Re: No Big Deal

Joe makes some great points, and it's a reminder to all of us that these moments don't always get the same reaction from the public that they do out of the assembled media. We feed on each other's reactions sometimes, and tend to make spot judgments that prove to be totally off the mark. I got an instructive reminder of that today, when I asked Katie Shea, the wonderful waitress who took my order at Sparks in Manchester, what she thought of the election.

Katie told me that she had intended to vote for Barack Obama, but changed her mind after watching Hillary Clinton's debate performance on Saturday night. That, of course, included Clinton's flash of anger, which had reporters in the filing center (including me, I've got to admit) gasping in shock. Some even went so far as to declare it to be the end of Clinton's campaign.

Turns out, Katie liked what she saw. Clinton gets her vote, Katie told me, because "she stands her ground."