| So here's the thing:
For those of you who don't know, Granny D. is the woman who, in her 90's, walked across the country to support campaign finance reform. She's from New Hampshire and well-loved here.
Let me be perfectly clear about this: Granny D. is a big deal in New Hampshire, at least among progressives. She ran a $20,000 campaign against Judd Greg a few years back and managed to get 37% of the vote with virtually no money. She's a hero in Southern NH especially. When she entered the room, the room erupted with applause. Then, when she endorsed John later in the event, she got a standing ovation. Here she is doing her endorsement:
Senator Edwards explained how the endorsement came to be. He was at an event and she just walked up to him and said "I'm going to endorse you."
I love New England.
Edwards gave a great speech and interspersed it with special guests. The best of those guests, aside from Granny D., was the mother of Nataline Sarkisyan. Nataline, as you may know, died recently due to neglect, brought on in large part by her insurance company.
Here's her, speaking on behalf of Edwards:
There's more about this specific woman's history over at this excellent diary, outlining some of Clinton's attacks on Edwards over this, so I won't focus on them here. I'm just going to say this: if you get the chance to see Edwards in person, especially from up close, do it.
This is a man who's very committed to what he believes and you can see it in his eyes and in how he talks about it. He doesn't just give simplistic or simple answers to the people who question him. His answers are in depth and complicated, without being inaccessible:
Now, the thing is, there's no reason for you to believe me on this. My impressions aren't yours and my interpretation of human expressions are meaningless, as they should be. Vague "you can see it in his eyes" statements don't, and shouldn't mean anything to you, especially not coming from me.
But here's the deal: this man is incredible to see talking and interacting with these families. He brought in people who had suffered tragic circumstances who talked about their experience with him and how much help he'd been. He brought in his won experiences as well. He's an incredible speaker, and he's bristling with energy, even after the incredible schedule he's been on as of late.
I don't know what's going to happen on Tuesday. I think Obama's wowed a lot of people and is a strong candidate. But there's something about his energy post-debate that makes me think that he's going to do better than people expect. It's hard to tell where it will all go. Obama's clearly got a strong advantage at this point but Edwards beat Clinton in Iowa and I am convinced he'll do so again two nights from now. If this turns into a two-person race, it's anyone's guess as to what will happen with it.
In the meantime, I'm really glad I saw this speech today, and amazed that he managed to get an endorsement from Granny D., even if he didn't actively go seeking it out. |
