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This past weekend, Skip had the chance to attend the National Review event featuring such luminaries as Mark Steyn, Rob Long, Jonah Goldberg, and all the rest. I noticed that Mr. Long linked to Skip’s post on the evening, and included his outsider’s view (He lives in Hollywood and works as a writer–presently on strike) of the political process here in the Granite State. His assessment is just about right. This is why NH is best able to carry on with the duties that accompany going first in the process of selecting the president. The art of political battle and discourse is, for the most part, alive and well. And we don’t even hate each other at the end of it all…
…it was fun to hang out for a few days in an intensely political atmosphere and see people – not just see them, but eat with them, drink (a lot) with them – from all spots on the political map getting along, discussing, debating the merits of this candidate or that. No one called anyone else a fascist. No one expected anyone else to be reprehensible. The Ron Paul guys drank with the Kucinich guys. The Obama guys helped the Romney guys put a few signs in a high snowbank..The union crowd that piled into a hotel ballroom to cheer at a Clinton rally spilled over into the ballroom where I was participating in a panel discussion – the categorical opposite of a Hillary Clinton rally, trust me – and…nothing. They ate some free food, had a few beers, hung around for some of the jokes. If that had somehow happened here, it would have been a six-act play: demonstrations, denunciations, all of that crap..I like New Hampshire.
Me too!
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