It was warm today…around 11 degrees. I never thought I’d say 11 degrees is warm, but compared to the temps of the past few days, it truly is. I look upon this weather as a way of preparing for the long Russian winters I’ll be living in when I am doing research for my PhD (or maybe not).

We did some lit drops today since it was “warm”, and tomorrow we’ll be doing some visibility and canvassing. We usually work from 9:30am to 10 or 11pm, depending on what needs to be done, then catch a late dinner and head back to the farmhouse for some sleep.

Clark will be in the Lakes Region on the 17th…looking forward to hearing him speak again. I loved the last town hall meeting. Seeing a packed house nodding in agreement with Clark’s answer to a question is a beautiful sight. I think the support for Clark is really picking up…talking to voters and such, we are getting a lot of Dean and Kerry people switching to Clark. I’ve even talked to a few Republicans that say they will be voting for Clark in the general election. Awesome.

Oh yeah, GW starts tomorrow…lucky me I’m not there.

So, I’m in New Hampshire and it’s extremely cold…we’re talking negative temperatures here.

I was greeted in Manchester by Chad, Jon, and Marcus, who came to the airport with Clark signs in hand. We went to the Clark headquarters to meet everyone and then headed off to the volunteer apartment. On our way to the apartment, the car got a flat tire, so we stood around freezing while Jon put the spare on. We finally got to the apartment and uhhh well….it was interesting. Its nickname is the “slophouse”, which fits it quite well. There was no furniture and there were about 20 people on the 3rd floor (the campaign rented out floors 1 and 3 of a house) with one bathroom for all of us. The hardwood floors weren’t very fun to sleep on, and Chad and Marcus snore quite loudly…so loudly, in fact, that it drove a majority of people on the 3rd floor to leave and find a place to sleep on the 1st floor. I had brought earplugs along, though, so I didn’t mind it too much.

The next morning we went to the HQ and one of the volunteer coordinators asked me if I would go to the Laconia field office and work up there. I said sure, why not, grabbed my stuff, and now I’m up here in Laconia. The place we are living at is awesome. It’s a late 18th century colonial house that usually serves as an inn, but for the duration of the campaign it’s being used to house volunteers. I’ve got my own bedroom with a nice comfortable double bed…yeah, this is a lot better than Manchester!

Last night we saw General Clark speak at Concord High School…he was great, as usual, and the place was packed.

I should probably get back to work…

Today I’m leaving the wonderful Palm Springs weather to spend 3 weeks in New Hampshire working for General Clark’s campaign.
I had to buy tons of fleece, some snow boots, long underwear…all that fun cold weather gear. Thursday’s weather – High: 18 degrees F, Low: 0 degrees F….AWESOME!!! :-/

I decided against taking the Russian cold weather army hat because…well…it’s just too ridiculous looking. Also, the Soviet emblem may offend some people.

NH should be fun…Chad and Marcus are up there right now…Jon will be up there tomorrow…Amy will be there in a few days…Lauren will be up there for a week…and on January 16-19, my comrades from GW for Clark (and AU, and Georgetown) will be up there.

So I guess I will post some updates when I’m up there…I’ll probably complain about the cold weather a lot…compared to NH, DC weather is tropical.

You can contact me via e-mail or call me on my cell.

Oh yeah, last night I went to my first meetup for Clark in the Coachella Valley. There were 25+ people that showed up, which I was impressed with because the Coachella Valley is a political wasteland. It was nice to talk to people about Clark…almost like being back in DC (ah DC, I actually do miss you). There were also about 5 people there who had donated money to Dean, gone to his meetups, etc and are now on Clark’s side…..yeeeeeah!

I was going to post these on Saturday night but my computer started going crazy and my D: drive is now dead…great. It had all my MP3s and West Wing episodes…the MP3s are all backed up on CD, so no big deal. I bet the RIAA and MPAA were behind this. Bastards!

Anyways, here’s some pics from last week’s fundraisers, courtesy of Laura and her digital camera…

DNC Fundraiser at the Dream Nightclub – October, 27 2003
Laura and myself
AJ and I

“C Company” fundraiser with General Clark @ the Omni Shoreham – October 29, 2003
Clark speaking: 1, 2, 3
Congressman Rangel speaking
General Clark and Mrs. Clark
GW for Clark members registering “C Company” members – check out the container of Clark bars….mmm Clark bars.
Jon at the registration table
My crazy hat, with David and Chad in the background
Chad and I at the VIP registration table

From ABCNews.com:
Oct. 30 – So what did Ron Klain, Mickey Kantor, and Bill Oldaker miss at the red, white, and blue themed evening fundraiser for the General (yes, their name tags were still on the reception table at the end of the evening, unclaimed )?

True, true…they weren’t at the event…but I took home Mickey Kantor’s nametag that night…

Today I received an email that said Clark was signing his newest book, Winning Modern Wars, at Olssen’s bookstore in downtown DC…and it just so happened that my Cold War history class was cancelled for today, so off to Olssen’s I went…and here is the result:

I got there around 11:40 and the line was kinda long.  Clark was supposed to get there at noon, but since the campaign runs on Clark Standard Time (CST), he got there around 12:30.  Fine by me, though…I just wanted my book signed.  I got it about a week and a half ago and have yet to actually read it…I’ll get around to it eventually, perhaps after this semester is over.  So anyways, we exchanged a few words, shook hands, and off I went back to GW.  Good times.

Pictures of this fundraiser-filled week will be posted soon.

On Wednesday we had our first DC for Clark fundraiser and we made over $15,000 for the General….wooohooo.  The fundraiser was at Club Daedalus in downtown DC.  There were a lot of people, a few Congressmen, and plenty of Clark bars for everyone (Chad ate like six or something…they are that good).

On Thursday Clark attended his second Dem debate.  This debate was hosted by CNN so we had to suffer through Judy Woodruff…I hate her!  Lieberman, Kerry, and Edwards were being real jerks to Wes…because he’s chipping away at their support, obviously.  Basically their argument was that he’s not a real Democrat and blah blah blah…yeah, whatever…like Lieberman should be talking…why is he even at the Democratic debate???  He’s GOP through and through…j/k.

Time to study for Russian…