NEW HAMPSHIRE WEEKLY / POLITICAL DIARY / LAURA A. KIERNAN
By Laura A. Kiernan, June 20, 1999
So, George W. Bush wowed a lot of voters in New Hampshire last week and his favorability rating, as one aide from an opposing camp put it, is "higher than Mother Teresa." And true, the onset of Bushmania made it a lonely week for the rest of the Republican presidential field. But there's a long way to go before the February 2000 primary. And it was only Day 1 for Bush on the campaign trail.
"He's a very brittle front-runner because any mistake he makes will be blown out of proportion," a Democratic activist, Joe Keefe, said at an event for Vice President Al Gore, along with his wife, Tipper, last week at Hesser College in Manchester. "Nobody with the type of lead and expectations George Bush has now has ever done well in New Hampshire," he said.
The Hesser College appearance had all the looks of another staged Gore town meeting -- except when a couple of protesters a few feet behind Gore and his wife suddenly jumped from their seats, whipped out a banner and started shouting about more AIDS drugs for Africa.
Gore, who has just made his run for president official, kept smiling and talking. Tipper Gore, a onetime professional photographer who has chronicled her husband's campaigns, coolly picked up the camera she brought along, turned to the hecklers, and appeared to snap a picture.
Monier was thinking about how George W.'s father rode into New Hampshire in 1980 on the "Big Mo" -- momentum, that is -- after beating Ronald Reagan in the Iowa caucuses. Then, just a few weeks later, Bush proceeded to lose the primary here to Reagan by 27 points.
Campaign veterans like Monier remember those moments. And they wonder: Could happen all over again, to another Bush?
"Can you replicate it?" said Monier. "Who knows?"
She recalled how Reagan called in her late husband, former Senate President Bob Monier, and former state party chairman Gerry Carmen to help him meet voters one on one, New Hampshire style.
And then there was the dreaded frontrunner's mistake. At a now-famous debate debacle in Nashua, Bush stubbornly refused Reagan's request that all the GOP candidates participate, not just the two of them. And then Reagan came up with the now-legendary line: "I'm paying for this microphone. . ."
Reagan poured champagne that night, Monier recalled; she still has the glass from the hotel. And he knew he had won. The image of Reagan in command was set in stone, and Bush's campaign took a fatal blow.
Can that happen now? "It's a long shot," Monier said as she watched a very good political day unfold for George W. And it's true that Bush's fund-raising draw -- he's got $15 million already -- is suffocating the competition.
But after all, the primary is still eight months away -- a very long time in politics. "Would I be right to give up? Right now?" Monier asked. "Is that fair?"
"Hi. Did you go to Andover?" he asked. She turned around and she realized it was George W. Bush, headed out to the campaign trail. He went to Andover; it turns out she had just swiped the shirt from a friend.
Bush asked what she was doing, and she said she was looking for an apartment and working -- oops -- for Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley. Bush said something like "OK and good luck" and that was it.
"It was really strange for me. It was like one of those surreal moments," said Delphin, who goes to Yale. Oh yes, Bush went there too.
The Bush caravan literally stopped traffic on Logging Hill Road in Bow so the candidate, his wife and their aides could get off their bus, tailed by frantic photographers and reporters, then cross the road and pose for pictures and chit-chat with Erin Murray, 8, her sister Sheila, 5, mom Ann-Marie and buddy Laura Bello, 6.
"It was overwhelming," said Ann-Marie Murray, who thought at most that Bush would wave as he went by. Steve Scully and his C-Span crew were there to record the entire event for their "Road to the White House" series, which will run tonight at 7 and 10."
The Murrays, by the way, are the wife and daughters of Martin Murray, spokesman for Public Service Co. of New Hampshire.
Wendelboe, a very early Dole supporter who was not happy with where the campaign was going, will be chairman of Gun Owners for Quayle, and she will be the campaign's North Country coordinator.
Davidson says that the recall experience was "grueling," and that during that time "every person who doesn't like Don Davidson came out to vote." He then points out that the recall failed, and that he's still here.
"I think we have done a lot of good things," Davidson said in a brief interview last week. He said key campaign issues will be the need for more high school space and the completion of the Broad Street Parkway, which would take drivers from Exit 6 off the Everett Turnpike into the center of the city.
Former executive councilor Louis Georgopoulas has signed on with the Elizabeth Dole campaign along with Matt Mayberry of Dover, who had been a staffer for Lamar Alexander in 1996, and former Alexander volunteer John Frodyma of Stratham.
Bonnie Newman, chief of White House operations in the Bush administration, was also spotted in the Newcastle crowd last week, at George W.'s debut . . . New Hampshire Safety Commissioner Dick Flynn is officially on board with Bush . . . Executive Councilor Ruth Griffin was mighty proud of the Texas A & M Aggies cowboy boots that she was strutting around in during George W.'s visit to Newcastle . . . What's next, 10-gallon hats?
Got a tip or a comment from the campaign trail, state government or town hall? The Political Diary wants to hear from you at: Political Diary, The Boston Globe/New Hampshire Weekly, 1650 Elm St., Manchester, N.H. 03301, or by e-mail at Kiernan(at sign)globe.com. Please include home and work telephone numbers.
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