Behind the Press Rope

9:41 pm EST, Manchester, NH, Primary Day

We’re in Manchester NH at the JW Hill Bar and Grill – right in the heart, right on Elm St. A few hours ago, we were at Rudy Giuliani’s - I’m not sure if you could call it a “victory party.” I guess it was a speech. It was interesting. Rudy Giuliani placed in 4^th and we were there with the press and they roped us off in a special area that was just for press. And he came up and made a speech and for a second there I actually thought he was going to resign, but he said “and we’re going to keep on…go to Feb 5.” So we’ll see. But that was definitely a highlight - actually seeing the candidate up close and personal was really interesting and being with the rest of the media. It felt like you were just another reporter which was just a really cool feeling. Okay, I’m signing out.

-Will Nelligan

Watching the Returns

9:39 pm EST, Manchester, NH, Primary Day

We are listening in for the latest results. So far it looks like Hillary Clinton is ahead. And John McCain is in the lead currently. We were at Rudy Giuliani’s actual victory party. He spoke for us and something that I thought was quirky or a random selection is before he came on, they were playing Life is a hwy. I thought that was an interesting musical selection for a presidential candidate. Otherwise we’re pretty wiped from our amazing political experience. That’s pretty much it.

-Libby Donovan

Done for the Day

9:38 pm EST, Manchester, NH, Primary Day

We’re done for the day and we’re exhausted but all of us definitely had a great time. It was really eye opening. Some of us became more interested in political reporting but others of us were a little worn out by it. But it was great to see a lot of professional reporters and see what went into that, especially TV reporting. We kinda found that half of it was being a good actor and looking pretty, but it was nice to see professional radio reporters too. We saw a couple people from NPR.

Overall we’ve had a great day.

-Emily LaFond

The Final Stretch Before Polls Close

5:46 pm EST, Manchester NH, Primary Day

As we are getting closer to the polls closing, we’re seeing a lot more national coverage – a lot of famous news anchors. It’s getting even more crazy. But we actually just got to interview Dennis Kucinich which was amazing. He was great. He’s great to interview. Very nice. Very short – shorter in real life. But he talked to us a lot about his policies for youth and that was really exciting for us to get to talk to another national candidate who is so accessible.

-Emily LaFond

Hanging Out in the CBS Tent in NH

3:47 EST, Manchester, NH, Primary Day

Right now we are watching some of the international and the local broadcasts covering the election results from the CBS tent. CBS has a tent where it helps out all its affiliates cover the election. We talked with a man from Poland, from PTV, which is Poland’s public access network and right now I’m watching someone from Philadelphia covering it. So people from around the world affiliated in some way internationally or locally with CBS news are setting up.

We just went to the Clinton headquarters and we met some interesting people there, but their offices were actually closed. They have a different volunteer office in a different area. Right now, we’re waiting for a couple of newscasts to go live and then we’re going to head down to see the volunteer office for Hillary Clinton.

-Will Nelligan

Phoning for McCain

2:20 EST, Manchester, NH, Primary Day

We’re outside of the Waumbec Mill Office Building - the political campaign headquarters for Senator John McCain. We just went inside and we talked to some of the people on the phone, especially the youth. I would say there were more than a dozen very dedicated youth calling people to get them to come out and vote today.

I would say more of the room was older people but there were very dedicated youth on cell phones. That was a good image.

Now we are headed for Governor Mike Huckabee’s campaign office.

-Libby Donovan

 

Creative NH Campaigning - Dogs and All!

12:58 EST Manchester, NH Primary Day

It’s a zoo down here, but it’s good to see because there are a ton of youth out and there’s a lot creative campaigning methods. There are big dogs with signs on them…and people in cars with megaphones

It’s a lot of fun and there’s tons of energy and tons of campaign buses. Also a bunch of well known people in the political world - we just saw Pat Buchanan. We also just talked to the Ambassador to Sweden who is a personal friend of Hillary Clinton who was talking about how personable she is in real life.

-Emily LaFond

Regular NH Folks on Soapboxes

12:30 EST Manchester, NH Primary Day

The Merrimack Restaurant is a really popular, really big Hungarian restaurant and there are about 100 reporters standing outside. There aren’t actually any candidates here right now. What’s going on is the reporters are literally just interviewing regular people who happen to be standing outside of the restaurant. There’s one guy who must be about 60 years old, pretty disheveled, and he’s standing there with a big Kucinich sign and about 15 reporters are standing around him from major networks interviewing him - just a regular guy. So really, not to be cheesy but “the spirit of democracy” here just talking to regular people.

And there was one citizen being interviewed and he was standing on a soapbox. Literally a soap box. Literally and figuratively.

So interesting stuff. Next we’re trying to get to some campaign headquarters. We saw Governor Richardson who is a pretty interesting guy - a little rushed, but had some interesting things to say about service and things like that.

We saw Senator Hillary Clinton briefly but she was just leaving. She was getting into a car and lots of people were beeping and screaming - positive and negative things. We’ll see what happens…

-Will Nelligan

Joining the Media Circus in New Hampshire

12:22 EST Manchester, NH Primary Day

We’re in Manchester! We’re eating lunch right now and we’re just doing the first blog.

It’s a media circus down here. We’re down by the Merrimack Restaurant. It’s just crazy there’s just media everywhere.

We saw Governor Bill Richardson and we actually got an interview with him. We saw a star from Desperate Housewives who was campaigning for Edwards.

To get ready for this trip, I made flash cards of each presidential candidate, their status in Iowa, their party relation and their name and picture.

-Libby Donovan

 

American Politics or American Idols?

Rick Derringer sings: “I’m a real American. Fight for the rights of every man. I am a real American. Fight for your life, fight for what’s right.” The bronzed Viking in yellow underwear and remnants of freshly torn t-shirt dangling off his oiled person busts onto the stage.

And…

Celine Dion sings: “High above the mountains or across the sea, I can hear your voice calling out to me…” The mid-western suburban girl turned Manhattanite in yellow Donna Karan suit and a string of white pearls busts onto the stage.

I see some similarities here- do you?

The theme song is essential in the world of wrestling. There is no room for subtleties. An excessively buff man in tights is walking down the isle and will shortly be tussling to and fro, in and around, a ring with another excessively buff man in underwear. There is little to no time to get to know the individuals or explain why they’re fighting, so the theme song tells the world who we’re dealing with.

But in the realm of politics, I’m not sure if this is necessary. Obviously candidates would like to reach as many voters as possible, including the younger generation, so they need to reach us on our level. But to put it frankly, this is not how we get down Hillary. It seems like whenever the youth are involved, there is a tendency to dumb things down, or to put it politely, over simplify. But my opinion is that young people can understand a lot more than we sometimes get credit for.

But then again I could be wrong about this whole thing. I mean theme songs can be a source of great motivation. Just take the theme song from the movie “Rocky” for example. I mean who doesn’t get a burst of inspiration immediately upon hearing “The Eye of the Tiger”? That song hits you like a jolt of caffeine, right?

Historically, political movements have been able to find meaning amongst the youth of the day without over simplifying the issues. Student activism has been gained effectively not with the employment of trends and gimmicks, but by explaining to young people why the political implications of a certain issue are important to them and how their inactivity could result in their demise. For example the anti-Vietnam War movement included many young people who knew that they could play a role in the contribution or elimination of the war. During the civil rights movement, leaders depended on young people to help guide their efforts and spread their message.

It’s important that young people are involved in the political processes of the country they will one day soon, inherit. Our political involvement should not be limited to the picking of theme songs for the campaigns of candidates.

Senator Clinton’s strategic move to ask young voters to help her choose the right theme song to embody the inspirations of her campaign has caused much whispering and whoa-ing within the political arena. Will it bring her enough votes to allow her to leave the political ring with the presidential belt fastened snuggly around her waist?

Ultimately, it will just be chalked up to the newest fad in advertising to young voters, but certainly not the last one.

-Jordan Monroe