New Hampshire Gets It Right
The pundits may have been stunned, but the people were not fooled. Once again, New Hampshire broke from the conventional wisdom and voted for the best candidate. I had the vindicating opportunity to watch the election returns at Fox News’ Headquarters at Saint Anselm College. I had been interning there for over a week and had heard every “expert” explain how Hillary was in trouble. And after hours of staring at realclearpolitics.com, I too started to believe it. But as the returns came in, every pundit began ducking for cover. As they concocted theories about why they had all been so wrong, the answer became quite clear to me: New Hampshire gets it right! There is a reason why we are the First in the Nation Primary, we vote on substance. Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee: (to borrow Mondale/Wendy’s phrase) where is the beef? Both of these men are quite inspiring and likable guys. But the Presidency is not a popularity contest. In New Hampshire, we vote on substance. On the eve of the New Hampshire Primary, I decided to check out Obama’s late-night event at Concord High School. I had heard Barack’s events nowadays were unlike any political rally New Hampshire had ever seen. All the rumors were true. But this was not a political rally. This was a rock concert; full of dancing, cheering, chants, and cool kids. But Barack wasn’t going to win my vote by being cool. I wanted him to reconcile his weak health care policy. I wanted to hear exactly why experience is not needed in a President. Instead, I got mindless cheers and dancing. The whole experience made me feel like the only sober person at a raucous party of drunk people. But as it turned out, New Hampshire wasn’t in punch drunk love with Obama. Sure he is exciting. But when push came to shove, we voted on policy. I couldn’t help contrasting this event with my last Hillary event, where she took painstaking detail to explain why her positions were superior to the other candidates. Now I don’t like Hillary. I’ve read too many negative stories about her co-presidency in the early ‘90’s. But I respect her for debating on the issues and providing substance to this race. And it was because of her substance that she won my vote. As I went to cast my ballot at Exeter’s Town Hall, I got into a debate with an Obama supporter about Barack’s weak health care plan. After correcting him that Barack does not believe in mandated health care, and explaining the problems of unmandated health care, like healthy people only choosing to buy into the system when they get sick, the Obama supporter said to me, “Policy-shmolicy!” That was the end of our conversation. On January 8th, New Hampshire didn’t say “policy-schmolicy.” We didn’t vote for the most likable candidates. We took our duty seriously and voted on substance.