( - promoted by Mike Caulfield)
(It's late, and rather than put this off another day I will post this as a quickie)
I attended the the HBO "Premiere" of Run Granny Run at the Colonial Theater in Keene Tuesday Night.
It was a great crowd and I found the film to be very inspirational and timely as campaigns heat up for the NH Primary. I left feeling more motivated to get involved for the first in a while.
While the film spends some time on campaign finance reform and her walk across America and voter registration efforts, the film is primarily about Granny's run for the US Senate against Judd Gregg in 2004. It showed well all of the in and outs, ups and downs, excitement and the fear of a campaign.
As was to be expected it was a partisan crowd which reacted loudly at several moments in the film. One in particular when Judd expressed his support to GWB.
Howard Dean (my hero) did not fair well in the film, after giving a speech about running dems in races no matter what the outcome was, he seemed to blow off a photo op with Granny.
The film also showed an awkward debate "Gotcha" moment with Benson asking Lynch if he supported Judd. Then candidate Lynch spent several moments supporting the work of Judd vis-a-vis the NH University System and failed to come out say the Granny would make a better Senator than Judd. There was some footage of the aftermath of that with Granny D's son on the phone with bargining from support. Not sure if it was from the NHDP or the Lynch Campaign but it was a good example to the hardball that has to be played from time to time.
As mentioned above there was great attendance at the event with most of the main level full, I know there were people in the balcony as well but not sure how many folks were up there.
Jay Buckey, SoS Bill Gardner, NH Sen Kelly and Bill Siroty were in attendance as well as many staffers and volunteers from the various campaigns. (Granny seems to be supporting Kucinich and other DK supporters were very visible)
HBO were gracious hosts. As I understand they footed the bill for the entire evening. Admission was free and a nice reception with wine, beer and deserts was served on the stage after the screening and gave people a chance to mingle and meet the 97 year old phenom.
What did I take from the evening?
1. A great Granny quote (perhaps it is an old yarn, but was great coming from her) "Democracy is something you do, not something you have." Love that, Democracy is a verb.
2. Time for me to make up my mind and get active!
3. You can do what ever you set you mind to
4. With such a strong candidate in Shaheen this year, I can't wait till we can take on Gregg in 2010 in this BlueHampshire
"Run Granny Run" will be broadcast at 9 p.m. Oct. 18 on HBO. The Boston Globe has a good review/synopsis of the film.
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