Baracking the Vote: Stream of Consciousness

by juliacsmith

According to Sarah, there is a phone banker from our Aspinwall office who yesterday treated herself to a full size candy bar after every single sheet of calls she finished. (There are maybe 12 calls on a sheet.)

And speaking of candy, did you see this news story about the Pittsburgh resident* who denied candy to trick-or-treaters who were children of Obama supporters?

And speaking of Obama supporters…what a cast of characters Anne and I are working with in Etna, PA!

There’s 82-year-old Saul, a wheelchair-bound, oxygen tank-toting WWII veteran phone banker who gets saucy with the ladies in between calls. (He invited a 90-year-old canvasser (!) to have a seat on his lap.) Saul was the last volunteer to leave tonight; it took us and his wife (who has mobility issues herself) 15 minutes to get him into the van when he finally headed out. And he’ll be back at 10am.

Baracking the Vote: High Points in PA

by juliacsmith

Since I started volunteering with the Obama campaign in Allegheny County, PA, it’s been tough to sit down and pull my thoughts together to report on what’s happening. From now on, I think I’ll just check in as frequently as possible with brief high points (and maybe low ones, too) to give a little taste of what life and work are like here.

Here goes: