Obama's Bright Eyed Brigade
Meet Ethan Fletcher, Senator Barrack Obama's New Hampshire New Media Director. For comparison's sake, Ethan has a job largely similar to our friend Sarah Foy at the Clinton camp.
As modernesquire or any of our other posters can tell you, a lot of doors open with a law degree. A lot more doors open when that degree happens to be from Yale Law. While plenty of his friends from school are litigating with Sullivan & Cromwell, or prosecuting in Cook County, or just generally taking home bushels and pecks of greenbacks - Ethan's busy talking with bloggers with a candor and zeal that's refreshing because he's working towards something in which he wholeheartedly believes. That belief is Senator Barack Obama's ability to change our country for the better. I'd be deceptive if I said that Ethan's the standard at the Obama camp, but Ethan is certainly a good indicator of the type of person Senator Obama is drawing into politics. Symbolically, you can practically feel the fresh air when you walk into 60 Rogers Street.
New Hampshire primary voters are historically fickle - often times going against the grain of the nation. In '52, Granite state Democrats chose Estes Kefauver over sitting President Truman. More recently the state has not been immune from surprises when it served as Bill Clinton's launchpad in '92 when he miraculously placed 2nd behind Senator Tsongas, or in '00 when Governor George W. Bush got the whomping of his life from Senator McCain. No, granite staters are a curious breed. Ask anyone - including Howard Dean. Despite breaking national fundraising records, annointment as the "likely heir" to the Democratic nomination by media, and massive grassroots support in 2004 Dean still lost by close to 30,000 votes to John Kerry in NH. Exposing a fundamental flaw in Dean's field strategy, the NH and Iowa primaries showed that the Dean camp had not gotten a grasp on reliable, tangible indicators of his support. <OK Kurtz, translate that for me.> Dean hadn't evaluated his voters; he couldn't tell if Mrs. Marbury down the blockwas going to go cast a vote for him, or if he had gotten through to Jim Smathers at the barber shop. Come election nights in Iowa and NH, Deaniacs across the nation had their hearts broken Folks have taken a lesson from the Dean blunder.
Campaigns like Obama's have taken note of recent lessons and are proactively ensuring they don't repeat mistakes of the past. Yesterday in midafternoon I snapped a shot at Obama HQ that would make any campaign veteran smile...
Meet Obama's bright eyed brigade - tables and table and tables of volunteers! Perhaps I haven't nosed around other campaign offices as much as I should have, but hands down, this is the largest regular week-day phone bank I've come across in Manchester. What's more is that Ethan mentioned crowds of similarly energetic folks are piling into offices across the state in Concord, Keene, Portsmouth and Nashua.
It's exhilerating.
Those near the campaign have related a few guesses as to why Obama is packing in the crowds both young and old in a way that's leaving veteran commentators astounded. Whether folks are drawn to Obama's plan to end the war (and his original opposition to it), or his focus on cleaning up Washington, one things for sure - folks are listening. One reason might be Obama's commitment to a new level of honesty and transparency in the process. Past campaigns have organized affluent business leaders as group fundraisers - if an individual raises a certain amount of money from his friends and associates, he (or she) attains a certain prestige within the campaign that generally brings benefits (President Bush had the Pioneers raising $100,000 apiece, other campaigns have made different designations, but the concept is the same). For the first time in the history of political campaigns, Obama's disclosing his group fundraising (FEC laws don't require the disclosure of funds raised from a group rather than individual). Some find this type of disclosure exciting.
What's more is that the excitement isn't limited to the volunteers. As Ethan toured the office with me pointing out the columns on which every visitor signs his or her name, or the staff's wall of reasons why they work for Obama, he noted a set of desks left unattended where the field staffers reside. Instinctively I quipped "where are they?" pointing to the empty desks. "Well they're out there on the phones" Ethan replied. And that's awesome. That makes me smile just writing about it. Too often in politics staffers develop a complex that they're too important for the "seemingly" menial tasks delegated to volunteers. It's another testament to how hard this team is working, how they believe in their goal, and how bright their eyes are shining that everyone is pitching in.
All hands on deck, eh? It's great.
A question for folks back in Ohio in blog-land.
Are these staffer/HQ posts helpful? I think there's a certain level of intimacy volunteers develop when they start working with a campaign. You get to know the field staffers and find out their stories, see the office, become part of the campaign, etc. However, it's hard to impossible for Ohioans to do that sort of thing just yet. With only barebone campaigns driven by regional supporters, there isn't much to do yet (at least regularly) for buckeyes. Do these posts help give a sense with what's going on?
What do y'all think I should be asking campaigns and staffers. Yesterday Jill suggested I solicit a "top ten" list from readers of general questions you'd like answered from all campaigns. If I have random access to a staffer or candidate I can pop out one of these questions for lack of something more targeted. So what are y'all interested? What would you reeeeaaaaallly like to her Biden, or Bill answer? C'mon, don't be shy.
Ask oppo questions that the GOP would be likely to use. Candidates need to have answers for them, and supporters need to know that their candidates can handle them.
Tangent: Is it just me, or does anyone else think Ethan looks like a younger George Michael?
I reread your comment and thought I should clarify something.
I'm going around asking staffers to tell me stuff about them, if I can take their picture, etc. I think it's an important angle. In Ohio prezzie races lack the intimacy of a Congressional or Mayoral race, but in NH it's a lot different.
Folks grow up with the Merrimack restaurant which seemingly every candidate since the dawn of time has visited. They expect candidates and staffers to treat them in a special way (house calls, bend over backwards for the smallest office visit, etc.). And nowhere else can you meet someone who volunteers for one candidate in the morning, and then walks across town to volunteer for a different one in the evening. It's so personal it's amazing.
So that's what's been up with my focus on Ethan, Sarah, Matt, or the next staffer I talk about (there will be more). They're not putting themselves above their candidates, I'm pressing them for personal information so I can let the folks at BSB feel like they're walking down Elm street to someone's office. From the responses I'm getting via email, most people like this approach a lot.
So, I just wanted to make sure that you're clear, and everyone else...none of these folks are trying to talk to me about themselves...they're all gabbin' on a mile a minute about their candidates.
Average salaries at graduation. Yale graduates have a world of opportunities available to them that others, even Case Western Law Grads, do not. I think it's significant when you see people foregoing those options for the type of position Ethan is performing on the Obama campaign. Reminds me of the recent ivy statistics of folks going into Teach For America.
Also, it ties into the Obama-youth motiff. At the Obama rallies, meetings, and get togethers I'm attending I'm noticing that the very young, or baby boomerish, crowds are drawn to Obama. It's interesting that someone in Ethan's position...best and brightest, all that jazz...is flocking to Obama.
Now, there are brilliant people in my class, and at other schools. Simply having the stamp of an ivy on your diploma doesn't mean that much as far as "capability"...but it does mean something when it comes to opportunity.
P.S. I like the "seen and not heard" reference.
I agree but I think sometimes we overemphasize the importance of the ivy league here in America. It is unfortunate that some people get more opportunities than others simply because their diploma says Harvard or Yale, especially because of the heritage scholarships. This can be most accurately shown when you look at the Hilton family. Obviously the grandparents and great grandparents had some smarts and business knowledge but I don't know anyone here today that would trust Paris Hilton to run a taco stand let alone a hotel.
Some of the smartest people I know graduated from the University of Wisconsin or Hunter College. I am sure that this guy is smart and is doing a great job for Senator Obama. Glad to hear that he is pushing his guy in interviews. He does look amazingly like George Michael. Can you ask him to sing next time?
By the way...I think everyone here is dying to know what kind of presence Bob Haines is having in the race. From the Politics1 bio:
Bob Haines -- a former "adopted Texan" who campaigns in a cowboy hat -- previously ran for President in 1992, 1996 and 2004. He also sought other offices in Colorado and elsewhere in years past. In the mid-1990s, Haines moved to DC and began writing a political newsletter. He believes most voters remembered he was the man on the sidewalk in front of the White House who tackled the gunman (Francisco Duran) who tried to kill President Clinton by firing shots at the building and at Secret Service agents in 1994. Haines himself later spent time in jail for a felony charge related to his pulling a gun on a man while campaigning for the 1996 NH primary (and again in 2003-04 for violating his probation from the '96 case). Haines maintained he was defending himself after one man choked him and another threatened him outside a bar. As for his views, Haines describes himself as "a fiscal and social conservative" who "advocates longer sentences for drugs and violent crimes and advocates fighting drugs and terrorists at their sources in Columbia and Afghanistan ... [and] advocated that the war in Afghanistan should have been originally been aggressive pursued into Pakistant get Bin Laden and his army with the help of Pakistan's army." Haines -- who said he's campaigned in 36 states in recent years -- refuses to accept he is still unknown to most voters. As in 2004, Haines has established residency in the state just so he could campaign more effectively there. In 2004, he finished tenth in NH with 579 votes. Haines hopes to improve his showing in 2008. No website yet.
For me, I'm enjoying the "walk down Elm street" approach, and I think that kind of information helps fill out the picture in a unique way~ as you said, it is refreshing to hear people tell you why they are volunteering or working for a campaign from a personal perspective~ Everybody has got thier story and it is interesting to me to understand what kind of people feel attracted to what kind of candidate.
Also these people are the best indicators as to the health and morale of a campaign. I remember during the '04 caucuses in Iowa hearing about troubles in the Dean bus(es), were national reporters were bickering and volunteers were strained and despite all the rosy national reporting, the story from the buses was harbinger of the drubbing he'd suffer in the caucuses.
I think you will do very well to follow your own instincts as to what is interesting or important. What you find interesting and important I'm confident others will also.