On NPR’s evening newscast All Things Considered on Tuesday night, anchor Melissa Block talked to primary voters in Milford, New Hampshire, and the liberal ones were very expressive. One touted Hillary as "Mother Earth...a mother to take care of the country," and another broke down into tears at the similarities in the hopes inspired by Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy. She began with Steven Shaheen, making no effort to confirm or deny whether he was related to former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen:
STEVEN SHAHEEN: I just feel the country needs a woman to run this country. I think it needs like a Mother Earth. It needs a mother to take care of the country.
BLOCK, struck by the analogy: Mother Earth.
SHAHEEN: That’s how I feel, I mean, personally. She struck me as the person with more experience, she seems, you know, with a lot of intelligence, a lot of education, and it's a gut feeling inside — can't really put words to that.
Block talked to a Romney voter, and a man who chose McCain over Giuliani as he stood in the voting booth. But they were straightforward and unemotional. Block ended with state Rep. Gil Shattuck, who far outdid Hillary Clinton by breaking down into tears as he proudly displayed his Obama button. Obama "represents the hope of real change in Washington that many of us have not felt [starts crying]...since Kennedy."
Let's hope Block was carrying Kleenex. Block told her fellow anchors in Washington it was "such a surprising moment for me," with the old pol "getting so emotional there remembering his hopes with the election of JFK, and remembering the tragedy that followed."
