Tuesday, January 8, 2008

He was playing H-O-R-S-E

NASHAU, N.H. -- No sooner than we were off the bus and out of the cold, we were ushered into an empty gymnasium at Nashua North High School, home of the Titans, where we had to line up our bags, cameras and recording equipment against a wall. As the other journalists and I from the Obama campaign’s two traveling press buses watched, a bomb sniffing dog gave our possessions the twice over.

To no one’s surprise, no explosives were found.

In the meantime, while we were once again (yes, all our possessions got the doggy sniff-over yesterday before a big rally) on the suspect-end of a terrorist check, 2,500 or so politically-active residents of the Granite State marched into the gymnasium unchecked and apparently without suspicion.

For the most part, the crowd was mad about Obama. When our two buses pulled up to the high school, the good citizens of New Hampshire were already waiting in two long lines with two-feet of continuous mounds of shoveled snow on each side.

Fortunately, the temperature had risen from the single digit the day before to the low 20s. They didn’t seem to notice the cold.

Inside the gymnasium, the crowd sat on risers just as they would to watch the Titans play a little basketball.

It was standing room only with hundreds of others waiting outside to get in. The empty gym, the one where the doggie detectors had checked our bags, was called into duty to shelter the overflow.

Many held the Obama campaign’s “CHANGE” placards, ready to flash them on cue or whenever the spirit hit.

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