Making Calls for Obama

Since the political fire has been burning inside of me, and we live in a swing state, I decided a few weeks ago to donate some time to one of the Obama/Udall headquarters here in Denver. I'm not sure what I thought I would be doing since I'm too afraid to go door to door and I personally hate getting telemarketing calls from people. In my naive little mind, I thought that somehow I could slip in and do some data entry eat a few donuts and leave. Well that just wasn't realistic. There were NO donuts. I ended up making phone calls my first night there.

After my training, with sweaty palms and dinner plates under my armpits, I sat and listened to people for awhile before diving in. Then I just hammered away, making over 40 calls in an hour and talking to roughly 12 people. Several weeks ago, the main point in making calls was to try and get people to sign up for mail-in-ballots, while at the same time finding out what candidate they were leaning towards. When I went in the second time, we were trying to confirm that people got their mail-in-ballots and reminding them how to get them mailed in or dropped off at early voting centers. Of course while on the phone, if you got someone that was "undecided" you could give them some talking points. For the most part, I got a lot of nice people. As a side note, here is an editorial from David Sedaris on "undecided" voters which is pee your pants funny.

Now, with 2 weeks before Election Day, tempers are high, and people are heated. When I went in last night to make calls, I got a lot of angry people on the phone, something that my delicate ego could not deal with. About 5 calls in, I got a 27 year old male voter on the phone who immediately lit into me with some crap about how Obama won't release his birth certificate and it's under a federal investigation. Luckily I had read up on this issue and was somehow able to remain completely calm (in a sweaty blood pressure raising kind of way) and explain to him that what he was spouting were schmeer tactics that had been proven to be completely incorrect and false. I encouraged him to do some research online at my favorite fact checking sites. I was so direct and on point with him that he backed off and said, "Um, so there's no federal inquiry?" "No sir, his website shows his birth certifcate, it's in Illinois for anyone to view, it's been checked by non-partisan groups, you can find it online, there is no federal inquiry." He then insisted that even Obama's mother was ashamed of him for the lies he has told. It was then that I had to break it to him that this would be difficult as Obama's mother had died of cancer several years earlier. This went on for over 5 minutes as he continually tried to slander Obama's name. His final piece de resistance was that Obama is somehow related to Dick Cheney. Now this one I had not heard. My response to him was, "What are they like 10th cousins once removed? I'm pretty sure they aren't hanging out eating potato salad together at the family reunions." (I was a once removed off.) I followed by asking what difference it makes that they could somehow be related? Here was his argument: "Scoff, well, er uh, it like makes a huge difference." I'm not sure how I managed to hold my tongue and not use DG's phrase "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!?" (Sorry Mom) But in the end, though I didn't change his mind (I don't think he's voting for McCain either.), I felt better that I didn't let this lie continue to propagate itself and that maybe next time, he will try to get more informed. One small little victory at a time.