Express Line dispatch: The 'Quest' for votes
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CNN International anchor Richard Quest.
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From Richard Quest, CNN International anchor:
(CNN) -- Welcome aboard the CNN Election Express. I'm here in Manchester, New Hampshire. And what a fun ride it has been.
What we are aiming to do here is understand why is this such a pressure cooker of U.S. politics? Why in such a short period of time do all the candidates come to one of the smallest states in the union, spend so long, which at the end of the day, can make and break -- or break, and certainly will, certain campaigns?
And we're trying to explain that to the rest of the world -- because let's face it, within a few weeks, days even, this place won't matter. The campaigns will move from the West Coast to the North to the South to the East. And yet, for this six or seven-day period, New Hampshire is what the entire U.S. electoral process is all about. The rest of the world finds it fascinating.
Well, the other thing to bear in mind of course is that once New Hampshire is over, the rest of the election is television-engineered in terms of advertising. There are vast distances to be covered, people aren't in the same place at the same time, except for debates.
So put it all together and you -- look, the best analogy I can give you for New Hampshire that I am trying to use is that this is a pressure cooker. It's a political pressure cook that for some candidates will explode and for others will create a nice, rosy, hot meal.
What the Election Express bus will allow us to do is bring more coverage from more parts of the country in better focus than anybody else. We will travel on this. We will sleep on this. We will argue on this. We interview on this. This going to be your election campaign headquarters.
From Dale Fountain, CNN Election Express bus driver:
Posted: 4:46 PM ET
(CNN) -- Crew call: 6 a.m. Temperature: A cold 9 degrees. Today's Express location: Manchester, New Hampshire.
Today a reporter from the Wall Street Journal interviewed me. A few people have wanted to get my "driver's perspective" of life on the election road. I enjoy sharing my point of view with people.
I've been driving tour buses for the past 13 years and have driven everyone from racing crews and sports teams to political figures such as former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George Bush Sr. I've driven all over the United States and Canada.
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Dale Fountain in the driver's seat of CNN's Election Express.
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I have to say that driving the Election Express is a great gig and it's an outstanding idea. It's great to be where the people are. The locals have been stopping me to ask a lot of questions about where we're going, which politicians have been on the bus and about how Iowa was.
There are lots of nice folks here in New Hampshire. I just wish they would go ahead and give them the three weeks of summer they get up here. If it could warm up a scooch, it'd be great.
Today's TV lingo: "Embedded." They used that word a lot during the beginning of the war in Iraq when journalists traveled with groups of soldiers. Here in New Hampshire, we're embedded with a group of voters and politicians.
