Political Engagement

Today must have been Democrat Day here. John Edwards was doing a signing at a bookstore off the square so I dropped by, but his speech and the Q&A were cancelled by the bookseller at the last minute. They wanted him to focus on revenue-driving signings. Later the HLS Democrats had a dinner with former New Hampshire governor Jane Shaheen and Congressman-elect John Hall from New York. There was free chicken parm! Shaheen is a big DLC moderate who chaired Kerry's presidential campaign and John Hall is a musician with views left of Lennon's (look, a pun!), so I was mildly disappointed that they didn't so much as bicker. I wanted to ask Hall if he thought is would be desirable or even possible to try to reach deals with the president, as opposed to just passing popular things to make him look like an ass for vetoing them. Sadly, I didn't get picked in the brief Q&A. Instead we got to hear both of them hedge about Hillary's presidential prospects.

I sat around afterwards with the law school's hardcore campaign junkies as they handicapped '08. Most interesting prediction: Obama will officially declare in two weeks, raise a ton of money over the Internet, and replace Clinton as the presumptive front-runner. Plus, Clinton isn't actually going to run anyway. "I mean, we all know she can't win, right? And they're probably as smart as we are. Maybe even smarter." Then we had an extensive discussion about exactly how one would have that focus grouped without letting on that it was the Hillary campaign doing the asking.

When I got home I saw my shirt had arrived from JohnEdwardsIsGood.com. Better late than never.


I figured I'd share since photos of my in navy tees with yellow writing drive the internets wild.