Small world: Pulitizer prizewinner David Kennerly was at the event

David Kennerly is from Roseburg, Oregon.   He has had a spectacular career as a photographer, starting with his photographs of Vietnam during the war there, then of American politicians for the past 40 years.  We have seen his cover photos on leading magazines hundreds of times.

We had a chance to visit at the Christie event. I told him we had met and visited when he spoke at an event held by the Jackson County Library Foundation in Medford.   He remembered the event well.   We talked about Oregon, about his photography of Gerald Ford and his having coached Ford on the correct way to say Oregon, about the joys and hassles of following politicians around,  and about his website: www.kennerly.com.

He took the photo below and sent it to me.    It captures two of the elements that I had mentioned here in my blog, Chris Christie's good manner for retail politics and his wife Mary Pat, who has been a relentless good sport, standing beside Chris, smiling and looking adoring.   I had a nice visit with my own wife, Debra, about Mary Pat's support for her husband.  We both agreed that the best I could expect would be brief flashes of pleasant smile in response to genuinely extraordinary behavior.

At the time the photo was taken I believe I was simply telling Christie that Oregon has a primary election, too, but whatever I was saying certainly did not deserve the joyful reaction I am getting from Mary Pat Christie.   But as I note, she is a real trooper.

The admiring smile of a political wife, plus Chris Christie wants to re-establish the war on marijuana

There was another Christie event today, a front yard gathering at the home of a local County Commissioner.   About 50 people were in attendance.   Among them was David Kennerly, presidential photographer and Roseburg Oregon native, who was there photographing events on business for Politico.  We agreed that he had a great career, photographer of candidates and presidents, at least on very pleasant September afternoons.

He said many of the same things he said the night before.  But he added a brief comment regarding drugs, calling marijuana a gateway drug, referencing the states of Washington and Colorado, telling people to "get high now" because when he is president "the party's over!".   See and hear it for yourself in the fifteen second video below.

Part of Chris Christie's political patter is to involve his wife and their four children, with multiple references to her.  Mary Pat appears to be a very good sport.

Here are some nice photos of Mary Pat Christie, a good template for a political wife.  She is there, she pays close attention, she seems delighted with what she hears and sees, smiling and attentive.

Smile.

Chris Christie: Powerful, Engaging, Persuasive. A very strong candidate

Chris Christie is better in person than on camera.

On camera he appears not particularly different than most of the other Republicans.   He appears to believe mostly the same things they do, with tiny variations around the margins:
    He supports allowing early term abortions in the event of rape, incest, and the life of the mother.
    He emphasizes that he is an "outsider" because he is not a senator and because he is Republican in a blue state who got nearly half the votes of Hispanics.
    Defund Planned Parenthood.
    Strong defense, bigger army and navy and air force, more troops, because strength means peace, because our opponents know we mean business.
    He said he learned the lesson of being close to ones opponents because "it is hard to hate up close", and therefore Obama failed badly because Boehner had not been in Air Force One until just recently.

The Town Meeting was set up for about 300 people, with standing room.   The seats were all taken by an hour before the event.   By 6:00 p.m. start time there were about 200 more people than the venue could accommodate, and standing room extended way back into the fringes.

But what is noteworthy about Chris Christie is his retail skills, his eye contact, his outpouring of empathy.   He started the Town Meeting with a bit of speechifying, introducing his wife, criticizing Obama, demonstrating that he is a conservative Republican with all the usual positions.   But he quickly went to Q and A, noting that he had nothing to fear from questions, that he would answer them bluntly and honestly.

The thing that was noteworthy about the Town Hall presentation was how successfully he framed and translated his blunt New Jersey style into proof of his authenticity, I am what I am, what you see is what you get.  Christie, in person, absolutely commands the stage, and projects leadership and strength.  By sharing elements of his life he frames that strength as something genuine, non-narcissistic, and a benefit for America.

He explained his opposition to abortion as an epiphany that came from the awe inspiring moment when he heard his daughter's heartbeat in utero at three months.   He explained his success in New Jersey by having grown up in a boisterous family.  He made joking reference to his size.  He engaged a 2nd grader who asked about education by telling her how much her parents loved her and that that is why he trusted parents, not presidents, to make school choices for the girl (thus getting in his support for charter schools and home schools and vouchers not as policy positions but as his expression of a parent's natural love of their children.)

The skill of making policy points as an expression of authentic human emotion, emotions which he legitimately feels, as contrasted with making policy points as a checklist of positions held, is the skill which will make Christie very, very formidable in a debate or joint appearance forum with a small number of people, and especially in contrast to Hillary.   Hillary probably is not a natural in this area.   Christie is undoubtably well practiced, but he is a natural.

He concluded the Town Meeting with a story about his mother that was genuinely touching.  He gave a shout out to his aged father, then said that his mother was a lifelong smoker and was diagnosed at age 72 with lung cancer.  He said the disease progressed quickly and when he was on business in the west coast he got a call from his brother saying that his mother had taken a very bad turn for the worse and was in the hospital and he should come home.   He took the red-eye and came to the hospital directly from the airport.   On arrival at her hospital bed she awoke and woozily asked what day it was.   Christie said he told her it was Friday.   What time is it, she asked.   Morning, he said.   Christie then said she told him, "Go to work."   Christie said he said he would just sit here with her.   He said she told him to go to work, that that was was his job was, go to work.   Then he quoted her saying, "We've said everything that needs to be said.  Go to work."

Christie tells the story in a way that gets a hushed house.

He then says that he is blunt because he learned his mother's lesson.   Tell it all, get everything out, tell people what you believe, don't hedge or obfuscate, just say it.   People will either be generally OK with it, or not, but then you can live or die knowing you have said all that needs to be said.   So that is why I am frank and blunt because that is who I am, how I was brought up, he said.

It was a very powerful frame.

At no point in this story did he say "And look how different that is from Hillary!"  But the just-say-it, get it all out there story as an explanation for his authentic bluntness and honesty creates a difficult comparison for Hillary.

I suppose, after a long campaign, Christie will get beat up enough that he will be busy explaining problems (New Jersey bond ratings, Bridgegate aides, etc.) but I am imagining a head to head joint appearance against Hillary and I think that people will prefer Christie.   It worries me to say it, but he is likable.

I will attach some videos and photos, which will give a taste of his manner.

Christie at a Town Meeting of about 500 visitors

Rand Paul, cool cat.

I followed Rand Paul to three events in five hours on Friday, September 25.   He began with a visit to a popular inexpensive diner in a working poor area of Manchester, in a neighborhood of the descendants of French Canadian immigrants who came to work in the textile mills.   There are other nearby neighborhoods of Greek and Italian ethnicity, but they don't mix, I was told by a neighborhood resident.

Then he went to a gun club to shoot and visit with voters and the media.   Then he held a Town Hall.   The events were in three different places, all about a half hour drive apart.

The first event was a drop-by visit to a popular place.    I show two photographs here which make the central point of my observations, which is that Rand Paul is philosophically the most libertarian of the Republican candidates, in the live and let live, you do your thing I'll do mine vein.

I have never observed a candidate for any office more detached in manner in face to face meetings.
A couple of photographs illustrate my point, the photo of him strolling to the diner meet-and-greet, wearing blue genes, black shirt and black vest, dark glasses, greeting no one.   It was the manner of a put-upon and jaded rock musician tired of being greeted by fans.    And note Rand Paul at the diner:  hands in his pockets.   In his pockets!   He is there but keeping his distance.

He walked right by me and three or four others standing on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.  He didn't look at us.  No acknowledgement whatever.

Strolling, self contained, private

Detached, hands in pocket at a meet-and-greet

There were about 60 people waiting at the door at the gun club when Rand Paul arrived on time at ten a.m.   But only 30 of them followed the candidate into the conference room for some Q and A.  The rest went directly in for the purpose they came, to shoot.   Senators and presidential candidates aren't an attraction, they are a nuisance, in New Hampshire.

People who have owned adult cats will understand Rand Paul.   They are self contained, they have the virtue of internal self possession.  They know what they want to do, but they don't really care about you.  They don't long for your approval because they approve of themselves, and that is enough.   That is the manner Rand Paul projects.

I mention Rand Paul's hearing aid and gray hair grow-out not because I think it is in any way "gotcha".  Lots of people use hearing aids and there is no shame in coloring ones hair.  I do it myself.   But in the next videos I note that he has greater gray hair grow out than my wife would fail to mention to me, and I am a retired tourist and he is a presidential candidate daily on high definition TV.   It isn't evidence of anything other than his cat-like lack of particular concern about what we think of his hair.

I

As is pretty obvious from the angle of the above videos, I was standing two feet from him, as were three or four other people, presumably New Hampshire residents and voters.   He completely ignored us.  It was more like the relationship of people finding themselves together in an elevator or a subway car, rather than a person hoping to find votes.   Or even a moderately friendly host.

n the Town Meeting event at noon he mentioned the resignation of Boehner, which drew cheers and applause from the crowed.   Rand Paul was critical of the dozen or so "establishment types" in the Senate.

But to conclude my point about the cool detached cat-like attitude I will conclude with a badly videotaped display of how Rand Paul handled a tiny bit of theater at his Town Hall.   A group of three or four college students asked a question, then introduced themselves as representing Exxon and Chevron and they wanted to give Paul a trophy for ignoring climate change so well.   Paul did not engage them at all, neither to attempt to explain his position nor to make humorous banter back with them.  He just walked away.

Please don't be put off by the bad video quality on the short video above.   I made the mistake of getting seated with a bright window on the other side of the candidate.    I am still on the front end of the learning curve.

Lindsey Graham at an Ice Cream Place. As likable as Andy of Mayberry

This gathering was an open-to-all gathering at an ice cream place in a strip mall, one that has the distinction of taking the liquid ice cream base and freezing it before your eyes with liquid nitrogen.

Anyone interested in attending could have known about the visit.   Two different media sources, a cable news station that focuses on New England news, plus a local ABC station, have websites with "candidate trackers" posting all candidate events.  One does not need to be an insider, just someone willing to Google "Candidates in New Hampshire."

Here he shook hands with kids in middle school, told their mother how wonderful it was she is a nurse, asked the employees if they liked their work, shook hands with the host owner of the ice cream shop, a man who is a member of the VFW.  He ate some ice cream and pronounced it delicious.  In short, he mostly wandered around being folksy.

Some media interns from Emerson College (tuition $38,000/year, according to a graduate of the program) asked Graham some questions on abortion (he's against it in all cases after the 20th week, but is okay with the exemption for rape and incest and the life of the mother--exceptions some fellow candidates reject); some questions on climate change (he says it is real, and that humans are causing a rise in carbon dioxide); a question on Keystone pipeline (Canada has lots of great oil up there and if it does not come south to us in the Gulf it will go west to China) and a few other questions.

I will show some photos.  As you see, there was a strong presence of media.

Yeah, he has small feet.  Just something I noticed.

I am enclosing a photo of Lindsey Graham's foot, mostly to be funny and to make the point that this political vacation gives me some observations I would not get from the media.   Lindsey Graham is short in stature, maybe 5 feet, five inches.   He has small feet,  His height and foot size have no importance whatever, but it is something i wouldn't have noticed watching him at a desk on Face the Nation.

Ice cream employees.  Graham greeted each of them individually.

Meeting and GreetingAdd caption

Delicious

About one minute of retail politics.  Greet the kids, congratulate the mom.  Just like Andy of Mayberry.: warm, folksey

Lindsey Graham a Meet and Greet in Nashua NH

Here is the conference room scheduled and just barely filled for Senator Graham's visit.

Things are different in New Hampshire.   Senator Lindsey Graham, who I have watched on Meet the Press and the other Sunday shows about three times a month for a decade, schedules a meet and greet in a law office in downtown Nashua (population about 100,000) and he draws a crowd of almost no one.  I suppose I count as one, but I vote in Oregon.  The host attorney and his father, plus a few employees of the law firm filled most of the 14 seats.  There were perhaps 5 total people who were legitimate curious voters and who were not paid employees of the host law firm.

This is retail politics in New Hampshire, and why I am here.  I wanted to see this up close.

Senator Graham came right on time by campaign standards: about fifteen minutes after scheduled.   The meeting room was a small conference room.  In the law firm lobby I was greeted warmly by a firm lawyer and told I was more than welcome, the more the better.

I was the only non-NH resident.  All of us were asked to introduce ourselves.   A  reporter for the Boston Globe thought it curious that I introduced myself as a "political tourist".  I told him I was here to see where all the money raised in Oregon went to be spent.

He spoke for about 20 minutes, then took 30 minutes of questions.

Amongst the policy talk of re-engagement in Syria and Iraq, the need to deal with the demographic challenge to Medicare and Social Security with something like Simpson Bowles, a need for comprehensive immigration reform to allow residents to get legal in their immigration status (and help solve the demographic financial problem, by providing more young workers to help service and fund the retirement off the baby boomers, he addressed his plausible path to election victory.

He says he needs to get third or fourth place in NH, which makes him credible, then win in South Carolina, his home state. That would leave him among the surviving four or so candidates.  Then he will get the media attention he needs to make his case, as the reliable, pro-defense, strong military Commander in Chief.   And the guy who understands Congress and who can get deals done.   In the meantime he hopes to attract votes a few at a time, so there he was in a small conference room.

He has a charming way of framing Trump and Trump's advantages, saying he had a great TV show, one Graham said he enjoyed himself, so no wonder Trump is all over the media.   He is a celebrity.  But eventually New Hampshire people will settle down to the serious business of choosing a president.

Lindsey Graham event with three surprises. 1. Senator Graham voices a strongly compassionate form of Republicanism. 2. The ABC reporter covering the event was Adam Sexton from Ashland High School and KDRV, and 3. Senator Graham slams Greg Waldon

Lindsey Graham spoke to a group of about 80 men and women at a professional group, the Financial Management Association of New Hampshire in the function room of a nice restaurant.   The event was on  Senator Graham's public schedule but the group was a private association.  However, an official of the group told me how to sign up for the event, pay the price of dinner, and join the group.

There was a camera and reporter from two news organizations, but this event was much more like a Rotary meeting with a well known guest speaker for the program than it was a campaign event by and for the candidate.  The candidate had to sit through some Association business, descriptions of the work of two of its members, but happily for Graham, one of the short presentations was about methods for comparison shopping for health care to control costs.

Surprise number 1, was the tone and content of his 40 minute talk.  He was genial, self deprecating, and told the story of his origin, living with his parents and younger sister behind a liquor store, bar, and pool hall.   His parents died when he was 22 and his sister a young teenager and Senator Graham said the some $300/month she received as a survivors benefit was essential to them.   At various points in his talk he made clear that he was not out to condemn or eliminate entitlements; they were critical to people's survival, he knew from experience, a very different tone than the Romney 47% being "takers".

Conservative Republicans would say that he is "soft" on immigration, since he spoke of the need for comprehensive reform, not of border walls.  He spoke of how to save and prolong Social Security: raise taxes and cut benefits for rich people like himself, delay the retirement age for young people, and admit straight up that this is a sacrifice for the common good, saving Social Security's solvency which would otherwise be lost.

Lindsey Graham is not trying to blow up the system, he is not anti-government, and I can see why some of his Republican critics say he is a RINO, a Republican In Name Only.   His suggestion for saving Medicare is the same as the one for Social Security.   Not to end them, but to sustain them through sacrifice for the common good, including higher taxes on people like himself, people who earn $175,000 and more.

He said that bipartisan agreements along the lines of the Simpson/Bowles agreement were the only way out of the fiscal and demographic crisis facing America.  (The Simpson/Bowles plan was the recommendation of a bi-partisan Commission on Fiscal Responsibility appointed by Obama in 2011.  They came up with an idea that had some things Democrats hated (some cuts) and Republicans hated (some revenue) that was an attempt to address the upcoming fiscal crisis caused by too many old folks collecting Medicare and Social Security and not enough young workers.)

And his tone was soft, not angry. He called for "give and take".  He called for people in Washington to get to know each other, get to understand each other, to drink together and hammer out some agreements.  Even his call for greater action in the Middle East had a tone of sorrow for the need for more sacrifice from the young people most directly in harms way, rather than a tone of anger.  

Surprise number 2 was simply the odd coincidence that in the social time for the group members I made my way over to the young TV reporter.   His name seemed familiar to me, for good reason--he had been on the air at our own ABC station KDRV in Medford.   We had a nice visit.  His old friends and classmates will be happy to know he looks great and his career is doing well.  What are the chances?   Of all the campaign events, in all the towns in all the world, he's there at the same event as I am.

Surprise number 3 came from a question I asked Senator Graham when there was a long silence when he asked if there were questions.   I was struck and moved (surprise #1) by the tone of bipartisan conciliation, which seemed very different from the tone of anger and condemnation voiced by some louder voices in the Republican debates.

So my question related to the difficulty of bipartisan cooperation, because when a politician gives up something to move toward an agreement he or she becomes vulnerable to attack by the opposition for doing exactly what the opposition is urging you to do.   One cannot dare compromise if the people you are compromising with attack you for taking the new position!   My question said that President Obama, at some political peril after negotiations with House Republicans put on the table for discussion revisions downward in the Cost of Living Adjustment for Social Security.  (House Republicans had been strongly advocating this, because it would lower, eventually, the costs of Social Security, helping to make it solvent for longer.)  But I said that as soon as Obama said he would consider this change my own Oregon congressman Greg Walden, who is part of the House leadership team, went public with sharp criticism of Obama, saying that Obama was stabbing seniors in the back, and that he would defend seniors from Obama.   Obama immediately withdrew the tentative offer.

I noted that my congressman got great press and credit for his 'defense of seniors", protecting them from Obama's anti-senior overture, even though it was exactly what the rest of the leadership team was urging Obama to do.  Of course, the downside was that it ended the political trust and political fair dealings that are necessary to get to compromise since it signaled that Republican leadership team either wasn't serious about their stated goal, or that they couldn't control their own members from reversing course to make political points.

Happily I tape recorded the entire talk by Senator Graham so I have a good record of what he said, and can email it to anyone who inquires (and I will try to figure out how to get it posted here.)   But Graham said he was frustrated by all the silliness in politics, said that, yes, he believed Obama was born in Hawaii, he believed Obama is not a Muslim, and that he was unhappy with a member of his party who would "demagogue" in that manner.  And regarding Walden's subverting the move toward a bi-partisan agreement on Social Security:   "If I were president and a Republican did what that gentleman did,  I would wipe the hell out of him."

Summary:   Lindsey Graham may be out of touch with the Republican electorate just now.  He is not angry; he is sad.   He isn't trying to destroy or shrink government; he is trying to make it work.  He admitted that some of his opponents get great applause when they tell audiences they will abolish the IRS.   Graham said we cannot abolish it , we need it to collect money to pay our bills. He supports compromise and cooperation and people sitting down together, maybe over a drink.

He sounds like a grown up.

Lindsey Graham

Peter Sage with reporter Adam Sexton