(I’m a sucker for great first person diaries. – promoted by Clark)
As you may know, Barack Obama visited four towns in outstate Missouri yesterday. I was one of about 25 volunteers at the Union bar-b-que assigned “credentials” (a name tag with “volunteer” on it.) The Obama campaign staffers are all VERY polite and highly organized. The young woman organizing the pavilion and agenda for our event recognized my superior talents right away and assigned me to the clean up committee ! It was raining hard on and off, so I was more than happy to stay in the pavilion. The 200 or so people who had tickets for the free meal (provided by the campaign) started coming in around 4:30 and picked up their food cafeteria style. Three of our young Franklin County Democrat Club members served the food which was prepared by a retired couple who drag their fancy grill around behind their pickup and sell hamburgers at fairs.
About the time I was to spring into action and start collecting trash, two campaign workers asked for something we had at the headquarters 5 blocks away, so I drove them to pick up what they needed. This sounds simple, but it wasn’t because the police had the entire area cordoned off and everyone who approached the street or parking lot next to the pavilion had to go through a metal detector. AND we had to leave our umbrellas on a picnic table next to the metal detector and retrieve them after the event. So I dropped the two staffers off, parked the car and waded through streamlets of rain back to the pavilion.
More below the flip – Clark
There were a few protestors with a variety of signs across the street from the pavilion, but the police kept them behind some plastic, portable fencing. One sign read “Latinos for McCain.” Another was “We speaks (sic) English only.” And one read “Don’t vote for him. He’ll kill you.” (?????? – what’s that about????) When the motorcade arrived and Obama appeared out of the HUGE bus/rv, he went first to the people along the street who couldn’t get tickets, even the protestors, and shook all their hands. We thought that was awfully nice of him.
One of our club members who was assigned to the press area got to talk to the bus driver. He said he’s been in the business of driving dignitaries and major candidates around for years and that this is the “nicest, most-laid back” group he’s ever worked with. Bobbie also got to see the inside of the bus as she delivered a tray of brownies to the press people. I talked to one of the traveling press people after the event who lives in NYC and is the political correspondent for a newspaper in London. He will cover both the Obama and McCain campaigns all the way through November. He said he travels with one for awhile and then the other one so he doesn’t get too close to either candidate, but he prefers traveling with the Obama group.
Claire McCaskill introduced Obama and promised him that we will work our hearts out to help him win rural Missouri. (And given the number of people who have already shown up at our hdqs in Union, we may very well get the job done !) While Claire was introducing him, Obama’s body language said that he’d been raised to be polite while someone else is speaking. Looking at the floor and glancing at the crowd occasionally, he looked like anyone one of us would if someone was giving us compliments – a tad shy and embarrassed. I gave him a thumbs up when he looked at me, and he waved and smiled. His speech was primarily about the economy and especially the impact on working class citizens. He made a special effort to mention the loss of jobs in the auto industry as that is very important in Franklin County with the closing of the Fenton Chrysler plant.
He also chose yesterday to hit back hard at McCain for those negative ads that have been running. His message is – “They have nothing constructive to say, so their last resort is to attack me.” Keith Olbermann last night had video from the Springfield visit and then a long discussion about how desperate the McCain campaign is. Obama warned us that the ads are probably going to get even nastier, and I’m sure he’s right.
After the speech, the volunteers were herded over to the food window to line up to be served by Obama. The secret service brought him around the outside of the pavilion and up the back steps into the kitchen/serving area. He shook hands with the three young Dems like they were old friends he hadn’t seen in ages. Everything about him is relaxed and genuine. The hot dogs and burgers were already cooked and he served us as we went through the line. I had found a 2008 penny in the parking lot just before the event and pressed it into his hands and told him it was for good luck. He thanked me and I really believe he was sincere. I have a highly developed “BS-o-meter” after so many years of meeting phony characters. This is NOT an arrogant man. He truly appreciates every good luck wish, every supporter who stands in the rain to wait for him, every volunteer who works for him. As he has said many times, this is NOT about him. It’s about pulling our country back from the precipice of disaster – together !! His body language signaled that it would be okay for me to reach up and hug him, so I did. He returned the hug and made my day.
And now it’s the day after and time to get to work.
Susan
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. WE are the ones we’ve been waiting for. WE are the change that we seek.” Barack Obama