Save the Robot – Chris Dahlen

I switch on the radio and catch the news: Bhutto’s been assassinated. Pakistan, possibly the most dangerous nation on Earth right now, is in chaos, and the current President has been eating the line they’ve fed him since September 12, 2001, when he decided to look the other way so long as they promised to dick around in the mountains and pretend to be on our side. But no, no time to bash him – he’s old news. I’m the one who can set a better course. I’m the one with the responsibility to fix this mess.

Who am I? A New Hampshire primary voter.

Just under two weeks from now, we vote for a Republican or Democratic candidate to lead his or her party, hopefully to victory. I thought that this time, this year, we would be a state under siege. Put both sides together and you should have nearly twenty political hacks stomping the ground here. I mean, 2003 was intense enough with just a handful of Democrats that nobody liked. You couldn’t cross the street without running into one of them – whether it was Dick Gephardt speaking at a church down the street, or John Kerry, standing formidably in his overcoat on a cold December night, shaking hands with everyone who came out of the grocery store. On one occasion I saw five candidates in one day – driving up and down icy I-93, from John and Elizabeth Edwards at the Tilton Diner to Howard Dean packing ‘em in at a union hall in Concord, to Kerry ice-skating with his supporters, who still believed.

This year? It’s all about Iowa. And yes, I’m ticked. I’m a politics junkie. I read ABCNews.com’s The Note every day at lunch, just to relax. The highs, the lows, the frontrunners, the whackos – it’s all endlessly fascinating. But I don’t feel as much a part of it this time around. Last year, I also had front-row access: I covered several campaign appearances for the local alt-weekly, The Wire. My coverage was more like concert reviews: Wes Clark speaks at Exeter, here are the laugh lines. I did a repeat this winter with Bill Richardson’s appearance at the River Run bookstore. He was a total doof – plenty to work with.

At the same time, no matter how closely I follow the race, I have to admit that I’m making up my own mind almost on the fly – and almost entirely on the same stupid things anyone would use: character. Some inkling of positions on the few issues I really pay attention to. Occasionally, fear of what’ll happen if we get to inauguration day, 2009, and someone sets off a nuke. Obama has the vision, but McCain – well, gravity’s a good thing. I can’t think of many issues on which we agree, but I still believe if he’d won in 2000 and been in office on 9/11? He’d be on Mt. Rushmore by now.

Last time, I voted in the Democratic Primary. And I voted for Dean. This was after the infamous Dean scream and his momentum-killing loss in Iowa. I know he’s liberal, and I know he couldn’t have survived in the general. But I liked him. I heard him speak several times, and I got to hear the way his mind works and the way he tackles a problem. He was direct, thoughtful, and on his record, more moderate than the press made him out to be. I don’t mean to sound like a Ron Paul supporter, but he came off as loonier on-screen than he did in person. And I never would have known it if I weren’t in New Hampshire, attending his campaign appearances.

This year was different from the get-go – I caught Obama’s first New Hampshire appearance, last December, and his first time out of the gate he was a rock star. Last time around, I got to meet John Edward in somebody’s living room; Obama drew 1,500 people and you had to wait in line for an hour just to get an autograph (he was ostensibly on a book tour). I’ve seen Richardson, Obama, Edwards again, and Dodd. I want to catch McCain before it’s over. I never got to see Hillary, even though she and Bill held court right here in Market Square.

I won’t waste copy defending New Hampshire’s special status, because it should go without saying that any time these chuckleheads have to work diners and living rooms, and come face-to-face with real live human beings who can ask any questions they want, it’s a good thing. New Hampshire stepped up first; we get the first primary. I like to think that we’ll knock Romney out of the race, on the basis of being a total phony and lacking in any character. I’m hoping for a McCain comeback – I may vote in the GOP primary to help make that happen. Or maybe I’ll vote Dem. But believe me, as indecisive as I sound now, I take this seriously. The fate of the world is in my hands.