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Sep

19

What presidential campaign volunteers see, hear


This post by Tim Russo at Blogger Interrupted is a very nice account of what one Obama volunteer in NE Ohio has encountered.  The photos and the narrative show and tell what people from the outside looking in should see and hear.  Wouldn’t it look even better side by side with more such coverage from all over the state? It would be nice to start a site that has a montage of such volunteer input.

Here is my account of the couple of hours I spent two days ago in the Obama Shaker Square office making phone calls:

First, the coordinator for Pepper Pike was persistent in calling me and scheduling me.  As I was telling someone yesterday, I’m at the three times is a charm stage of busy right now – if you don’t get to me at least three times, you may not get to me at all.  That’s just how it is right now.

So, it was also a good thing that he called the morning of the day I was to phone bank because I had entered it into my calendar but only as “OB” which of course could be for tampons, but it was scheduled at a certain time on my datebook, not on my to do list.  I’d commented that morning to myself that I had no clue what OB at 1pm was.  And I was going to delete it until the Obama person called to remind me.  I laughed – he didn’t.

I arrived a little late but was able to stay late because I moved the appointment that would have left me barely an hour to make calls.

Now, just to put an exclamation on all this, I’ve never made calls for any political candidate, ever.  I’ve never gone to a politician’s local office for anything, ever.  What’s that supposed to tell you? I care – I care a lot.  And I’m willing to sit there are reach 75% “not home” numbers just to do what they say they need to have done.

So – I get there, there are people milling about – later I see someone I know come in for a yard sign (you need to go online here to get them) and just before I left, I saw a neighbor sitting way out of sight.  This particular neighbor is, I think, someone who would not want Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers to know that she was in the Obama office doing data entry. But I have to tell you – I was thrilled to see her there.  She seemed a bit unexcited to see me there but you know – what do I care? As long as she was there, hey – good for all of us.

They explain to me how the calling works and Wednesdays have been designated a kind of a women to women day – women calling women.  So out of 44 calls I made, I think there were maybe three or four men’s names on the list.

Here’s what I heard:

Of the 44, about 33 were not home or had answering machines.

For one call, a husband answered and said he was voting McCain and his wife wasn’t home.

For another, the parents didn’t want to talk but the daughter did, and she said that her parents better vote Obama.  She told me that she was taking time off from her legal job in NYC to come here and was seriously considering doing work for Obama and that was as a direct result of me speaking with her at length (we actually have people in common). She also told me that she is still registered in Ohio.

Then, for the other nine, it broke this way:

Three or four said that they had voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary and were then leaning McCain, but could not vote for him now that he has “that woman” on the ticket – and that’s a quote.  They feel torn but believe that they will vote for Obama in the end.

Then the other three or four said outright that they were torn.  After asking them if there was anything I could discuss with them issue-wise or anything else that they were particularly stuck on, if they wanted to listen, I would explain to them why I was supporting Obama and for some, that seemed to make an impact – which is to say that they would comment about how that made sense and so on.

What exactly do I tell them?  I tell them that I support Obama because I support candidates who demonstrate an interest in making sure that the unrepresented and underrepresented in our society are considered and thought about and taken care of and helped to learn how to take care of themselves.  That I have a history of working with such populations and that children and minorities fall into these categories and that if a candidate cannot speak to the needs of these groups in a way that conveys what they will do on behalf of those populations, then they can pretty much be sure I won’t be supporting them.  And I enumerated the ways in which Obama has expressed his interest in and efforts on behalf of such populations.

I concluded by asking if they knew about early voting and then offering information about that process if they wanted the info.

My general impression was that the beehive activity of the office was deadly serious.  Young, old, disabled, able-bodied, all colors, men and women entered and exited the office during my just under two hours there.  An incredible patchwork that is indeed the East side of Cleveland.

I hope to do some canvassing in my town soon, will be bringing meals to that Shaker Sq. office and hopefully getting back there a few more times.

McCain volunteers – what are you seeing, hearing in Ohio?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:52 am September 19th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Cleveland+, Elections, Ohio, Voting, WH2008 

Comments

4 Responses to “What presidential campaign volunteers see, hear”

  1. 1 Scott on September 19th, 2008 1:53 pm

    Great post, Jill. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

    I was especially intrigued by those you spoke with who refer to Gov. Palin as “that woman.” Any idea what the source of their dislike for her is? Is it because of who she is? Or is it what she represents to them (i.e., a blatantly insulting/pandering choice, as many have put it)?

    FWIW – I’ve been an Obama supporter since the early primaries, but while I don’t see Sarah Palin as the ideal VP choice, I certainly don’t harbor the extreme negative feelings for her that many have…maybe it’s because I have five kids, too, so that’s at least one thing the governor and I share.

  2. 2 Kelley Bell on September 19th, 2008 3:52 pm

    I ran into a couple of young women at an Ohio county fair last week wearing McCain stckers. When asked why they supported the Republican ticket their answers were:

    “Obama is a muslim- his middle name is Husain.”

    “Obama hates America, and his rise to power is predicted in the bible.”

    “Obama won’t put his hand over his heart during The Pledge.”

    I asked them how they felt about McCains pro life position of appointing “strict constructionists” to the Supreme Court, and they looked at me like two deers in the headlights.

    Hopefully they will oversleep on election day.

  3. 3 lilatovcocktail on September 19th, 2008 7:39 pm

    What a great subject for a blog post.

    Chicken that I am, I didn’t want to try to convince people to vote for my candidate and opted for registering voters instead.

    But when I stopped by the Shaker Square Obama office a couple weeks ago (to get a yard sign, among other things), I thought it was incredibly disorganized. At least is seemed to be in the front where I was. Peering into the back, I saw some older, serious-looking people doing a training session, so maybe the front desk isn’t a good barometer.

    I do think the young greeters at the front desk should have been more welcoming — the attitude toward drop-in visitors was less “how-were-thinking-you’d-like-to-help-the-campaign?” and more “what-do-I-need-to-do-to-dispense-with-you?”

    Young people these days. No manners.

  4. 4 How people I meet are voting, 9/21/08 edition | Writes Like She Talks on September 21st, 2008 9:16 am

    [...] first wrote about this topic on September 6, and then yesterday I wrote a bit more about my experience at the Obama campaign [...]

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