One of the things that rocks about New Hampshire is the so-called “retail politics,” where politicians have to get out and work to convince us that we should vote for them. Running TV ads and blowing Iowa and New Hampshire off doesn’t work, as Giuliani proved.

Last weekend, we went to a house party in Merrimack (hosted by a fellow ham, actually), where a few dozen people came to hear Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick speak about Obama. If you look at the US as a whole, this is a terrible proposition: the governor of Massachusetts takes an hour out of his day (well, probably more like three, if you account of travel time and all) to talk to thirty or so people? And yet this is what it takes.

Governor Patrick, by the way, is an awesome guy. He came around and talked to each person in the room. I told him I was going to school in Massachusetts, and he thanked my mom for “loaning” him to them. He seemed to genuinely care.

He has this incredible way of, when talking to you, making it seem like you’re the only person in the room. Here’s the governor of Massachusetts, coming up to someone’s house in New Hampshire, and talking to my mom and I as if he’s an old friend.

He spent a good deal of time just mingling, before he finally addressed us as a crowd and talked about Obama. He kept that brief, and then asked us a lot of questions. At one point, he was talking, and happened to say something along the lines of, “And I’ll tell you why I–” right as the home phone rang. Being the awesome person he is, he added, “And I’ll tell whoever’s calling,” and then picked up their phone.

“Hello, this is Governor Patrick.” I don’t really know what the person on the other end said, but I can only imagine they were somewhat confused. “We’ve got quite an enthusiastic crowd here for Obama,” he said, before asking the caller if they supported Obama. “No? Well then I’m afraid whoever you’re calling for isn’t home,” he joked before handing the phone over to the home’s residents.