I'm not clued into American Politics. Before I arrived in the States, I was only familiar with a few names, the popular few like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani and perhaps Mitt Romney. In the last two weeks, I got acquainted with another Republican candidate, Mike Huckabee, who was former governor of Arkansas. I covered him in the equivalent of a ministerial walkabout back home, beginning with a 5K run in Durham, New Hampshire, then on to Exeter (my fav haunt) for a "meet-and-greet" session, and then to a house party at Bedford.
A little background about the New Hampshire Primary. All the politicians flock to New Hampshire because it is the first state (but this is being 'threatened' by Iowa now, as it's become like a competition to vie to be the 'first in the nation') to kick off the US Presidential Election process, thus the word 'Primary'. The people in New Hampshire (or Iowa) will be the first to go to the polls to elect either a Democrat, Republican or Independent presidential nominee. The primaries are seen as a 'testing ground' for the candidates, and some will drop out after this. The strange thing about this Primary is that even if let's say Hillary Clinton wins it, meaning people elect her to be the presidential nominee, the democratic party still has the right and authority to decide if they want her to be their final presidential candidate. So I'm wondering, if that's the case, then why make hundreds of thousands of people go vote in the Primary in the first place?!
Mike Huckabee seems to be a rather nice and humble man. He's very articulate, but then again, most politicians are. But what struck me was that he would make jokes about himself, and kept thanking people for sacrificing their Saturday to hear him speak. But some of his policies are unsettling, like his push for America being self sufficient in food and energy production, that he doesn't want to rely on the Saudis for oil, look where it's going, the prices are skyrocketing, etc. If you ask me, that's promoting protectionism, and that's not good news for the rest of the world. 'Go global' is definitely Singapore's strategy.
Ah well...here are the pix
Speaking to 6-year-old Nick Hughes, at a house party hosted by Bob and Estella Hughes for the presidential hopeful in Bedford, NH.
Which politician in his/her right mind would eat a banana in front of the media who's snapping/filming away every time he took a bite? That can't be good for his image!
The poor man in the chair was expressionless all the 10 minutes Huckabee spent in the barbershop in Exeter. The young couple was interesting. The guy is a Huckabee supporter, but his girlfriend was just tagging along to see if she'd be convinced to support him as well.
This was a little bit of a problem pix cos I had a hard time correcting the colour!
I also covered Hillary Clinton when she went back to her alma mater Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA about two weeks back. I filed some pix for the paper and they actually ended up using one of them!
She was unceremoniously late an hour, but I suppose that's to be expected. They plant groups of students on stage for visual effect! It does make pictures more interesting.
From this angle, I could really see how the skin sags in one's later stage of life.
It would've been faster for my friends to walk to the outlet, but it was way too cold to walk outside, so we just chatted in the car to pass the time.
I actually saw the sunrise when dawn broke in the morning. The sky was purple and orange, and the sunlight was beautiful. It was BRRRRRRRRR very cold!
Seagulls attacking some food left on the road. The flock against the morning sky and cold winds was pretty surreal. 
