Mauled In New Hampshire, The Plague Of Presidential Candidates

OIB webmaster Ray Fusci, the Wesleyan wiz behind the curtain, lives in New Hampshire where presidential candidates have descended “like a Biblical plague of locusts.” What’s it like to be in the thick of the action for the nation’s first primary in the “Live Free or Die” state? Ray shares some insight.

“Mauled” might evoke thoughts of bears. The black bear above, four feet long from nose to tail and a bit taller standing up, was just taking a leisurely stroll through my backyard. Not an uncommon sight in my backyard, where we often see wild turkeys, pheasants, fox, deer and an occasional moose. Leave them alone, and they’ll leave you alone. The last time someone was killed by a bear in New Hampshire was in 1784.

Not so the presidential candidates gearing up for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary due in less than a week, February 9th.

They’ve descended on my state like a Biblical plague of locusts.

Up here, I’m what is called “undeclared,” which means I’ve declared no party affiliation. This allows me to vote in whichever party’s primary I choose, I just ask for the ballot I want, and when I leave I make sure to stop by the registrar’s desk to return my status to “undeclared.”

I’m not sure, but this may have been a tactical blunder of major proportions.

You see, the robo calls have been nearly non-stop, from every candidate from BOTH parties, and the volunteers/paid canvassers/pollsters wanting to know whom I’m going to vote for, what issues are important to me, and have I checked out their candidate? and if the primary were to be held tomorrow, and …

When I actually get to talk to a real person, my issues aren’t even on their radar. I want someone to tell me they will stop the illegal H-1B visa abuse and “encourage” companies to stop exporting American jobs overseas. Both easy to do in principle (in the first case enforce the law, and in the second, tax rewards/penalties would work real well), but both difficult to do in practice without some leadership against the big-business lobbyists. The callers don’t even know what an H-1B visa is, much less how they are being illegally abused. (Check out this link describing an action against Disney for just this reason, here.)

New Hampshire is small enough and since our primary is first (Iowa is a caucus, not a primary), there is enough time for the politics to be distressingly retail. I didn’t have to drive far to meet any candidate, there have been meets&greets in my own tiny town (pop. 5000), the slightly larger adjoining towns, and the cities adjoining them. I could get to events easier than I can get to the grocery stores where I do my shopping.

Now that Iowa’s history, the final push for New Hampshire begins. Another week until it stops and the locusts descend on South Carolina. I hope I can make it until then. I envy that bear …