(guest posted by Heather)
Run Granny Run is the inspirational story of Doris “Granny D” Haddock’s road from political activist to the Democratic candidate for US Senate in New Hampshire. The documentary initially was to focus on campaign finance reform, but director Marlo Poras instead found himself surprised to be in the middle of one of the most unusual political campaigns to ever happen in this country where a 94 year old woman with few resources but a lot of guts was facing off against a two time incumbent Senator with a load of cash.
Granny D narrates much of the movie, and in her own words: “When I was younger, I always tried to be active in my community but really, who has the time?…… And then when I turned 89, death came. Death took my husband and then my best friend and I thought I was next. I needed a reason to live. And I found that reason. It was my country.”
At age 89, Granny D walked from CA to New Hampshire to promote campaign finance reform and was hailed by the likes of Russ Feingold and John McCain. When the Democrats suddenly lost their candidate Burt Cohen who was running against Judd Gregg in NH with only one day to find a replacement for him, Granny D stepped up to the plate and volunteered to run. The movie culminates with the run up to the debate between Granny D who has never debated before and Gregg who acted the part of John Kerry when President Bush was preparing for the Presidential debates.
Much to her own, the media and the public’s surprise, Granny D actually beats Gregg in the debate and manages to get 34% of the vote in New Hampshire. The director takes the audience along for the agonizing ride of trying to run a campaign on a shoe string budget with little help from the Democrats and the nervousness and tension during the preparation for and lead up to the debate night.
In the end, Run Granny Run is an everyman’s story about how every day people can do extraordinary things and shake up the system if they decide to get involved and that our democracy can survive if we all decide we want to take it back.
The documentary premiered on HBO on Oct. 18th and is running through this weekend. The promo and remaining air times can be found here.
No Trackbacks To “Run Granny Run“
Guess it’s HBO then
“Strike set to silence talk shows”
Shows hosted by stars such as Jay Leno, David Letterman and Jon Stewart are expected to stop almost immediately as they rely on a supply of topical jokes. Old episodes of The Colbert Report will be screened under contingency plans by the Comedy Central channel.
i say “RUN AL RUN”
watch this..http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Nnph3zkHNw.
peter @ 2:
let’s try that again
watch this
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Nnph3zkHNw
What’s unusual about Granny? She looks like Ted Kennedy.
This was a great documentary, she showed that the average American can run for office on the cheap and although she didn’t win, she came damn close…close enough to inspire the next average American to run for office.
I would run but the whole campaign would be about how much pot I smoke!
Heh, sounds like “Man with a Plan” about our late, great Fred Tuttle. The movie was fiction, but Fred later ran in the GOP primary and beat that damned carpetbagger before voting for Pat Leahy in the general…
“The first thing I would do is put a no lobbyist sign on my door.”
We need more Granny D’s… Very inspirational!
Granny D was one of the very first in this nation to visit my site and then go out and Do It. I think she was 90 at the time.
She is awesome. I love her.
Granny D is a national treasure
Camera shots of Gregg with his condescending look - priceless.
All Run Granny Run and Stephen Colbert (as well as Howard Dean) should do is encourage more of us to run for office. We see how hard it is. But it is the only the only choice if we can’t find quality candidates to endorse. Damn the situation.
sniffles.. I love her, too.
You’re either with granny or with the terrorists!
Very sweet, on a great many levels.
Saw it last week. It’s a great documentary and Granny D is one of the greatest Americans of this generation. I guarantee she wouldn’t be caving into the bush maladministration every other day like the corporate Dems!
In the interest of factual accuracy, it should be noted Haddock was declared the debate “winner” as the result of an on-line poll, which as a general rule are not scientific.
Stories about people sticking by their dreams, ideals or principles against incredible odds often make for compelling drama, and the quaintness of a “raging granny” possibly making mincemeat out of a privileged and politically-connected man like Gregg gives this story an extra edge.
Truth be known, at the end of it all Granny D was quite satisfied with the outcome.
As much as many of them wanted to see Gregg taken down by a political outsider, by and large the people of New Hampshire are glad she didn’t make it, too.
the corporate Dems and the Corporate Media aren’t going to save us. We know the true face of the Neo-Con crowd, PNAC, Oil businesses etc. It’s time we stop counting on the Dems or the Media to save us from this situation. Any other ideas??
ugh. this is sweet and all, but shows how pathetic the state of things are.
That was BY FAR the best damn clip I’ve seen yet on C&L!
Wow. That’s fucking inspirational. Seriously. Wow.
People totally underestimate grannies. They kick ass. My grandma could take this country and turn it around ten times faster than any stinkin’ Democratic candidate we have now. She raised two kids (one of them mentally ill) alone on a teacher’s salary, while putting herself through grad school to become a librarian. Even now when I’m with her in the mall or on the street, 35 and 40 and 50 year olds stop us because they recognize her as the best teacher or the best librarian they ever had, and they want to thank her. She did her job so well and so thoroughly that none of her students had a clue how much stress she was under at home. If a woman makes it to 94 in this country without taking 14 different medications that end up doping her up, she has a lot to say, and we should listen.
Ruthless People @ 14:
Signed.
If you want to read more about Granny D, check out Granny D: Walking Across America in My Ninetieth Year by the Granny herself with co-author Dennis Burke. Pretty damn inspirational. Here’s the amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Granny-W.....0375505393
greg @ 19:
It’s pathetic that a 94-year-old woman runs? She didn’t come off as “sweet” to me, but rather very brave and strong. What a fount of wisdom a 90-something woman would bring to politics. We need that kind of diversity just as we need people of all races and backgrounds. And at that age, she obviously can’t be “bought” by special interests. Even if she didn’t win, she is an inspiration for other “regular” americans.
An every *PERSON’S* story.
By the time you’ve lived 94 years as a woman, you ought to have an “every woman’s story”, or at least, an “every person’s story”.
Thank you.
Go Granny Go! I loved her and she is so right.
I watched this wonderful documentary. Granny D is democracy personified.
i laughed like hell when she said her,and woody harrilson smoked a joint together…no lobbyists,no special interests,but the peoples…we need more granny D’s