STUDENTS

Politics Up Close

IN HIS BOOK With a Happy Eye, But…America and the World, 1997–2002, George F. Will, erudite political pundit, notes: “As the 1932 election approached, President Herbert Hoover, who was about to be swept from office by a tidal wave of discontent, received a telegram from an angry voter: ‘Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous.’ ” That anecdote speaks to a vastly different place along
the political landscape. Chances that we will see anything resembling voter unanimity in 2004 are about as likely as an 80 degree day in New Hampshire in January.

Appropriately, it was 70 degrees cooler than that when a group of students from the Kennedy School made the trek north to the Granite State for an up close look at what seasoned observers like to call “retail politics.” The excursion was organized by lecturer Maxine Isaacs, whose “2004 Presidential Campaign and Election” course was designed to give students an opportunity to see prospective nominees in action and to exchange views with candidates, journalists, pollsters, and the like.

For Lizelda Lopez MPP 2004, the experience would be an eye-opener on many levels. A first-generation American living in California, Lopez was one of more than 50 students who boarded a bus at 7 a.m. on a bitter-cold day last January just
to make the trip. The peaceful New Hampshire morning was interrupted by the sounds of her shoes crushing the packed powder as she trudged quickly toward a building where Democratic candidate General Wesley Clark was scheduled
to flip a few pancakes and give his stump speech. Once inside, Lopez, who’d never before been to a presidential campaign rally, forgot all about the numbing cold outside. This fire house, in the small village of Auburn, was appropriately hot with activity, thanks to the half-dozen television cameras, the busy flapjack griddle, and the hundreds of onlookers jammed inside. For Lopez, the event was one-part political revival and two-parts inspiring. “You can feel the excitement in the air,”
she said. “It is nice to see people care so much that they’d come out here in the freezing cold to support someone they think can help our country improve. We don’t get this kind of grassroots, personal presidential campaign experience in California. It is usually all on TV, and the debate is decided by the time they get around to us.”

As Clark began to speak, Lopez and the rest of the students got to hear his vision for America. Many of the students were within 10 feet of the candidate who seemed to relish the opportunity to rally the troops and perhaps sway an undecided voter or two. The speech didn’t take long — less than 20 minutes — but it provided the sort of lasting lesson that Isaacs hoped her students would benefit from.

“I wanted them to get an appreciation for the process, the accessibility of the candidates. Particularly, I wanted the students to see just how easy it is to get involved and how the process is different in person than it is on television,” said Isaacs, a political veteran who worked for the Mondale presidential campaign in 1984. “New Hampshire is important. Despite its perceived regional bias and demographic homogeneity, the state really tells us quite a lot about a candidate’s viability.”

The students were just beginning a whirlwind day that would take them to several towns, from various campaign headquarters to candidate hockey games, from high-volume rallies to low-key town hall meetings. As television commentator Al Hunt put it (who offered impromptu analysis outside CNN’s temporary studio in Manchester), “This is like being a firecracker salesman and this is the 4th of July.”

Lopez, whose parents were born in Mexico, first became interested in politics when she accepted a California State Assembly student fellowship. Calling the day’s activities “personally meaningful,” Lopez said, if nothing else, she would leave New Hampshire with a greater sense of obligation to be a part of the process. “My mom voted very little and my dad did not vote at all. But the Latino population is growing and, if we expect to be heard, we have to get involved and use our voice — and that’s what this process is all about.”

Isaacs could not agree more.

Mid-Career student Kevin Corke MPA 2004 is also in Maxine Isaacs’s “2004 Presidential Campaign and Election” course and is an anchor/producer at ESPN.