The Political Circus Comes to Town

by Randolph T. Holhut

Those visits have not had as much to do with getting to know the voters of New Hampshire as with fundraising. The candidates spend most of their time in the cities of the Southern Tier -- Manchester, Concord, Portsmouth and Nashua. That's the richest, most economically prosperous part of New Hampshire, and that's where donors are found.

The city where I work, Claremont, can't make that claim. It's a moribund old mill town that's still struggling to find something to replace the manufacturing economy that once made it prosperous.

But for a few days in October, the circus finally came to my neighborhood. Here's a few vignettes from our little slice of the campaign trail, where what wasn't said was more telling than what was said.

After flipping bacon and hash browns and chatting up the kitchen help, Bush proceeds to the Newport Fire Station, where 200 people are jammed into the engine bay to hear him deliver his stock anti-crime, pro-capitalism, pro-military and pro-personal responsibility speech.

Considering this is a guy who drank and partied his way through his 20's and 30's, got a free ride into the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War and was a failure in business -- except when he got sweetheart deals from friends or through the public sector -- no one took notice of the inconsistency of message and messenger. Bush walked, talked and comported himself as the man who will be president.

And a man who will be president doesn't have to trifle with little things like debates.

That night, Gary Bauer, Steve Forbes, Alan Keyes, Orrin Hatch and John McCain had their first debate of the campaign season New Hampshire Public Television. Bush blew it off, instead attending a fund-raiser for the Vermont Republican Party.

While Forbes has sold his soul to the Christian Coalition and has become more strident on social issues, the multimillionaire publisher still is most comfortable talking about his pet issues -- the "flat" tax and privatizing Social Security and Medicare.

He gives his familiar applause line when talking about the federal tax code: "We need to take this monster, once and for all, and the stake through the tax and bury it, so it never arises to terrorize the American people again."

Unspoken to this crowd is that a 17 percent flat tax would save the wealthy many, many dollars.

Bradley brought along a guest, the sainted Doris "Granny D" Haddock, who took a sidetrip from her cross-country walk for campaign finance reform to do a photo-op walk with the former New Jersey senator.

The national media was out in force; the first Democratic candidate forum was scheduled the following night at Dartmouth College in nearby Hanover.

The walk through downtown Claremont with the 89-year-old Haddock made for good television, with Granny walking as Bradley spoke of how "money distorts the democratic process in a fundamental way."

That of course, hasn't stopped Bradley from raising millions of dollars this year -- mostly from Wall Street and Hollywood big wigs. He predictably ducked the press after his speech on campaign finance reform, since he didn't want to be reminded of the inconsistency of it all.

Uncle Sam represents a group called Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities. They are a group of ex-military officers and CEOs from several corporations who advocate taking 15 percent of the Pentagon's budget (about $40 billion) and applying it to education and health care.

While Al Gore and Bill Bradley struggled to come up with ways to pay for the estimated $1 trillion cost of a national health care plan during their forum in Hanover the night before, neither candidate talked about an obvious source of money to fund it -- the extraordinary overkill of the U.S. military budget.

About 50 percent of the discretionary spending in the federal budget goes to the Pentagon, while only six percent is spent on education and four percent on health care.

As the only candidate that has a chance to topple Bush, McCain has been pressing hard on his issue -- campaign finance reform. McCain has taken a great deal of abuse from his party on this subject.

"The idea that money is free speech is really bizarre," he said. "[Special interests] buy in with six- and seven-figure donations and shut you out."

While -- like every other politician -- McCain is far from simon pure, he has attracted a following because he actually makes statements on the issues and takes stands.

He's doing well enough that a few days after his stop here, the press starts grinding out stories about McCain's alleged bad temper and how some feel he's not suited to be president. You only get stories like that when the party establishment is afraid of you.

The GOP high command is very afraid of John McCain.

The spinners from all the candidates are working overtime. Each day, our fax machine spits out releases from all the campaign headquarters -- all of which get pitched in the trash. We get calls asking for coverage, but only McCain so far has consented to talk with my paper's editorial board.

The rest have ducked us. And the local television stations are filled with political commercials. With the primary less than three months away, the circus will only get more intense and more unreal.