1. New Hampshire Primary Starts Tomorrow!
Get more information here:
Video from the road:
2. Edwards Rising
Rasmussen shows him closing in on Obama nationally, now within just two points of second place.
We'll see if that lasts beyond tomorrow's results. But if it does, who does it help? One theory holds that Edwards supporters are inherently anti-Hillary, or must be if they respond to his anti-Washington anti-"status quo" message. The other view is that Edwards draws his strength mainly from working-class core Democrats among whom Hillary is stronger than Obama.
Sorry to say I don't have a good sense of which theory is right. But those Rasmussen numbers are worth keeping an eye on.
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While a new poll out today does show Edwards further behind second place than yesterday's, his rise in the national polls was confirmed by the USA-Today Gallup Poll:
Among 499 Democrats and those who lean Democratic, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama both run at 33% in a national primary; former Sen. John Edwards trails at 20%.
Edwards +5
Obama +6
Clinton -12
This is the highest Edwards has been in the national polls since the start of his campaign.
3. Donate for New Hampshire Tonight!
Edwards has had his best fundraising of the campaign since Iowa, but the campaign needs $100,000 by tonight!
https://www.johnedwards.com/...
From email:
I'm asking you for some urgent help here in New Hampshire -- I hope you'll take a moment to respond.
Since the Iowa caucuses, more than $1 million has poured into the campaign. Your overwhelming support for John and his message of change has kept us going -- and it will keep us going through to the convention, and then on to the White House.
Right now, I have an immediate need: an additional $100,000 for our Get Out The Vote operation in New Hampshire. Can you make a contribution now to help us raise $100,000 before midnight?
I know I can count on you to help bring in an additional $100,000 by midnight. That's why I'm going to go ahead and arrange more phone-banking calls to independent and undecided voters encouraging them to vote tomorrow for John.
Because you've come through before for John and our campaign, I'm going to provide increased transportation for our volunteers as they do last minute door-to-door canvassing -- and as we arrange rides to help get voters to their polling places tomorrow.
I'm doing this because, like you, I know how important it is that we elect a candidate of change -- someone who feels passionately and personally about fighting for all of us and standing up to the special interests.
John and Elizabeth are on their 36-hour "Marathon for the Middle Class" bus tour across the state. The enthusiasm and the size of the crowds are unbelievable -- we've not seen anything quite like this before.
We know it's a tough race in New Hampshire. But we also know that folks who live in New Hampshire have a strong independent streak -- and that when they vote tomorrow, they will vote for the candidate of real, lasting change: John Edwards.
Your contribution to help us raise $100,000 before midnight to expand our final outreach efforts will allow us to reach those independent and undecided voters.
Thanks for your support -- we're counting on you!
Sincerely,
--Beth Leonard
New Hampshire State Director, John Edwards for President
January 7, 2008
https://www.johnedwards.com/...
4. The Oprah Candidate
Barack Obama won Oprah Winfrey's endorsement. But it's John Edwards whose campaign most resembles her famed Oprah Winfrey Show. Edwards has always been comfortable with emotion, with personal drama and narrative. He thanks people for their courage and bravery, comments on their goodness and resilience, bolsters them with encouraging affirmations and applause from the crowd. Where other campaigns routinely feature outside politicians and famed surrogates, Edwards is more likely to tour with the sort of guests you'd see on daytime talk: Ordinary people who have undergone extraordinary hardship. Where the other candidates closed their Iowa campaigns with sincere speeches laying out the arguments for their candidacies, Edwards ran a commercial where a burly Iowan spoke emotionally of the moment when Edwards leaned down, stared his seven-year-old son in the eyes, and promised to fight for his father's job.
This irritates the Press Corps. It's schmaltzy and raw. As Mark Halperin put it in his summary of Edwards' most recent debate performance, "His habit of recounting moving stories about anonymous (and, sorry, random) people sometimes makes him sound like a mayoral candidate in a small Southern hamlet." It's a tribute to Halperin's deep obsession with politics that the nearest example at hand was a municipal politician, but the better comparison is a daytime talk show host. Edwards is comfortable with a level of emotive personalization that many simply cannot abide. It's the difference between those who watch The Daily Show and those who watch Dr. Phil. Edwards' campaign is increasingly aimed at the latter, and that's even truer in his town halls and campaign events than in his debate performances and ads.
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5. Edwards keeps going and going and going
Edwards keeps going, and going, and going...
The former senator is showing few signs of strain while barnstorming New Hampshire on a bus tour that began at mid-day Sunday and isn't scheduled to end until early Tuesday morning – his second up-all-night pre-vote blitz in the span of a week.
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"Tonight, 47 million people will go to bed knowing if their child gets sick, they will have to go to the emergency room to beg for coverage," Edwards said, in a familiar riff from his anti-corporate, heavy-on-the-middle-class pitch. "Tomorrow morning, 37 million people will wake up in America, living in poverty and literally worrying about clothing and feeding their children."
...
"You can ignite, here, tomorrow, a wave of change that sweeps across this country and literally can't be stopped," he said. In closing, he again declared himself an underdog: "We have an opportunity tomorrow," he said. "Nobody expects us to do anything. We're going to surprise people tomorrow."
In a brief interview after the event, Edwards said he was running on 30 to 60 minutes sleep, without the benefit of caffeine but with the aid of experience. "I've done this before," he said. "That's the secret ... I'll get to sleep tonight."
6. The 36-Hour "Marathon For The Middle Class"
9 Towns, 540 Miles, Thousands Of Granite Staters
Manchester, NH – John Edwards' 36-hour "Marathon for the Middle Class" is now three quarters over, and the momentum keeps growing. After standing room only crowds in Manchester, Keene and Derry yesterday, John and Elizabeth Edwards hit the North Country late last night and into the early morning hours, then came back down south to Lakeport and Bedford.
"I may be an underdog in this campaign, running against two candidates with $200 million between them, but the real underdogs are the middle class and the voiceless in this country," said John Edwards. "I know that the fight to save the middle class will be an epic battle, and I will never give up. We're going to take the fight to save the middle class all the way to the Convention and the White House. We're going to look our children in the eye and tell them 'we left you a better life than we had.'"
This morning John Edwards held a town hall meeting in Laconia, while Elizabeth Edwards attended a house party in Nashua. In the afternoon, John and Elizabeth were joined by Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon at a house meeting in Bedford before heading to events in Hampton and Exeter.
A Glimpse into 36 Hours in New Hampshire
Mark Johnson from the Charlotte Observer played a little "Linus and Lucy" on the piano.
Trippi wouldn't be outdone.
He played "Talking Old Soldiers" and sang along.
Trippi's son, 19 year old Jim heard his father playing in the other room. When father asked son for a critique on his singing, son said, "Oh, I thought that was a dog."
Campaign manager Jonathan Prince, who's been riding with the press van on several legs of the tour, is eating oat meal, saying he's fired up, ready to go, in it to win it--and clearly wondering if he can speak in catch phrases for the remainder of the day.
7. NOLA Org Endorses Edwards
NOLA Org Endorsement: John Edwards Will 'Kick Republicans In The Balls'
"It is not often we wish we lived in New Hampshire (nice place to visit), but we sorely wish we could be there on Tuesday to 'vote early and often' for John Edwards . . . It is not only that John Edwards had the good sense and correct priorities to launch his campaign for the presidency from New Orleans (take note, presidential debate site committee). And it's not just Edwards' plan to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq within 10 months--something his competitors haven't offered. We don't favor Edwards only because he alone has spoken consistently as a populist public defender against the 'iron grip' of corporate special interests on Washington. Nor is he our favorite merely because he has the best health care plan (Paul Krugman's praise sounds right to us).
We vote for John Edwards for all of these reasons, but especially because Democrats need a tough, combative lead candidate to whip the Republicans, who are vicious fighters in a presidential campaign--especially when they're desperate. Barack Obama is marvelous and would also be a good president, but we worry he doesn't have the aggressiveness to kick the Republican operatives in the balls, the way they always do to Democrats. In Nov. 2004 it was Edwards the courtroom attorney who wanted to challenge the Ohio vote counts before conceding, but John Kerry decided otherwise.
John Edwards has the optimism, the intelligence, and the gut-fire and bulldog tenacity to get the job done . . . He's also a realist. He knows the status quo won't give an inch without a struggle. About dealing with corporate interests such as the drug and oil and insurance companies, he says, "Some people argue that we're going to sit at a table with these people and they're going to voluntarily give their power away. I think it is a complete fantasy; it will never happen." We often say 'We Want Roosevelt Again.' We know we're not going to get Franklin Delano, but in John Edwards we see just about the closest thing to FDR we've seen in many years."
8. Diary Roundup
Will Change Win in New Hampshire?
"A Glimpse Behind the Curtain": John Edwards
Real People Closing for Edwards..."He speaks for us"
"The Cradle Will Rock" for Edwards with Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon
Remember to contribute!
https://www.johnedwards.com/...
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