Yesterday, I had the opportunity to follow Mitt Romney along the campaign trail here in my native New Hampshire. I rode in a van with varioius embedded reporters from the mainstream media to three scheduled events in Londonderry, Manchester and Goffstown.
It was a fascinating experience. (This is the part where I'm supposed to have all kinds of cool videos from my new Flip Video camera, but the thing isn't working. Figures, right?)
First, let me extend my thanks to the Romney for President campaign staff for welcoming me along for the day and for making my travel with the campaign possible.
Our first stop was at Insight Technologies in Londonderry. Insight is a defense contractor that manufacturers targeting systems and tactical weapons accessories. Founded in 1988 in a basement, they haev since grown over the last nineteen years as the foremost supplier of tactical lights and lasers for U.S. Special Forces. Governor Romney toured the manufacturing facility and also held an "Ask Mitt Anything" for the employees of Insight.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney tours Insight Technologies in Londonderry, NH on Monday, December 17, 2007. (Photo by William Smith, ConservativeBlogger.com)
Before the AMA started, a representative of the anti-war group "American Friends Service Committee NH" was able to get into the event and distributed leaflets titled "Questions for Presidential Candidates: New Hampshire Voters Want to Know." An employee from Insight escorted her out of their cafeteria (since she wasn't invited) and proceeded to collect the leaflets from as many people as they could.
Both CBS and the AP reported on it, but didn't get it quite right. More about that later...
After being introduced by New Hampshire's senior Senator, Judd Gregg, Governor Romney fielded questions from the Insight employees on things such as Iran, Medicare/Medicaid and the environment. The last question of the day came from an older gentleman who referenced the leaflet handed out before the event which was hurriedly confiscated.
Mitt Romney fields questions from the employees of Insight Technologies during an "Ask Mitt Anything" in Londonderry, NH on Monday, December 17, 2007. (Photo by William Smith, ConservativeBlogger.com)
He asked why the woman had been thrown out of the event and whether or not her questions were "toxic material" to the Governor.
Romney replied, "There is nothing that's toxic to me; I was on 'Meet the Press' yesterday, for Pete's sake."
Governor Romney then proceeded to read some of the points right off the leaflet and answer them directly.
"The occupation of Iraq costs U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars daily and could cost more than $2 trillion if continued into the next decade."
When Mitt explained that the true cost of this war isn't in dollars but in the lives of our American men and women, the audience applauded enthusiastically. The notion that this group would chart the cost in dollars was offensive to him, and also to the employees of Insight Technology.
Romney went on to read a couple of others, but the last one he read was probably the one that did the most damage to the "facts" on the leaflet.
"Henry Kissinger and George Shultz say that the U.S. should pursue 'a world free of nuclear weapons..a bold initiative consistent with America's moral heritage.'"
The Governor had indicated that he'd talked to Henry Kissinger yesterday and he was pretty positive that wasn't Mr. Kissinger's position at all.
Some in the media say the leaflet was "banned," but it wasn't. Insight Technologies, the owner of the property and the host for the event, kicked the woman off their property because she had not been invited. It was an event for their employees and she wasn't one of them. Insight invited Mitt Romney to appear, so why would they (a defense contractor) want an anti-war demonstrator to hand out propaganda? They were well within their right to do it as a private business entity.
Some also questioned the woman's right to free speech and whether it had been infringed upon. There was absolutely no free speech issue at hand. That woman is free to air her views to whomever she likes. She is not, however, allowed to tresspass on private property in the commission of doing so.
Romney also welcomed the questions and began reading them off the leaflet himself and pointed out where they were wrong. He had every right to be pleased with himself---AFSC-NH attempted to sandbag him and they looked like fools.
It was nothing short of impressive.
Gov. Romney takes questions from mainstream media reporters during a press availability at Insight Technologies in Londonderry, NH on Monday, December 17, 2007. (Photo by William Smith, ConservativeBlogger.com)
In the van on our way to the next event, one of the embeds mentioned that someone else had reported Romney had tears in his eyes when talking about meeting a fallen soldier's casket at Logan International Airport while Governor.
As he tells the story, he had been called by his then Chief of Staff, Beth Myers. She had told him that there was a family that wouldn't be able to meet their loved one at the airport who was coming home from Iraq. Romney found out later in the conversation that the soldier wouldn't be coming home in the passenger compartment.
After the bags had been unloaded from the cargo hold and taken away, Romney, his State Police detail and members of the National Guard watched as a flag-draped coffin came down the conveyor belt.
The rest of the narrative, comes from the AP:
"The soldiers that I was with stood at attention and saluted," Romney told employees at Insight Technology Inc., a company that makes infrared optical equipment for U.S. troops. "And I put my hand on my heart, and tears begin to well in your eyes, as you can imagine in a circumstance like that. I have five boys of my own. I imagined what it would be like to lose a son in a situation like that."
Eyes misting as he finished the story, Romney recalled glancing up at the massive windows in the U.S. Airways terminal.
"As I looked up there, every single hand was on every heart, and I recognized this is a nation that comes together and respects and reveres those who serve this great nation, and who joins in mourning when one of them is lost."
He added: "This is a nation which is united. Do we face challenges? Absolutely. Do we face a time when we need to change course in some important ways, absolutely? Can we do that as Republicans and Democrats together? We've done it time and again. You see it happen in state after state; it doesn't happen enough in Washington," he said.
They were all discussing whether he had tears in his eyes--and not the important part of the story. Somewhat unbelievably, it was a discussion that would go on intermittently for the next couple of hours.
After Insight, we were then taken over to Manchester's Mill District and the home of Next Step Orthotics and Prosthetics--a New Hampshire based company that fits adults and children for prosthetic limbs and orthotic devices. It was an intimate setting and Governor Romney spoke to the roughly 75 people in the audience after touring their facility.
Mitt talks to an audience assembled at Next Step Orthotics and Prosthetics in Manchester, NH on Monday, December 17, 2007. (Photo by William Smith, ConservativeBlogger.com)
Following the event, I stepped outside to check my messages. A young woman came up to me and said, "Wasn't that something? He doesn't sound like anybody else!" Her feedback was totally unsolicited by me. I wasn't even looking in her direction when she started speaking. I was simply the first person she saw after leaving the event and she told me what she thought before climbing into her car. She was genuinely won over and seemed fully intent on pulling the lever for Mitt on January 8.
While the Governor gave a quick interview to FOX News, those of us riding in the press vans were whisked across the Merrimack River to St. Anselm College, home of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. We had a little bit of downtime before the next event so pizza was brought in for us. While in the "pizza room," I had an encounter with my "good friend" Senator Judd Gregg. (More about that in a separate blog to be posted later...)
I also got into a discussion with one of the embedded reporters with regard to voters in New Hampshire. I'd been listening to a discussion and one of them was talking somewhat matter-of-factly about how Granite State voters will spend the next two weeks talking about the Primary and they'll even argue about it over Christmas dinner.
I asked where he got that idea from and he told me he had talked to a woman from New Hampshire and she said that's what people do here. I told him that, for what it's worth, I've lived in New Hampshire for 35 years and I've never seen that in my life. People here will spend the two weeks doing the same things as everyone else: getting ready for Christmas. That lady may spend her Christmas dinner debating politics, but the vast majority of people here are already tired of candidates and political ads.
I mean, I do know a thing or two about New Hampshire and how we vote. I live here. I'm from here.
So were a bunch of people gathered at St. Anselm College to see Governor Romney. The room at the NHIOP was packed.
Mitt meets a packed house at an "Ask Mitt Anything" held at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, NH on Monday, December 17, 2007. (Photo by William Smith, ConservativeBlogger.com)
Not counting the press and their related equipment, there were at least a couple dozen more people behind me and even more along the wall to the left.
In attendance was a gentleman from the Sierra Club giving out free compact fluorescent light bulbs and holding his Sierra Club sign, people who were presumably St. A's students dressed with brightly colored t-shirts drawing attention to global warming, and another global warming activist dressed as Santa Claus.
Mitt was right about many things yesterday, but the one that stood out was this: there is nothing that's toxic to him. He's not afraid of any question people want to throw at him. He takes each one and answers it and tells you what he believes.
At three different events I saw people who were likely undecided coming in and were pushed a little closer into the Romney camp. Many in attendance seemed energized by his ideas and by what he had to say. That's not my spin or my rose-colored glasses. People in New Hampshire are responding favorably to Mitt Romney. Perhaps it's because they know what he did as Governor. Perhaps it's like that young woman who talked to me outside of Next Step. Either way, they think he's ready to take the lead and run this country.
It was interesting to see a typical day on the trail with a candidate, but also to see how the folks in the press work, get along and interact. I learned a lot--not just about the people who attend the events, but also about the people who cover them. While audience members often key in on a specific issue that matters to them, the press can often key in on minutiae:
Did he well up with tears or didn't he?
Was he endoresed by the NRA or wasn't he?
Would he answer the questions from the anti-war group or wouldn't he?
In my opinion, these things take a back seat to the fact that people in New Hampshire were won over by Mitt Romney yesterday. That's something that I suspect will occur a lot more over the next several months.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com
