Rotary Log: January 5, 2012 (Jonathan Martin)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

            Our first meeting of 2012 began with a number of Happy Dollars.  Gene is happy for the Christmas Day birth of his 5^th great grandson, Cooper Ayotte Bailey…Judy Ringer was happy for her birthday (as much as we don’t like birthdays, it’s better then the alternative)…Marie Brownell was happy that she saw all of her family for Christmas (your editor was equally happy to see all of his family leave)…Patricia was happy that she has now finally recovered from her children waking up at 11:30pm on Christmas Eve…

            Lynn Dell is on 7-day notice.  Welcome back Lynn Dell!

            Walter auctioned off a painting donated by Peg Millar which fetched a nice $50.00 for the club. 

            President-Elect Nancy Notis, the tree sales chairperson, thanked everyone in the club for raising nearly $30,000.00 in the tree sales and noted that we did all of that during a time when we were also cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for the community, doing a food drive, hosting a senior Christmas party, all on top of our own individual family plans.  She was amazed!  She was thankful!  She then had the nerve to announce that NEXT YEAR’S tree committee is getting organized and if anyone wants to participate, they should see Dave Underhill.  January is as good a time as any to think about Christmas tree sales!

            Joanie Dickenson announced that we will have the Rotary Auction again this year, sometime in mid April, and there will be a meeting after this week’s meeting (January 12, 2012) for anyone interested in assisting with the auction.  Marie Brownell announced that the Funky Junk yard sale will happen again this year at the end of May and if you are interested, see Marie.  Patricia announced that the food drive raised over $1,500.00!  Well done!  The Harvest for Hunger committee is now known as the Basic Needs Committee, in case you needed to know.  Mark Sullivan announced that the Seacoast Food Pantry was given a grant by HP Hood for $3,600.00 to buy milk products and also qualified for a refrigeration system so that they can obtain and store milk products and save up to 80% over retail cost.  Mark thanked the Club for its support of the Seacoast Food Pantry.

            Stella introduced Jonathan Martin as our speaker today.  Jonathan is a correspondent for Politico.  He writes for magazines and newspapers, appears on television and radio including CNN, ABC, NBC, and a host of other news agencies.  Jonathan started off by noting that the only thing certain about New Hampshire Primaries is that there is nothing certain.  The Iowa result has made it even more uncertain for New Hampshire because it has thrust Santorum forward and given him more running room in New Hampshire.  There is no question that Romney is still the front-runner and that New Hampshire is his to lose.  The conservatives have simply not rallied around any one particular candidate.  South Carolina maybe Perry’s final stand.  Gingrich is down there pushing hard and Santorum is now trying to gain ground.  They could split the conservative vote and help Romney, in Jonathan’s opinion.

            The rise of super-pacs have had a big impact because they can spend a lot of money advertising in support of a particular candidate without that candidate having to take responsibility for negative ads.  Technology has also had a big impacted on the nature of campaigning.  Where the candidates use to have to shake hands at town halls and coffee shops, the easy access to media is making campaigns much more a media show then a hands-on campaign. 

            On the Democratic side, no opponent is good for Obama.  Ford lost when he had to complete against Reagan, Carter lost when he had to complete against Kennedy and George Bush lost when he had to complete against Buchanan.  Now go out there and vote!