A Good Call - Excerpt

Another good call was one with which I would have thought I’d have difficulty. The issue of torture is one that I didn’t think I’d be able to debate well because it just drives me crazy. For me, this is the issue on which I believe the base of the Republican Party is most off-track, both morally and politically. Seeing people’s reaction to this issue through both town halls and phone calls, I’m confident in saying that I am not alone in thinking that torture is simply wrong. Also, I’m not convinced that a majority of Republican voters that think torture is okay, as is often conveyed. One woman said to me that she liked and respected Senator McCain, but was voting Democrat this year because she thought President Bush and the Republicans had become sadistic.

A fellow I talked to gave me something of a perspective on where some people are coming from on this issue. He was so angered by 9/11 he basically felt the people who perpetrated that act should have no rights. Since the victims of 9/11 were given no chance to fight back, why should we have any regard for the lives of those who murdered them? I stated Senator McCain’s positions, and we went back and forth for some time on the issue of torture. He said, “I’m sorry I must be making your blood boil.”

I replied, “Oh no, that’s why we call.” He said that the rights granted by the Geneva Convention did not apply to these people. I said that Senator McCain agreed with that, but that he thought the definition of torture laid out in the Geneva Convention still held, and that he opposed torture as a human rights issue, but was not in favor of giving detainees all the rights accorded by the Geneva Convention. He again stated that he disagreed with granting detainees any rights; I said I understood, but that I’d hope he would consider that Senator McCain was the candidate best prepared to actually capture Osama Bin Laden upon entering office. He thought that was a good point, and we ended the phone call.

When I got off the phone I turned around, and John Lehman, the former Secretary of the Navy, was standing behind me. My thought was, ‘Boy, I sure hope I got that right.’ He and the fellow who ran the Portsmouth office both had big smiles on their faces, so I think I did okay.

A Good Call from An Independent Call

Just Released - An Independent Call by Katherine J. Morrison

An Independent Call, is the amusing story of a New Hampshire Independent and McCain supporter in the 2008 election. Along with a lighter take on the presidential election, An Independent Call gives an insightful look at the political parties, and the media during this two-year long process.

Epping, NH April 17, 2009 – An Independent Call is a fun and original take on the presidential election through the eyes of a New Hampshire Independent and McCain volunteer. It recounts the journey of a skeptical observer as she was converted into a die-hard McCain supporter. From meeting candidates from both sides of the aisle, to becoming a blogger for McCain, to being chewed out on campaign phone calls, to receiving press credentials for the Republican National Convention, this account relates the experience of being a participant at the lowest level politics from an outsider's perspective. An Independent Call is a mix of good humor and political opinion from the middle.

An Independent Call is published by Broad Side of the Barn Publishing, and is available for purchase on their website – BroadSideoftheBarn.com. The author Katherine Morrison is a New Hampshire resident and blogger. She is the creator/author of PurplePeopleVote.com, and has a background in web development.
Rockingham NH County Commissioner, Maureen Barrows, recommends An Independent Call stating that it is…

"A must read for anyone interested in the day to day life of a volunteer in a political campaign...attention to detail is brilliant."

For more information on An Independent Call please visit BroadSideoftheBarn.com, or contact Katherine Morrison at kmorrison55@broadsideofthebarn.com.

McCain Supporters Canvassing Hampton

Excerpt from An Independent Call the story a New Hampshire Independent McCain Supporter

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Finally, on a more upbeat note, one trait that Senator McCain shares with a good number of his fellow veterans is a wicked sense of humor. While I’d like to say that my rationale for voting McCain was all high minded, I have to admit his sense of humor roped me in in the beginning. It’s probably part of the reason I enjoyed so many of the events with veterans; I’m sure there are veterans out there that lack a sense of humor, but overall I found them quite fun to be around.

During the general election I headed out to canvas a neighborhood with a veteran named Wes. He drove; I hopped out and knocked on the doors. We were canvassing Hampton Beach, a sort of unfortunate task in late Fall to early Winter, since not a lot of people stay at their beach house when the temperature drops. The sheets given to guide us to the appropriate address were accompanied by a brief survey asking whether the occupant was home and whom they were supporting for the different elected offices. The numbering of houses and condos on these sheets could be hard to follow, as locations were not necessarily listed in numerical order. Condo complexes could be particularly difficult to figure out. For instance, 5 Ocean Boulevard unit 16 could be a different page from 5 Ocean Boulevard unit 14, and unit 15 would simply not be on the list at all. The other problem was that you often had to be allowed or buzzed into many of these condo complexes. This basically meant looking for condos, routinely unoccupied due to the season that, even if occupied, could not be accessed. Consequently, we’d just drop a stack of literature on their doorstep, which will likely be picked up sometime this coming June.

So in the process of trying to locate a particular address on Ocean Boulevard, Wes backed his car up right into a pole. Looking down, arranging literature at the time, I was startled at the hit and said, ‘Ooo!’ and looked over at Wes. Thinking, this can’t be good we both hopped out of the car and took a look at his bumper. There was a new yellow stripe down the back side of his car and he said, “Ah, it’s just paint.” Relieved that it wasn’t too serious and that the damage didn’t trouble Wes, we hopped back into the car, and started trying to figure out where our next stop was. As we headed forward we spotted the house number of the next stop; Wes hit the brakes and his coffee flew off the dashboard, hitting me in the arm and soaking my left side. This time Wes looked stunned as I sat there looking at my sweater covered in coffee. “Well, it’s not hot,” I said. He handed me towels and clearly felt badly that I was wearing his drink. I had a t-shirt on under the sweater, so I hopped out of the car again, rung out the sweater and dried it off as best I could with some towels, put it back on, and hopped back into the car. While I smelled of coffee all day, the sweater was dark so it didn’t really matter.

We got through the rest of the doors without much incident, but had trouble finding one particular side street. Finally, we found the tiny narrow street in question; we headed down to the end where we eventually spotted the number of the home on a trashcan outside of a sliding glass door. I got out, knocked on the door, and a young guy, who apparently had just woken up, and was wearing a pair of old boxers and a t-shirt opened the door, saying nothing.

‘Hi, I’m a volunteer with the McCain campaign, and…’

‘No,’ he said and he shut the door and went back to bed.

I got back in the car and said, “Obama.”

As we started to head out of the narrow street I looked back, and Wes said, “Don’t worry, I won’t hit anything… …I saw you watching.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything.”

On the way back to the office he said, “You did a good job.”

“Thanks. You too…”

“Except for the pole.”

“Well that and the coffee, but other than that you did a good job.”

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Veteran's Good Humor

In the Beginning It was Curiosity

Excerpt from An Independent Call the amusing story of a New Hampshire McCain supporter.

In the beginning I just thought I’d go see the different candidates at the campaign events in New Hampshire. Four years prior, not long after I moved to New Hampshire from Massachusetts, my sister was volunteering for Senator Kerry’s campaign. She’s a loyal and active Democrat; our parents are Republicans. We talked on the phone after the Iowa caucuses when Howard Dean screamed during his concession speech. She hadn’t heard it called the ‘I have a Scream Speech’ yet, and I said that I felt for him. I figured if I were in politics that would be the sort of thing that would take me out. It wouldn’t be scandal or corruption; I’d simply do something so embarrassing that no one would take me seriously again.

My sister told of a news clip she had just seen of a woman who had met Senator Kerry, then fainted. The video looked like a shot from the Wizard of Oz with Senator Kerry standing over a pair of feet. I was starting to realize that I had missed quite a show by not attending Primary events, so I simply thought this time it would be interesting to see. I certainly had no plans of picking a candidate early, and no interest in joining a campaign. I thought it might give me something to write about on my website, but basically I was just curious.