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A year ago, I was torn between Biden, Obama, and Richardson. I knew I would work for one of them, but I couldn't choose. And then I heard Biden talk about his Iraq plan, and I ruled him out-maybe he'll be Sec. of State. I really liked both Richardson and Obama, and I decided I needn't choose. I decided to support Richardson for President and Obama for VP; I said Obama would be a great President in eight years.
I started working for Richardson in May. I was the first Richardson intern in the state, and the fourth staffer-Rep. Dan McKenna was the Political Director and Acting State Director, Kevin Hodges was the Manchester Regional Field Director (he later became Scheduler/Dir. of Advance), and Jamie Judd was the Keene Regional Field Director (you may remember Jamie from the news reports of her canvassing in a blizzard and leading a successful effort to shovel Keene's entire town square in one night). Three great hires, I might add. I'm still amazed how quickly the campaign grew from there. An incredible staff came was assembled in New Hampshire, particularly impressive because it was made almost entirely of out-of-staters. Unfortunately, there's only so much a good ground game can help without enough cash to pad the staff and launch an ad blitz.
I stayed with the campaign in that capacity (as we were understaffed, I became what I liked to call the Director of Miscellaneous Operations) until August, when I left for my first semester of college. That was also around the time I started posting at BlueHampshire-I felt it was inappropriate as long as I was working full time for the campaign, albeit unpaid, to do so, and there didn't seem to be any active posting Richardson supporters here. I'm still disappointed we never had a Biden supporter posting regularly-Biden is a good statesman, I stand by that.
While I was away, I kept in touch and helped out-a little graphic design, as well as the video I posted here in October. I returned to the campaign at the beginning of December.
When I came back, I threw my hat in the ring to be a district-level delegate for Richardson in the 1st district. I was surprised and honored in that caucus to receive more than twice as many votes as any other candidate, particularly in such a distinguished field. It also didn't hurt to have that news delivered by former Mayor Baines, who was the moderator of the 1st district Richardson caucus. I thank the other candidates and slated delegates, each of whom would have made excellent delegates-unfortunately, we only got 5% in NH, so none of us will be headed to Denver.
I learned this morning on a conference call with the rest of the staff that Governor Richardson would, in fact, be dropping out of the race. This news has garnered more coverage than anything else he's done in the past year, and that is my greatest regret of this race-Governor Richardson's candidacy was rejected not by the people of Iowa and New Hampshire, but by the national media, and that is wrong. The same goes for Senators Biden and Dodd, either of whom would have made excellent Presidents. But I'm glad the Governor is getting out of the race now, as he doesn't have the money to continue, and he could only be a spoiler if he tried.
I thank Governor Bill Richardson, for his service, for his contributions to the debate, for his endless work to make our country a better place.
So where do I go from here? Well, I'll be going back to school soon, so it won't be until the summer that I can really work for anyone again, and by then we'll hopefully have a presumptive nominee. I'm also aware, obviously, that New Hampshire is over for the primary season, and the race won't come back here until the general. However, I am an activist, and I can't imagine ever being neutral in an election. For now, I happily and very enthusiastically throw my support to Senator Obama. As I said before, I always liked Obama; put simply, what he's selling, I'm buying. I think he's a visionary, our most electable choice still in the race, and he's everything George W. Bush is not. These past seven years have been a dark time in American history, and what we need most is a unifying leader to lead us out of the desert. Barack Obama is that leader. At last week's 100 Club, he gave by far the best speech-and he is pretty reliable for a great speech-and having never seen him in person before, I was really inspired. I was also impressed by his campaign's success with that event, handing out signs to as many people as would take them, having what must have been a thousand people rushing the stage and chanting his name while the intro to City of Blinding Lights played...it was quite a display, and I was almost tempted to join them. Of course, I was there as a guest of the Richardson campaign, because I was a slated delegate, but by that point it was abundantly clear that we were done. The lack of TV ads in New Hampshire near the end didn't help either.
Clearly, I won't get Richardson-Obama, but I'd be happy with Obama-Richardson, too. I think Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States, a true successor to Jack Kennedy, and I can't wait.
For all those wondering where Richardson's support will go, I predict I'm not the only Richardson supporter partial to Obama. People thought he and his supporters were close to Hillary, but I disagree. Richardson is experienced and he doesn't like negative campaigning, but it was Hillary who wanted BR to be her running mate, not the other way around. Richardson is closer to Obama on the issues. As a prominent NM surrogate pointed out to me a couple days ago, some politicians are considered moderates because they "split the baby", and some, like Bill Richardson, because despite being most progressive on many issues, he likes guns. Because of that, I predict his support will go to Obama, not Hillary.
Somewhere in Lowell, Massachusetts, Jack Mitchell is surely very happy with me.
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