Our nuns! – 5/8/08

Our South Bend Nuns keeping showing up in the press.  Today, they are in Gail Collin’s column:

You may have heard, by the way, that residents of Saint Mary’s Convent in South Bend, all in their 80s and 90s, showed up to vote Tuesday and were turned away because of Indiana’s strict new voter ID laws. The laws are supposed to keep people from voting under assumed names, and while nobody seems able to demonstrate that ever really happens, they are demonstrably good at protecting the public from a 98-year-old ballot-wielding nun.

Love it!

PA for HRC – 11:30 a.m.

Tom is charged up again after seeing the HRC sign in the window of a gas station we stopped at.  The gas station was family-owned and the two men working today told us how their entire family loves the Clintons and is rooting for Hillary to stay strong and win the nomination.  This heartwarming interaction emboldened Tom to get serious about the routes to West Virginia and Kentucky.  

- N. Wagner & R. Kaiser

Return – 5:00 a.m.

We fell asleep before Lake County results were finally reported…and it’s a good thing, so we could get on the road for the long trip back to Boston.   It was a bit depressing to wake up to the 2 point victory.  While we were relieved to see the victory held throughout the night, it’s also clear that Indiana won’t be the bounce that she needed.

- N. Wagner & R. Kaiser

The Speech – 11:15 p.m.

We fell asleep just after watching Hillary give her speech to the crowd in Indianapolis.  She’s calling it a victory, even though the networks are still holding out until the results from Gary, IN come in.  We feel good that it’s a definite “W”, but are not liking how close the race is in particular with the NC results being so wide.

Hillary is showing an amazing talent for weaving in Indy racing themes.

- R. Kaiser & N. Wagner

Irish – 9:30 p.m.

The only restaurant in the downtown area with a kitchen still open is an Irish pub around the corner from the hotel.  We grab a seat, order a round of Heineken’s, and look over the very-Irish menu.  They won’t change the TV’s from the Irish soccer game that’s playing, but our blackberry and i-phone are buzzing with any relevant updates: too close to call it a decisive victory for Indiana, but she’s still leading.

It feels very appropriate to end the day at an Irish pub after spending the day with the Fightin’ Irish at Notre Dame. 

- R. Kaiser & N. Wagner

Go Jill! – 9:00 p.m.

Natalie and I are looking to order some quick food and retire to our rooms for a night of watching the news networks and results trickle in.  On our way to the elevator, I notice a sign for Jill Long Thompson, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate that is supported by Barbara Lee. Her election night party is at our hotel in Fort Wayne.  I become quite excited to see another strong woman candidate in our midst and this party becomes our substitute for not making it to Indianapolis.  Kathryn Burton gives Jill’s staff a heads up to look out for two crazy Cantabrigians and we meet her staff.  Unfortunately, at this point in the night, her numbers are not looking great.  She’s trailing by about 6500 votes, but a few strong counties for her are still outstanding.  We say hello and then head out to find some food and a beer.

It was a great surprise to wake up to her victory!  Lake County’s results, while they tightened the race for Hillary, gave Jill the lead she needed to clinch the primary nomination.  Go Jill!

http://hoosiersforjill.com/

- R. Kaiser & N. Wagner

Return to Fort Wayne – 8:00 p.m.

We listened to the local radio stations for updates on the race on the ride back to Fort Wayne – no real news yet.  Hillary looks up in IN, but too close to know anything.  We’ve decided not to go to Indianapolis for the election night party.   After a day of over five hours on the road, and a long trip tomorrow, we decided to call it a night. 

North Carolina has been called painfully early for Obama….just waiting to see how large the loss.

- R. Kaiser & N. Wagner

Real estate porn – 7:00 p.m.

Filling up on the way out of South Bend, I picked up the local paper – The South Bend Register.  I thought it would be fun on the way back to Ft. Wayne for Rebecca and I for the next two hours to indulge in a grown-up version of the what if game: “what if we lived in south bend, what kind of house could we afford?”  This would be especially fun to compare real estate in the college town we live in, Cambridge, to South Bend.  After ogling the classifieds for awhile, it became obvious that our living conditions would vastly improve if we left the east coast.  But then we asked ourselves, what would we do after we filled up all those closets and bedrooms?  Is all that living space worth it, when as soon as you leave it, you don’t feel at home?

I don’t have any answers; I just wish the options weren’t so stark.

- N. Wagner

Polls close – 6:00 p.m.

The polls closed at 6:00 p.m., but some locations across the state were reporting lines and needed to stay open.  All of the sights in South Bend, however, were slow and lineless.  The “chutes” (the 50 feet leading up the entrance of the poll site) were clear.

We made a final sweep through the city to the “hot spots,” and all was calm.  We hit the road.

All in all, the towns we’ve been in have been  surprisingly unengaged in the primary.  Turn out is supposedly high, but it doesn’t feel like it.  South Bend was clearly an Obama stronghold, with few Hillary signs.  But even on the two hour drive back to Ft. Wayne on back highways and through many small towns, there were no Clinton or Obama signs.

- R. Kaiser & N. Wagner

Notes from South Bend

We met some really great Hoosiers.  The poll sheriff, John, at the Notre Dame location was a particular character.  Once he found out that Natalie and I were from Nebraska, he of course, turned the conversation to college football.  It was only appropriate, I suppose, as the polling site was in the parking lot of the football stadium.  He said that he had never been a fan of Nebraska football until last fall’s rivalry game in South Bend.

He reluctantly allowed some traveling Nebraskans to park in his driveway for the game, “as long as they kept things neat and didn’t mess up the lawn.”  When the game was over, the visitors’ served up some tailgate BBQ to his whole family and gave him $75 for each car they were able to park. 

 John has a soft spot for Huskers now.

- N. Wagner & R. Kaiser