You Say Telemarket, I Say Phone Bank

September 26, 2008 in The Way It Were
Tags: barack, obama, phone bank, telemarket

As much as I hate an interrupted dinner by way of odd political solicitation, inflicting the same solicitation is even less rewarding.

Within no fewer than 50 phone calls to Colorado, one of the few Western swing states, I actually talked to three voters. After announcing that I was a volunteer for Barack Obama’s “Campaign for Change” — that’s the script, like it or not — I got as far as “Campaign” before hearing a click, then a dial tone.

Of the rest, one man was already an Obama supporter, and the rest were either wrong numbers — some of those were more like “wrong numbers,” as in the times I asked if Sasha was home and Sasha said she wasn’t — or chose to let their answering machine take on the call.

We don’t leave messages in Colorado, and I think Coloradans know that.

Palin’s Sex Will Draw Votes

September 4, 2008 in The Way It Were
Tags: barack, clinton, ferraro, geraldine, hillary, john, mccain, mom, mondale, obama, palin, sarah

It seems accepted knowledge that America’s women are smart enough that they won’t vote McCain just because his running mate is a woman. That would be true if, and only if, America’s women were any smarter than America’s men.

Not so, you sexists. After all, it was not six months ago when my mom told me she supported Hillary Clinton. I asked her why.

Because she’s a woman. I’ve been waiting for this for a while. I think we need to see a woman president. She won’t mess it all up.

She chuckled her mom chuckle. I groaned inside.

After trying to convince her that she was using particularly bad reasoning, my mom gave me one of those familiar “I guess you’re right” sighs, and we changed the subject. I’m not sure I changed her mind.

Whether or not you want to vote for John McCain, and whatever you think about Sarah Palin, having a woman on the Republican ticket will draw votes their way. However well Mondale and Ferraro know that with an unconventional vice presidential pick the number of votes ]might not be enough, those votes will, in some quantity, materialize.

In a normal election year against a reasonably popular figure — say, 1984 — those votes wouldn’t amount to much. This is not a normal election year.

Consider this: At least some part of Hillary Clinton’s highly mobilized, energized electorate voted for her because she was a woman. Which way will that no less energized part vote when, feeling betrayed by their party, are subsequently given the opportunity to vote in a female vice president?

Guess which way John McCain’s betting.

After Veeps, I’m Left With a Coin Toss

September 1, 2008 in Reading Response
Tags: 2008, amateur, barack, best, biden, bipartisan, chicago, coin, decades, egotist, evenly, genuine, good, joe, john, matched, mccain, obama, plagiarist, presidential, Senate, sugarcoat, tickey, toss, uncommonly

American non-felons of legal voting age have two uncommonly good tickets to choose from come the Tuesday following this November’s first Monday.

I can distinguish our two nominees apart, for sure — I simply have trouble choosing between two equally if not eminently qualified individuals. Since May, I knew that it was going to come down to their vice presidential pick and, if it didn’t help, a coin toss.

Barack Obama talks real good, however vague he is about it; John McCain ain’t no slouch on thinking for himself, however laughably wooden is his public speaking. Both have proven qualities, and for both, their faults have been speculated about time and again.

Both claim bipartisan credentials and, for what it’s worth, each has a richly mixed background. The negative impact of Obama’s necessary dealings in Chicago politics is undermined by his “son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas” line, and that McCain is a war hero and Republican-in-name-only to boot negates the effect of his multiple houses, houses he can only afford, by the way, because of his second wife.

So what if each is an egotist with a bit of temper, tempered as it is for the camera? So what if each side accuses the press of being favorable toward the other? Both genuinely want — seem to want? — to fix all of America’s problems. Both of them would try, if both were allowed to, and both have a shot at succeeding. I’d wonder whose plan has a better shot, but the only Americans who know that live in the year 2012.

Now, we know the picks. Obama has Joe Biden, a loudmouth amateur plagiarist with decades of experience in the Senate, a man who admirably forgets to sugarcoat hard truths — in the tradition of McCain, only less so. McCain has Sarah Palin, an up-and-coming political newbie with record low unfavorability ratings and an impressive, if short, record — in the tradition of Barack Obama, only more so.

Find me a dime. I’ll call it in the air.