Obama, Clinton: A place called Unity
Posted: Monday, June 23, 2008 1:12 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
In a place called Unity, the Obama, Clinton joint campaigning will happen in New Hampshire Friday.
The event is dubbed a "Unite for Change" rally. The Obama campaign notes in its release that both candidates got 107 votes each from the town in the New Hampshire primary earlier this.
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*** UPDATE *** NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli, who spent several months in New Hampshire before the primary there, presents some Unity, N.H., fun facts:
- The town was first incorporated as Buckingham in 1753, and now has a population of 1,715. According to a state Web site, the town was renamed Unity in 1764 after the “friendly resolution” of a land dispute.
- According to the 2000 census, the population is 1,535. The ocasionally accurate Wikipedia says the demographics are: 99.35 percent white, 0.07 percent African American (I did the calculation, and that would be equal to one person).
- Unity is about 60 miles from Manchester, mostly on local roads. The seldom-reliable estimate from Google Maps calls for about a 90-minute drive time.
- By my recollection, not one candidate visited Unity during the entire New Hampshire primary campaign. Claremont, about 15 minutes away, did see its share of visitors, mostly on the Democratic side.
- Obama and Clinton did indeed tie with 107 votes in the Democratic primary. Edwards got 78, Richardson 15, Kucinich 2, and Biden and Gravel each got 1. Chris Dodd? Nothin’ (though to be fair, he had dropped out already).
- McCain got 81 votes on the Republican side, beating Romney who had 70. Huckabee was third with 21, followed by Rudy with 20. Duncan Hunter had 2, two more than Dodd.
- Michelle Obama will be in New Hampshire on Thursday for a solo event. No word yet if she’ll stick around for the joint event Friday. A Bill Clinton spokesperson says the former president will be in Europe.
