Today we saw the president in passing.  It looked a little like this.  At the exact moment that his motorcade was going by, my iphone powered down all by itself.

We had driven to Nashua, NH where he was doing an event with the legendary James Taylor.  We waited and walked in a long, long line, and then just a few moments before we would have gone through security, they closed it down.  8500 people before us, and they stopped admitting anyone else.

So we stood around hoping that they would stop putting away all the security, and when they didn’t we hoped they would set them up again and when they didn’t, we just stood there, wondering what to do next.  I asked a police officer where the motorcade would be, and he pointed up the street.  We walked up in that direction and suddenly, we were not permitted to walk any further in that particular direction, and were told by a military looking man to wait by the side of the road.  Clearly we were in the right place.  Presidential security, serious looking men and women in dark glasses, police in serious looking military green SWAT wear everywhere. We were backstage, behind the scenes, a part of the scene behind the scenes.

We waited.  Suddenly it was there.  The motorcade, preceded by many police cruisers, lots of black cars with flags and there he is we cheered I dropped my phone and he is gone.  Just like that.

We hung out for awhile where we could hear James Taylor, and then when the president started speaking we left because the sound system was giving us the sound of his voice but none of the actual words.

I felt exhilarated, not even disappointed.  It was an adventure, a nearness to this man who is of a kind of greatness and integrity I thought I would never see in my lifetime.  A good day.  Back to Laconia and more canvassing.

A busy day in the Laconia preparing for the visit by Dr. Jill Biden as well as a full weekend of canvassing.  She is a lovely, passionate, articulate woman making her fourth campaign stop of the day.

She spoke movingly about the threat to women posed by the retrograde politics of the Republicans.  She and a number of the women present at the event remember the old days.  We cannot go backwards in our civil liberties.  We cannot allow the government to determine women’s health care and reproductive choices.

Forward.

The Front

The Back

Today my canvassing partner Julian and I had an opportunity to ask a few cows how they were feeling about the election.  They were pretty unanimous for Obama, and pretty formidable in their numbers. From the sound of it, I think that we have the momentum here.

The actual story is that on one of the gorgeous roads we were canvassing in Gilmanton today, we came across a field of VERY vocal cows.  We stopped so that I could take some photos, and as we watched they began migrating en masse toward the gate.  We asked the farmer why they were moving that way and he said that he had been putting up new fence across the road and they knew they were moving.  Across the road was brilliant green, deep grass.  They were ready.  We asked if we could watch him move them and he said sure you can help.  So we stood blocking one side of the road as they moved. More photos on Facebook.

Here is the Obama chorus, including my poor attempt at engaging the bull at the end: