Odd Night Of Political Looky-Looing →[More:]
In keeping with the media frenzy of pre-Primary Day here in NH, tonight I went out to see Hillary Clinton at a meet-n'-greet at a local cafe.

She was supposed to be there at 4:30 and didn't arrive until nearly 7pm or later. At one point, the owner of the cafe got on the overhead and cheekily announced that only paying customers could stay in the room to wait for her, but the rest had to evacuate and wait outside due to the fire code. No one left.

Meanwhile, outside - Lyndon LaRouche supporters did a freakshow meet-and-greet of their own. They passed out the usual glossy psychodramatic literature and left me wondering how in the world that man continues to get any supporters. It worries me that some people have levers in their heads that only this man can push into Go mode. Also, the Ron Paul contingent decided to gate-crash with enormous Ron Paul signs that they used to block the window view from inside the cafe.

Meanwhile, inside - a small clutch of Kucinich supporters sat huddled together at one of the tables, and for some reason his tour bus kept circling the block and each time they'd all cheer as it drove past. Is this the Kucinich Method of Getting Out The Vote?

So, the room fills to elbow-your-neighbor capacity, and finally The Hillary arrives.
I am immediately swarmed from the back by glossy-eyed soccer moms and overzealous cameramen. One of whom launched his elbow into the side of my head to get that "perfect shot".

Hillary does her swift semi-circle of handshakes and within 30 minutes is back outside, being pushed into her bus by NFL-size security personnel.

All in all, a draining evening. All this stuffy sturm-und-drang just for a few minutes to look at Hillary and shake her hand.

I don't know what purpose this kind of thing serves, when the candidate you came to see doesn't address everyone, stays in the building for under a half-hour, uses a gigantic tour bus to do so, and draws media hounds who use other bodies in the room as walking tripods to capture the event.