Barack Obama to speak during a telephone Town Hall meeting for Paul Hodes

 The polls continue to show Republican Kelly Ayotte leading Democrat Paul Hodes by about fifteen points in the New Hampshire senate race to replace the retiring Republican Senator Judd Gregg.

 The situation appears so dire for Paul Hodes that Barack Obama isn’t going to waste a trip up to the Granite State to stump for Paul Hodes, opting instead to make a statement via a telephone Town Hall meeting that Paul Hodes has scheduled for the Monday before the election.

  According to this Union Leader article, the president is not expected to hang around long enough to take questions from those that choose to participate in Paul Hodes’s last ditch effort to close the gap on Kelly Ayotte. It sounds as if he will make an opening statement and then depart, leaving Paul Hodes to answer questions on his own.

  And while we are on the subject of questions during this Town Hall meeting:

  This Town Hall meeting will be open to any New Hampshire resident who cares to listen in, but if you want to ask a question it must be submitted beforehand and approved before you will be able to engage the senate hopeful one on one. This is a ploy that has already angered voters in this state in the past.

  Both Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes opted for telephone Town Hall meetings during the Summer of discontent in which the Tea Party first came into prominence. While both of  our congressmen portrayed the telephone Town Hall meetings as a way to reach more of their constituents, the truth is that the voters were angry about the impending healthcare reform legislation then being debated in the Congress and our congressmen were afraid to face the voters in an uncontrolled atmosphere. So they concocted the notion of the telephone Town Hall with the questions being submitted beforehand as a way to control the debate. This only served to further infuriate and alienate their constituents.

  And now Paul Hodes–faced with the fight of his political life–has decided once again to forego meeting the voters face to face and has opted for the controlled atmosphere of the telephone Town Hall, hoping that the mere voice of the Democrat Messiah–Barack Obama–will be enough to spur him on to victory.

  This story is telling in two respects: first in the fact that Barack Obama isn’t coming to stump for Paul Hodes in person; and secondly, the fact that Paul Hodes has opted for a telephone Town Hall meeting which will be strictly controlled so as not to embarrass the congressman. Both of these aspects lead me to believe that Paul Hodes is in real trouble here. The president doesn’t feel that Paul Hodes is close enough in the polls to show up in person, and Paul Hodes isn’t secure enough in his positions or with his voting record to face the voters face to face.

  Surely the voters of New Hampshire can see through this, regardless of how stupid the president thinks we are, and will send Kelly Ayotte to the senate to replace Judd Gregg. Paul Hodes is desperate and he feels that having the president speak to the voters of New Hampshire on the telephone will be all that he needs to push him over the top, but the president doesn’t feel that way or he would show up in person.