New Hampshire Primary

What a whirlwind it has been the last several days! Today the New Hampshire primary took place. I cast my first ballot ever! It was surprisingly easy. I only had to fill out two forms and wait in line for about 10 minutes. I had been expecting a much more difficult experience.

Quite a bit happened in the run-up to the primary. Yesterday, I met Bill AND Chelsea Clinton! I was out holding Obama signs on a street corner. Some supporters of Hillary Clinton came as well. Chelsea greeted them, and she was quite gracious with us Obama supporters. I got to shake her hand and talk to her for a few minutes.

Later in the evening, I shook Bill Clinton’s hand as he came into one of the dining halls. He was charming as ever.

Some of Hillary Clinton’s supporters were not, however. As I was standing on the street corner one woman shouted repeatedly that she was not “voting for another unqualified mail!” She also declared that she would not support Obama if he won the nomination. Another kept talking about how we needed a mother to clean up after this country’s messes because men are generally worthless. It is worth noting that all of the Clinton supporters save for a couple were middle aged women. They could not find any Dartmouth students to stand on Hanover street corners with signs.

The Obama supporters by contrast were much more diverse both gender and ethnicity wise. Today, Obama himself came to campus and had a rally early in the morning. He gave a good speech, but one of the people seemed to faint in the middle. After the speech, I voted.

I am waiting for the returns now, and am quite anxious to see how he did. In the meantime, I am trying to focus on my classes. I am in four this term: One about medieval France, introductory French, advanced Chinese, and an earth science classes. So far the classes seem interesting. I will have more to report soon!

Back at Dartmouth

I’m back in Hanover! I finished unpacking and then took my family for thai food before they left.

I have been gone for more than six months, and I see lots of changes. When I went to the dining hall, there were so many new faces that I have never seen. There is also a huge Christmas tree in the middle of campus that I don’t remember last year. But in other ways, from the snow to the beautiful brick buildings, campus is the same.

I bought the remainder of my books today as well. They were so expensive! My books for just two classes cost $203! That’s more than college used to cost a semester at some schools! Professors really could be a little more considerate. We’re not all rich.

But even the exorbitant sums of money I spent on books has not been able to dampen my spirits. Why? Barack Obama just won convincingly in Iowa! He now has a lot of momentum going into New Hampshire.

I have enjoyed hearing the excuses out of the Clinton camp. They have said it was not her best state, lamented that she did not inherit an organization from Bill Clinton, and even claimed that the state was sexist.

First, I don’t remember Barack Obama inheriting an organization from 1992 either. It’s Hillary’s fault, and her fault alone for getting such a late start, and not dedicating the time she needed to. She has the highest name identification of any candidate in living memory, a ton of money, and more establishment support than God.

Lastly, the claim about sexism is the most preposterous. A majority of Iowa’s caucus goers were women. Obama won them. And Iowa is only 2% black. It’s a no brainer to see who had the major demographic advantage: Clinton had over 50% of the electorate (women) as a natural constituency, while Obama had just 2% (blacks). I can just imagine if Obama had tried to use the fact that there were so few blacks as a reason to lower expectations. He would have been crucified in the media for “playing the race card.”

I was interested to see the number of young people and independents who turned out. People always say that young people will not vote, but they were proved wrong in Iowa. And Obama’s demonstrated appeal to independents shows how electable he is. I expect lots of independents to vote for Obama in New Hampshire. On a related note, I can’t wait to vote in New Hampshire!!

This is all for now. I will post again soon with my reactions to my first week of class, and to the results of the New Hampshire primary.

Photo finish?

The polls are showing a very tight race in Iowa right now. A strategic vision poll showed the Democrats in a statistical dead heat with Mike Huckabee leading the Republicans. One thing's for sure, at least on the democratic side, it will be a photo finish.