Lis Smith - Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story

You always remember your first.

I started college less than a year after the Supreme Court hijacked the 2000 election. Their decision left half the country (myself included) extremely pissed off at the new commander in chief.

Ten months later and ten days before Id set foot on Dartmouths Hanover, New Hampshire, campus, I watched two different Boeing commercial airliners crash into the World Trade Center, reducing the Twin Towers to ash. For a brief moment, the anger over Bush v. Gore evaporated, and President George W. Bush rallied the American people to unite against the threat of global terrorism.

Like a lot of other kids in my generationthose two seemingly once-in-a-lifetime events (happening in the span of one year, no less) nudged me into the world of public service. It wasnt the hardest sell for meever since Id seen The War Roomthe behind-the-scenes documentary about the 1992 Clinton campaign, Id had an itch to work in politics. The 2004 presidential race scratched that itch.

In a normal world, Id have followed my parents footsteps into the legal field, where my father had an especially distinguished careerand I still could. But nothing about the world felt normal anymore. The low stakes of peace and prosperity 1990s were gonethe politics of the 2000s felt like some life-and-death shit.

I settled on my 2004 candidate early: Senator John Edwards from North Carolina. Id done some research and read a series of national profiles; Nicholas Lemann described him in the New Yorker as a rollicking, full-throated, us-against-them populist. His Two Americas campaign theme drew me in immediately with its echoes of Bobby Kennedy.

Also, lets be real: his superficial appeal was an undeniable factor. He was youngish and vibrant, with the shiniest light brown hair youd ever seen. Years of work as a courtroom star translated well on the Senate floor and campaign trail: he knew how to craft an argument, reel you in, and leave you with no other option but to side with him. With his pronounced Carolina drawl, he drew out his vowels irresistibly: Eye-o-wah, ahhh bah-LEEEEVE in youuuu.

In March 2003, between my winter and spring terms at college, I dragged my parents down to DC to get an up-close look at my candidate. After he was elected to the Senate in 1998, Edwardss staff had developed a simple but effective political ploy: whenever the Senate was in session, hed hold weekly, freewheeling sessions with constituents that his office dubbed Tar Heel Thursdays.

Technically, I was cheating a little bit. I was a New York native enrolled at college in New Hampshire. But my dads status as a born-and-bred Tar Heel got us in the door. Looking back, Im a little surprised that my parents agreed to make the four-hour drive to Washington, but they were always supportive of the interests of their four children. And I think they were a little curious themselves. Maybe this guy could be the one?

It was a smallish crowd that day, thirty people tops. After Edwards gave a spiel about the legislation he was working on and answered questions, I made my pitch to him: I want to run a student group for you at Dartmouth if you run for president. I pressed my email on his staff and got their cards.

A few weeks later, having joined forces with a couple dozen students and been elected co-president of Dartmouth Students for Edwards, I followed up with his staff to request a campus visit. I was annoyingly persistent. But heres the thing about being annoying (and persistent): sometimes it pays off. Less than a month after Edwards officially announced his presidential campaign in September 2003, he came to Hanover. I marked the occasion with my first ever op-ed in The Dartmouth: Why Sen. Edwards Is the Answer. I wrote about his fresh and innovative vision and uncanny ability to relate to common-folk America. Its hard not to cringe, looking back at my earnest twenty-year-old self.