Reply #44: It's not very glamorous, IMHO. [View All]

[TayTay]

The beginning of the race is a grind. You appear in front of 50 people (if you're lucky) at a house party and talk. You try and raise cash. You have to stay at cheap hotels because everything has to come out of the campaign treasury and it's more important to have gas for the cars and literature to hand out than it is to have a fancy hotel room.

It's giving the same speech over and over and over again and trying to make each time sound fresh and exciting. It's meeting local people with varying degrees of ego who feel you need them more than they need you. (This happens in Iowa and NH all the time.) It's showing up and marching in the Founder's Day parade when it's 95 degrees out and your feet hurt and you're tired and you have two more appearances to go before the day ends. It's worrying about money all the time. It's worrying about the press not showing up to cover you. It's worrying about the press showing up and reaming you for some little thing. It's worrying about the ego clashes among staff. It's all those things. It's a damn grind.

I have seen the New Hampshire primary up close for many years. This is a damn marathon. I sometimes find it hard to believe that this is how we pick the leader of the free world, by Pancake Breakfasts at the VFW and chile cookouts at the Knights of Columbus hall and so forth. It's a friggin workout. There is very little glamorous about it. It's damned hard work and it demands an absolute commitment to the process. Those who survive it have my admiration.