So, Dear Readers, swim on over to the public hearing on the fate of the pool Monday Feb. 11, at 6:45 pm at the City Council Chambers.

--Gilbert

The airplane from Manchester, NH to Baltimore was full of weary but buzzed campaign workers and journalists. The Giuliani supporter next to me discovered he knew the husband of the Clinton supporter in the next row. The Obama campaign worker on my other side joined in the conversation. Everyone in the plane was returning from the Big Game and was dying to talk about it with other veterans of the contest, no matter which team they had been on.

The Guiliani worker said he spotted the trend toward Hillary, especially among woman, late Monday as he was making phone calls to voters. The other campaign workers, even her own, said Clinton's win took them by surprise.

The media is making much of Clinton welling up with tears during a Q&A session in Portsmouth, NH. It was captured on camera and apparently played over and over on cable news. I don't know, I didn't see it. I've heard interviews on the radio of people who said it tipped them towards Hillary, but it was hardly mentioned by my relatives or the local Democrats who met to watch returns on election night. My aunt was told about it by an Obama volunteer who came to the door, and she was incensed that such a trivial thing was being played up.

The media is too obsessed with itself. The New Hampshire residents I met were making their decisions not on news clips but on their own in-person observations of the candidates. That's the whole point of the New Hampshire "retail-politics" primary. In the space of a few days one can (as I did) personally see each candidate and hear his or her stump-speech. Granite Staters are very dutiful about this. They observe, talk it over with each other, and carefully come to decisions.

Most appalling is the theory that secret voter racism is behind the erroneous opinion poll numbers showing Obama ahead just before the election. This is what the pollsters themselves are saying, blaming the voters instead of their mistakes. I could plainly see that in the two days prior to the election, many people were undecided and were "comparison-shopping" for a candidate at speeches and rallies. I believe my cousin and aunt were typical - deciding at the last moment to vote for Hillary because she's a woman, and because they were swayed by Hillary's point in the Jan. 5th candidates' debate that experience counts and she's got it. These decisions came too late to show up in polls.

The conspiracy theoreticians have pounced on the "welling-up" moment, I notice. They think it was staged. They've also questioned whether the "Iron My Shirt" heckling at Hillary's Salem speech was staged.

I heard a radio interview of the woman who asked the question that brought tears to Hillary’s eyes. It made a conspiracy seem implausible. The questioner said she is an Obama supporter and said she was not coached or set up in any way.

Some right-wing bloggers immediately assumed the "Iron My Shirt" incident was a setup, but they looked into it and discovered the “protesters” were from a Boston radio show, doing a dumb stunt. Whether they were hired or encouraged by the Clinton campaign is unclear, but even the right wingers are skeptical that is the case.

Everyone including the out-of-staters I talked to agreed the NH Primary is a good system for the country, though all expressed qualms that money has become too big a factor, the campaigns are starting much too early, and the election date should be set back to Feb. or even the original March. Reform is needed, they all said. Some said New Hampshire is not the best starting point because it is not representative of the country, but that it is good to have the first primary in a small state where the people can judge the candidates up close and personal and (in theory) a candidate with little money can run.

In case you didn't know, Maryland's primary is Feb. 12., same day as Virginia and Washington, DC primaries. Sorry, but I don't think you'll get as close to the candidates as this:

"Granny D" takes her seat at the Edward's rally, Keene, NH, Jan. 6.

John Edwards' "press avail."

Edwards speaking

The line to get into the Obama speech at Keene High School, Jan. 6.

Barak Obama's speech as viewed from the "overflow" room.

Obama visits the overflow room after his speech.

View from my aunt and uncle's house.

McCain rally, Keene town square, Jan. 7.

McCain supporter.

The media deals with the snow.

McCain and supporters.

McCain speaking, flanked by wife and daughters.

Now, that's media attention!

Now, that's scenery!

Now, that's my friend Judith standing in front of Edwards headquarters, Claremont, NH.

The overflow room at Salem High School during Hillary Clinton's speech. I count 30 women and 5 men in the middle- and fore-ground.

Hillary Clinton taking questions in the overflow room after her speech.

Hillary, on her way to victory, waving goodbye in the corridor.

The day after the primary, the turkeys leave. View from my aunt and uncle's house.

O.F.C.
turning the blog back over to Gilbert

So, now Hillary will come under the media scrutiny that front-runners earn. While in the midst of Clinton supporters here in NH, I can almost forget my own qualms about a Clinton candidacy: her electability once the Hillary haters crank up their talk-show machine, the Bill Clinton baggage, her opponents criticism about her PAC funding, the ridiculousness of having Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton presidencies back to back, and her discounting the "which candidate would you like to have a beer with" factor.

I'm not reassured by her "On day one, we will get a plan" solution to the Iraq War, either.

Her victory speech was not reassuring. It was back to the old Hillary - wooden delivery, and reading from notes - unlike both Obama and Edwards who conceeded extemporaneously. Whoever stands up to (presumably) McCaine needs to offer a sharper contrast in speaking style, and needs to be more glib.

Now, I better get out of the state before my Hillary supporting aunt (whose interview on NPR was all over Morning Edition this morning) reads it.

Yesterday I talked to an old high school classmate Margaret who lives in a village near our hometown. She backed Clinton on much of the same feminist grounds my aunt and cousin cite (my uncle, who was for Hillary long before they were clears his throat here). All the other candidates except Obama made it through her village, she reports. Obama kept to the larger towns.

Margaret dabbles in numerology, she tells me, and offers the following numerological analysis of Clinton and Obama. See below.

Heading back to Maryland, now! It's a gray, rainy day in New Hampshire, the beautiful snow is melting away and the ground is thawing and turning to mud.

O.F.C.

Margaret says to tell you she learned numerology n part from the book Numerology and the Divne Triangle by Faith Javene and Dusty Bunker.

Hillary Diane Rodham

soul # = 9 1 7 9 1 5 6 1 39/3
0uter # = 8 3 3 9 4 5 9 4 8 4 57/3

96/6
57/3
10 26 1947

Hillary's Numerology

Soul # (the part of you that only those closest to you know very well) = 39/3 Threes are cheery, inspired, spirited, and can contribute to alieviating another's gloom. They have the ability to mix and mingle in small groups quite easily *perhaps that's where the likability factor factors in -* the Hillary We Know was a successful campaigner.

Outer Personality # (the persona that others immediately pick up on that may or may not be anything akin to the inner life/soul) = 57/3 So again, If you know the Hillary that everyone else knows, what you see is what you get as her soul number and outer number are the same. She's taking on a lot of negativity which can seriously depress any normally cheery person.

Path of Destiny # (how one feels most comfortable moving and shaking in the world.) = 96/6 Sixes are very concerned with family, harmony, community, beauty, and things on a larger scale. Though they do not have the breadth of vision that nines do, however, they are very capable of drawing in their own into a comfortable/happy/balanced place. Six is motivated to do work, yet, it has to have a mission to it. Drudge work is not for this one!

Life Lesson # (what you are here to learn in life.)= 57/3 I think I see a theme here - life is to teach. Her lesson is so much the same as her soul #, so perhaps, life is to teach her to trust her deepest instincts!! I just listened to her victory speech. In it, she said she spent time here and found her own voice...that's big! She'll be reaching a lot of folks with her message...it's comforting!

The other interesting thing I pick up from her numerology is her karma numbers. Karma numbers are the ones that are missing from the letters of the birth names. Hillary's missing numbers are 2 & 3. Now, as you can see, she's got a whole lot of help with the three vibration in three out of the four major numbers in her profile. The two vibration is completely missing from her birth name, however, as a ClinTon...the letter T contributes to that missing vibration *and the C adds to the three vibration, also*

Missing number two vibration has a lot to do with Lack of Tact...that's why at times she may sound shrill or abrupt. Two is the sweetheart vibration...it's the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down vibration. That may be the other part of the likability factor deficit. I think she's making progress in that department on a daily basis.

Barack Hussein Obama
born August 4th in 1961.

Soul # = the part of you that only those closest to you know very well. His number is 27/9 that relates to his humanitarian endeavors. Nines are the big brother/big sister types. They savour the larger stories of life in the richness of diversity. They see the big picture, travel in large circles, though, less intimate arenas of life. Nines are more traditional in tastes/values. They like the tried and true seeking truth in all elements of their experience. I would love that this position be in his path of destiny #. It must give him a great deal of frustration to feel all these issues with no avenue for change.

Outer personality # = the persona that others immediately pick up on that may or may not be anything akin to the inner life/soul # one possesses. His number is 46/1 Ones are the I AMs of the world. They appear to be largely in control of any situation in a leadership role. They are quick to put themselves first and foremost in any situation with needs. Ones are very intrigued with new, novel, unique experiences or directions in trends. Ones are far more solitary in nature.

Path of Destiny # = the self integrated is the best life directing force. In other words how one feels most comfortable moving and shaking in the world. His number, again, boils down to 73/1. Like I said, I rather his path number be a nine... Ones - leaders, quick to move, to go with the new, novel.

Life Lesson # = what you are here to learn in life. His number is 29/11. Eleven is a master number...I call it the Luke Skywalker of the master numbers. Yoda would be the supreme master number at 44. I digress. So Obama is here to learn that life is as it is, yet has the ability to see a shinier version of how it could be with more things in tune with the 'divine'...
Elevens have a hard time holding their positions because of the great pulls they feel from the real world and their spiritual aspirations.

Even as I predicted an Obama win, and a Clinton third-place showing, I was sitting in the middle of the surprise trend - women like my aunt and cousin who decided at last to vote for a woman. And I failed to see it. The clues were there - my own family, the fact that the crowd at the Hillary speech was mostly women, the moms who had brought their daughters to see her, the daughters who had brought their mothers.

So, farewell to the Obama buzz, welcome to the new buzz - the women's vote.

O.F.C.

Ahem, actually I'm also a retired pastor, she said. And that's why I voted for Hillary, women never get credit.

"Oh," said Linda, "like I just did."

44% of the vote in and Clinton leads! Shouts of glee and astonishment at the village inn. A teenager with an Obama pin leaves the tv room, bitterly spouting something about the media and Hillary. He sits in a dark corner, head in hands.

Some of the party faithful have had a few. But, my aunt forgives them because they were Clinton supporters.

O.F.C.