FOX_SMU_Erin's Blog

Michelle and Barack Obama walked into the gym of Nashua South High School waving and greeting those along their path. Michelle gave her man a hug of encouragement before she walked off stage.

Barack opened by first congratulating Clinton for fighting the good fight and of course, her victory. The audience was silent until some lone voices yelled out words of encouragement to the senator.

I'm sure Obama appreciated those loud calls but the rest of his speech indicated that this setback is only slight. Obama's words riled up the audience. His main message tonight: "Yes we can!"

He thanked the young voters and independents and all those who made it to the polls today in record numbers.

 He cited historical eras of the nation's past that had to use the same words he encouraged the crowd to say.... "Yes we can." The immigrants to America who battled the wilderness West, the slaves and abolitionists, the women who fought for their rights, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and those who fight for civil rights.

 True to his campaign, Obama left his audience with a new sense of hope.

 Lisa and I talked with young audience members after the event. (Hopefully these videos will load and post.) The young men we spoke with said that they are still supportive of Obama's campaign and will support him as he moves on to South Carolina, the first primary in the South.

The final poll results show Clinton won by two percentage points over Obama and McCain won by five percentage points over Romney. Giuliani resulted in 9 percent support and Ron Paul at 8 percent support. Giuliani may have been absent in New Hampshire, but he is expected to win in other states. All this to say, the nomination is still up in the air on both sides of the political parties, tonight.

The last precincts to get their results in are college towns! Who will get the youth vote this time around?

Clinton has received the majority of the female vote so far in New Hampshire, a constituency that Obama won in Iowa.

The political pundits were able to call McCain's win but it’s too close to call for the Democrats. This is politics at its best.

This is like a bar on game night multiplied by 10. All eyes remain on the screen. Shouts of support and chants support Obama's progress. Boo's target the competitors.

"Leave hope alive!" is what the crowd is saying now.

When are they going to start passing out the beer?

Since Clinton has surpassed Obama in the primary stats playing on NBC for us here in the gym, there is a tension that is as palpable as any football game. People on the bleechers, once seated, now stand, eyes glued to the screen.

A man in the crowd embraces his wife. Looks of shaken hope on both of their faces.

The crowd once looked forward to the stage. Now, everyone's looking to the side where the screen is.

I'm sitting here at the Obama rally. Waiting for him, once more. A projector screen plays McCain's victory speech on NBC news.

Romney and Huckabee were on earlier and congratulated the senator on his victory. When talk about carrying on with strength and numbers spilled from their lips, chants of "Fired up. Ready to go,"  obscured his speech from the gym of Nashua South High School.

Now that McCain is on, cheers erupt whenever Obama's stats get up on the screen.

His status is now 36 percent to Clinton's 39 percent. The crowd applauds and chants his name, regardless.

The room is vibrating with more chants of "Fired up! Ready to go!"

Today, Lisa and I headed to Salem's court house where we wanted to talk to local voters, specifically young adults like us.

We met Matt, who came in to vote for the first time. He's actually a student at Salem High School. Incidentally, his high school is located just across the street.

(Lisa has a video of Matt but it won't load at the moment so stay tuned)

Matt said he has been a supporter for Obama but when news started to circulate that Hillary may drop out of the race should she suffer a loss in New Hampshire, he changed his mind.

 He said he would vote for Hillary because she deserves to stay in the race.

 This is the kind of sentiment I have seen here in New Hampshire. The people of New Hampshire take their responsibility as the nation's first primary, extremely seriously. They value this democratic tradition that has half of the rest of the country skeptical whether the nominating process should change.

 These people go where the candidates go. They take their questions and expect answers from the candidates.

 I agree with Matt. Hillary's position in the race is historical. She has given the frontrunners of both parties a run for their money. She would disappoint a whole host of people, women, young girls who believe in her and are counting on her. That's a lot of pressure.

 To admit defeat would be too soon but she has certainly carved a trail. She has more in her to continue. She has the money, press appeal and support.

 The race has been too short to throw in the towel just yet. That's the problem with starting this race too early. Hell, as soon as the results were in in Iowa, the candidates flew directly to New Hampshire.

 How well do we really know these frontrunners?

Recent poll results show Obama leading Clinton by five and nine percent. It's a crap shoot.

 Today, Salem's court house parking lot was full. People came in and out. People registered to vote there, on the spot. Personally, I have never seen such an urgency to cast a ballot.

 I know the first time I went in to vote, back in Tyler, I was the only voter in the small church near my house. Maybe a couple came in while I was still in there. I expect many more will crowd that same church this year. There is an urgency for change around the nation.

At Hillary's event at Salem High School, Lisa and I tracked down some young ladies who were standing in line to see Hillary. We wanted to know why? I will have sound bites of two of the interviews up soon but I want to write about a third right now.

Laura is a junior biology major at Northern Essex in Massachusetts. Laura's major concerns are based in the war in Iraq and environmental policy.

"I want to be a little bit more informed as to her opinions on the war, on college loans, on women's rights," Laura said.

Laura is registered as an independent. Clinton is the first candidate she has seen in person. Thirty minutes from now, the polls will open and Laura will vote for the candidate she has the most faith in.

Just in from the Clinton event, I would guess that Laura got her answers. Clinton touched on many of her major issues. But Clinton's main messages were that she is the candidate that is more than just talk and she will be the one to bring the change of which this country so desperately is searching.

Clinton said she would immediately start bringing the troops home once instated and once she developed an efficient plan, based on the advice of the experts that will be available to her. When these troops return, she said she would work to take care of them.

When discussing college finances Clinton plans to wipe out college loans with high interest rates. She will get rid of that BLEEP of a form that is FAFSA and create a better way to pay for college. One way to do this is to create a program allowing recent graduates to do service work for higher pay, she said. She will not allow colleges and universities to increase their tuition and room and board charges after a student's freshman year. 

Clinton is a strong supporter of a better environmental policy. She said that going green can create more jobs like some businesses have already experienced in New Hampshire.

All in all, Clinton's speech was informative. She spoke about her issues. She touched on recent news stories regarding her progress and recent appearances. She took questions from the audience and later, got off the stage to shake hands.

In other news, I got my video up of our journey to catch Richardson. We chased that guy all the way to Strathom and actually filmed him walking into the Timberland plant but when it was time to start logging the video, the camera or the editing software destroyed the tape and wiped it clean. What was posted was all that remained. :(

Polls open soon!

Lisa and I finally met up with Bill Richardson for his town hall meeting with employees of clothing maker, Timberland, a leading employer in Stratham, New Hampshire.

We missed him at the Village Hardware store in Hampton but the drive to Stratham was not bad at all.

We spoke with one supporter but the view from outside the plant, lacked many others, 45 minutes before his scheduled arrival. A handful of signs lined the road down to the plant.

Bill Richardson pulled up in a black SUV. Half of a handful of people greeted him outside. We tried to get him on camera but his spokesperson said he would not be able to speak with us since he was already running behind schedule.

The spokesperson gave us the opportunity to wait around after the event but we couldn’t stay because it takes about an hour to drive back to Salem. We’ll post what we can then we’re off to see Hillary at Salem High School, the same place we saw Obama last night. It will be interesting to compare the numbers as well as the demographic.

Looks like Lisa and I will head into Manchester to check out the local places the candidates have been.

From there we will head out to Hampton to catch up with Bill Richardson who will be at the local Village Hardware.

The candidates are making quick pit stops everywhere today so they can meet as many people as possible before the polls open at midnight tonight.

Then we're off to catch up with Hillary Clinton back in Salem!

We'll keep you posted as best we can!

Obama's strongest messages this evening were rooted in action and hope. He elaborated how important it was to go to the polls in two days.

"In two days you have the chance to do what Iowa said you could not do," he said.

Obama harped on the fact that nobody expected independents and young eligible voters to actually get out to the polls until the votes came back overwhelmingly supporting the senator from Illinois.

His message of hope is to convince his supporters that he has the leadership to take on Washington and the major tasks ahead such as Iraq, the state of the nation's health care system, an environmental policy that can work with the economy, education reform and poverty in America.

He cited American heroes like the first colonists to come to the New World from Great Britain, the slaves and abolitionists who rose against the inhumane institution of slavery in the United States, the women of the women's liberation movement and so on. All went against the grain. All fought for change.

He drew a comparison of his electibility to the feat of NASA reaching the moon. People didn't believe it could be done until enough support proved otherwise. Currently Obama leads New Hampshire at 39 percent, 10 percent ahead of Clinton and 23 percent ahead of Edwards. Will New Hampshire shoot for the moon on Tuesday?

I met Joseph Nicatra and his friends standing in line as we arrived at Obama's event at Salem High School. Nicatra is from Salem, New Hampshire but attends college in Boston at Suffolk University. He is a sophomore honors student and pre-law major. He said he's seen Obama a few times already in Boston and has been following his campaign.

"I definitely support Barack Obama. He's my first choice candidate," Nicatra said. "I definitely believe he would change this country for the better."

While Obama is the only candidate he has seen to date, he plans to see Hillary at one of her upcoming events. He said he will go with an open mind but he doesn't think his choice will change.

**(I wanted to post this with the picture of the guys but the photo still hasn't been approved by the site....so this is all I have. The picture is with the others in my album. They're never approved before I move onto my next entry so just check out the photo album. There are captions.)

We're bordering on two hours that we have been waiting in this high school auditorium. They finally let the crowd pour in and fill the rest of the seats, not occupied by the press.

A woman of Salem has just come to the podium and is giving the testamonial of her support for Obama. Up until a few months ago she was a card carrying Republican but the current administration changed her mind and now she supports Obama!. She just introduced him!

Got to go.