ÿþ<html><head><title>Birddogging in New Hampshire - DontSubmit.org</title> <meta name="description" content="Birddogging means following candidates for the purpose of declaring a point of view, and hopefully moving candidates to that same opinion. What follows are my experiences birddogging on behalf of the self-employed."> <meta name="keywords" content="bird-dogging, bird dogging, birddog, bird-dog, bird dog, vote, voter, elect, election"></head> <body><style type="text/css"><!--#borderless{margin: -8px;}--></style> <center><p><img src="img/txt/banner.gif" alt="DontSubmit.org"></p></center> <h2><img src="img/txt/Birddogging04.gif" alt="Birddogging in New Hampshire, 2004"></h2> <font face="American Typewriter, Courier, Times New Roman" size=3> <p>by Mark Dunau</p></font> <font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial" size=2> <p> Birddogging is an expression used to describe the activities of an advocate who follows candidates for the purpose of declaring a point of view, and hopefully moving candidates to that same opinion. &#32;What follows are my experiences birddogging on behalf of the self-employed in the three weeks prior to the 2004 New Hampshire Presidential Primary. &#32;To view the cover page of that packet, <a href="birddog04coverpage.html">click here</a>.</p> <div id="borderless" style="height:100px;background:url(img/paper/birddog1.gif);background-repeat:no-repeat;"> <br><br><br> <p align=right> 1 <a href="birddog04p2.html" title="Clark, Lieberman, Edwards, Kucinich">2</a> <a href="birddog04p3.html" title="Gephardt, Dean, Edwards">3</a> <a href="birddog04p4.html">4</a> <a href="birddog04p5.html" title="Teresa Heinz Kerry, Edwards">5</a> <a href="birddog04p6.html" title="Clark">6</a> <a href="birddog04p7.html">7</a> <a href="birddog04p8.html" title="Edwards, Kucinich, Dean, Kerry">8</a> <a href="birddog04p9.html" title="Kerry">9</a> <a href="birddog04p10.html" title="Dean, Edwards">10</a> <a href="birddog04p11.html" title="Dean">11</a> <a href="birddog04p12.html" title="Edwards">12</a> <a href="birddog04p13.html" title="Kerry, Dean">13</a> <a href="birddog04p14.html" title="Kerry, Dean, Kucinich">14</a> <a href="birddog04p15.html">15</a> | <a href="birddog04.html"> <font size=1>ONE PAGE</font></a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> </div><br><br> <font face="American Typewriter, Courier, Times New Roman" size=3><p>January 6</p></font> <p>Kissed my wife, Lisa, and kids goodbye and set off from my farm in Hancock, New York, bound for Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. &#32;Quickly encountered what was to be a continuous series of snow squalls. &#32;The roads were lousy and the slow driving gave me plenty of time to ponder the purpose of my trip: &#32;to follow the Democratic Presidential candidates around New Hampshire for the three weeks prior to the primary, and at every opportunity speak and lobby on behalf of the self-employed. &#32;In hand, I had recent statistics from the Census Bureau demonstrating that the self-employed now outnumbered union members in the United States. &#32;My contention was that 16 million union members and 20 million self-employed equaled a populist movement. &#32;Why weren t the Democratic candidates addressing the needs of the self-employed&mdash;the highest taxed, most regulatory burdened, least protected Americans? &#32;To defeat George Bush, I knew the Democrats had to carry the vote of the self-employed. <p>After nine hours of driving, I arrived at midnight at my mother s dead, cold summer home. &#32;Turned on the oil furnace, but not the water, fearing it might freeze. &#32;Figured I d carry water in and relate to the house as a large heated tent. &#32;Covered myself in five blankets and quickly went to sleep.</p> </font><font face="American Typewriter, Courier, Times New Roman" size=3><p>January 7</font><br><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial" size=2><sub><b>KUCINICH</b></sub></p> <p>Bought supplies, and filled water jugs at the local diner. &#32;Called the Kucinich headquarters and discovered he would be attending a house party in Nashua at 7:30 p.m.</p> <p>Drove one and a half hours to Nashua and entered the beautiful Tudor home of Steve and Theresa, both teachers. &#32;There were about 30 young and middle aged people waiting for Kucinich. &#32;Some watched Kucinich s campaign video, others chatted and noshed on snacks provided by the hosts.</p> <p>Kucinich arrived about 8:00, and mingled with the crowd for about half an hour. &#32;I approached him and asked him why neither he nor any of the other Democratic candidates addressed the needs of the self-employed. &#32;He replied that that was a good question, particularly since he had once been self-employed himself. &#32;I told him that I believed the Democratic Presidential nominee couldn t win without carrying the vote of the self-employed, and handed him a packet of statistics I had gathered to demonstrate that the self-employed now outnumbered union members, and that together they would make a populist movement. &#32;I pointed out the three upcoming primaries; in New Hampshire there were 90,000 self-employed, 59,000 union members; in Iowa 260,000 self-employed, 181,000 union members, South Carolina 212,000 self-employed, 71,000 union members. &#32;Kucinich gave my packet to his assistant and said,  Make sure to keep this. </p> <p>Steve and Theresa gathered the crowd together so that Kucinich could share some of his thoughts. &#32;Kucinich said that his was a campaign offering hope, not fear. &#32;He looked at the world holistically, and that past, present and future interacted in such a way that injustices of the past could not simply be forgotten. &#32;The unjust war in Iraq would be reverberating throughout America for a long time. &#32;He was the only Democratic candidate who pledged to get the troops home now. &#32;His campaign was dedicated to healing the wounds of war, environmental degradation and numerous other Bush Administration outrages that he described.</p> <p>Kucinich then opened himself to about half an hour of questions. &#32;Many of the people in the room had jobs in high tech, and were concerned with applications that might be used in ways that were totalitarian. &#32;They were also concerned with the many high tech middle class jobs that had recently been lost in the area, outsourced to India. &#32;Kucinich replied that he had voted against the Patriot Act and reiterated his commitment to the right of privacy. &#32;He reaffirmed his promise that his first act as President would be to withdraw the United States from the NAFTA and GATT Trade Agreements.</p> <p>Kucinich spoke eloquently and from the heart. &#32;The host, Theresa, asked the last question, but it was really a tearful plea. &#32;She lived in fear and was terrified of the Bush Administration. &#32; Please Congressman Kucinich, while the Democratic candidates may disagree, please don t attack each other. &#32;This only made it more likely that Bush would be reelected. </p> <div id="borderless" style="height:100px;background:url(img/paper/birddog2.gif);background-repeat:no-repeat;"> <p><table cellpadding=22 width=100%><tr> <td align=left>&nbsp;</td> <td align=right><font face="American Typewriter, Courier, Times New Roman" size=3><a href="birddog04p2.html">NEXT: &#32;Clark, Lieberman, Edwards, and Kucinich</a></font></td> </tr></table></p> </font><font face="American Typewriter, Courier, Times New Roman" size=2> <center><p>D&nbsp;&nbsp;O&nbsp;&nbsp;N&nbsp;&nbsp;T&nbsp;&nbsp;S&nbsp;&nbsp;U&nbsp;&nbsp;B&nbsp;&nbsp;M&nbsp;&nbsp;I&nbsp;&nbsp;T&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;O&nbsp;&nbsp;R&nbsp;&nbsp;G</p><p><a href="index.html">HOME</a> | <a href="birddog.html">BIRDDOGGING</a> | <a href="stats.html">STATISTICS</a></p><p>&copy; 2008 Mark Dunau</p><p>Designed by Aaron Engelman</p></center></font> <br></div> </body></html>