voting rules in New Hampshire; she knows them inside & out. But anyway, will candidates & spouses skip the campus visits now??
No students means no long lines at voter reg or the polls in Durham; no fired up, passionate students; no fired up candidates trying last inspire undecided students. No election-eve or election day rallies, last minute visits (which is how I saw many candidates in the past). No Kucinich bus or PrioritiesNH upsidedown van circling campus. No CNN or GMA broadcasting live from UNH on election day. Debates were too early and too far away; there's no drama left!
End too soon...that means that I fear this will be the last of the NH Primary as we know it. I can thank Justin for that; telling me we're spoiled in the Granite State. I've heard all of it before but I do think some sort of change is on the horizon & I don't have a good feeling about it.
Anticipation. That's what I'm missing. I have no more sense of anticipation. It won't reach a fever pitch around me; more likely things will just fizzle out around final exams and the holidays, then fizzle out forever. For me, this feels almost as bad as cancelling Christmas.
I think I just need to see a few more candidates, and get back on track with volunteering at the JRE office in Dover. They are so fired up there that it's hard to be glum. They will not let polls or early dates or pundits rain on their parade.
I'm off to DC for meetings on Capitol Hill to promote UNH interns in our NH Congressional offices, and to visit UNH interns in the city. I'll be missing Rudy in Durham and Edwards in Dover. But the kids asked if they can go see Edwards without me, so I guess I'm doing something right. Will the NH Primary be something they grow up with, or a funny memory of that time they were four and met all the candidates...
