Is this New Hampshire?

I think I am finally getting just a glimpse into what it would be like to live in New Hampshire or Iowa during the primary season in presidential election years.

Being in Oregon we rarely get much attention from presidential candidates in the primary. Our primary is coming up on May 20th (the only other ones left after us are Republican primaries in Idaho & New Mexico, a Democratic primary in Montana, and both parties primaries in South Dakota and Puerto Rico): the airwaves are congested in with political ads, the phone is ringing with pollsters on the other end of the line, and the candidates are actually visiting cities all across the state (and not just stopping in Portland).

Senator Obama was here in Eugene on Friday night speaking to a crowd of about 8000 at the University of Oregon. I just heard on the radio that he will be back to Oregon again this weekend. Senator McCain is here today. Senator Clinton was in Central Point on Thursday and in Portland at OHSU on Friday. President Clinton was in Pendleton last night and is traveling all over the state today promoting a "Bring Your Ballot" events (Oregon is the only state with a complete vote-by-mail system.). We are still hoping for the chance to see Senator Clinton here in town.

For our little family who is interested in the political process, government, public service, current events, history, etc, this is really quite exciting.

Before Senator Obama spoke on Friday night we had a chance to go behind the scenes with a small group and welcome him to Eugene.

Chris got his book signed.

Simon got to shake hands.

I got a blurred shot to go along with my collection of blurred favorites.

And Simon's favorite part of the night was acquiring this flag that he was able to wave like crazy (thanks Emily). He was super serious about his job as a flag waver and made sure that we were all cheering at the appropriate times.

It's a pretty amazing time in the history of our country.

On another note, I hope you all had a fantastic Mother's Day. We got to have lunch with my parents on the coast and dinner with Chris' here in town. We are pretty darn lucky: both our Mother's still love us and listen to us talk politics even though we are on opposite ends of the political spectrum (they definitely don't sit quietly though - lots of lively, interesting discussions).

Love you Mom!