Upcountry politicking

Grafton County (the far northern rural reaches of New Hampshire) Republicans held their annual Columbus day fund raising dinner. Maybe a 100 people showed up, enthusiastic Dartmouth students supporting the various Republican presidential hopefuls, town and county elected officials, a few plain old voters, and the local party chairmen. The happy hour was a meet and greet, followed by dinner. After dinner speaker was Governor Tim Pawlenti, flown in from Minnesota just for this affair. This is the guy who succeeded Jesse Ventura. He spoke, and spoke well, on the need for Republicans to be something more than the national accountants, scolding all and sundry over government spending. Then he went on for a good 5 minutes on the need for American energy independance. Somehow he got thru this without once letting the word "nuclear" ever pass his lips.