On October 26, I received an invitation to talk to President Obama online with many of his other supporters. At first I thought it was a joke, because my donations to his campaign were small – really small – but when I questioned the email I was told that he wanted to “talk” to his “grassroots” supporters and tell them how happy he is with the work we are doing. So I responded affirmatively to the request.
On October 28, I received the following message: Thanks for signing up for the online call with President Obama. The President is looking forward to speaking with supporters like you — the folks who are building this campaign from the ground up. The conversation will start on Tuesday, October 30th, at 4:45 p.m. Eastern Time.
No question in my mind that the email was legitimate.
On October 30, I received another e-mail. It read, Thanks for signing up for the special supporter call with President Obama. Because of Hurricane Sandy and scheduling changes, we’ve moved the call from today to Friday, November 2nd. Exact time to be announced.
We hope you can still make it — President Obama is looking forward to speaking with you.
Yesterday, November 1, I received the following message: Just a reminder that tomorrow morning, President Obama wants to thank some of his most committed supporters — that’s you — and talk about the state of the race a week out from Election Day.
This online call will be happening tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
The excitement started to build. I notified those people that had questions for me to ask that we were on, and checked out my cameras, my Dictaphone, my tape recorder, etc., and knew I was ready for my big shot. After all, I have had my “15 minutes of fame” several times over my lifetime, but have never had anything like speaking on a one on one basis with the President of the United States. (I did come close when I met Robert Kennedy in Chula Vista when he spoke to my sixth grade class.)
At 8:25a.m. (PDT) I was ready to go. I had the website up: recordings were running, and my student Monica, who does not have school on Fridays, was anticipating a lifelong memory; something to tell her children in years to come.
Alas, this memory was not to become a reality.
First of all, the “conference” did not begin at 8:30; rather it began at 8:36am. There was no “picture” from Chicago, where the announcer was, nor was there a picture of the President in Ohio, where he was campaigning.
Those of us that were online – I presume there was more than just me – were thanked profusely by the announcer for all that we had done, and were continuing to do for Obama’s reelection. He admonished us to ignore all the polls at this point; he said, and I concur, that they are skewed for the most part, to indicate how the pollsters want the results to show at this date. (I concur because I received a pollster call yesterday asking if I were going to vote for Filner or DeMaio. I was given many choices of all the wonderful things that DeMaio had done and all the terrible things that Filner had done. When the pollster said . . . “after listening to these attributes of the candidates, who will you vote for?” and I said “Filner” she said, and I believe this is a direct quote: “How can you still vote for Filner when I just told you all of the terrible things he did over the past 20 years?” I said, “Because he is the better candidate!” and hung up.)
Going back to the conference call – at approximately 8:42 a.m. the sound cut out and remained out for over 3 minutes. I checked my connections and realized the outage had to be on the part of the conference call, not because of anything I did. When sound finally came back online, President Obama was talking, and I realized later, he must have been answering a question that had come in during the silence on this end. (I wonder if Nixon’s secretary had anything to do with the gap?)
The President said that the thing he was most proud of was the passage of health care for Americans. “Finally,” he said, “people will not lose their homes because of severe financial debt due to illness.” And then, the audio cut out again. This time for 2 minutes.
When the audio came back, I heard the announcer say to the President, “There are no more questions, Mr. President. Thank you for your time.”
What did he mean there were no more questions? I had six good questions I wanted to ask and have answered. If there were more than just myself online, and I am sure there were, I bet they had many unasked questions also.
In closing, the announcer made several interesting statements: He said that the Super PACs know they will win if fewer people vote. In listening to NPR this morning, I heard that there is a potential Northeaster ready to hit the already devastated areas that Sandy ruined on election day. One of the questions I wanted to ask was what might happen to the election if the voters on the East Coast could not get to their polling places? Has an election ever been postponed due to bad weather? Could the West Coast still vote; hold their votes for a week until the East Coast could vote?
He made contrasts between what we will have if Obama wins reelection or if Romney wins: The Dream Act vs Illegals; Clean energy vs the Canadian Pipeline that could devastate a wide area if a pipe were to break; Value ALL people rather than the top 2%; Education for the public good rather than a “luxury” for some; Bring the Military home by 2014 via leave some troops there; EVERYONE with a future via future only for the wealthy, etc.
All in all, I would have to say that the idea of having a “phone conversation” with the President was a good idea, but the actual conversation never took place. What might have happened if Sandy never happened is conjecture. Maybe we would have actually had the chance to talk to him; to see him; to ask questions. He has a lot of ground to make up for taking the time to visit the badly damaged area – funny that Romney didn’t also visit the areas. Guess it was the 47% that suffered the most damage and they don’t matter anyway.
Over all, I would have liked 30 more minutes of sleep.
Judi Curry
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If Obama loses this election, you can blame/thank the Right for bamboozling him. How is it ethical that an entire news network questions the President’s citizenship for four years to create doubt in voters while a fringe element of the far right demonizes and degrades him? Most of this is financed by the rich who want to keep their stranglehold on the flow of wealth in our country. Watch the white hands apply the Blackface to our first African-American President at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/10/bamboozling-obama.html
Brandt, I agree with you 100%. As far back as I can remember – and I started voted when I was 18 – I never remember an election as nasty as this one is turning out to be.
The lies, the “trumped” (pun intended) up accusations just make me ill. I don’t know what the answer is – well, yes I do – but it’s not going to happen as long as corporations and millionaires have the where-withal to buy votes. It is a very sad commentary on our times. Judi
Your story screams “1984.” I’m all-the-way Obama, but he too tries to play the public. He has little choice because the media, responsible for conveying information, has become nothing more than a tool for corporate interests. I’m afraid that the U.S. electorate, the voting public, has failed in its duty to be a government by the people. We (as a collective pronoun) have entrusted governance to “someone else” who cares more, and that turns out to be people who don’t care much about the public. Jefferson warned us not to neglect our political obligations as citizens, and his fears have proven true.
You, Judi, are a political warrior, and I only wish that could be said for the 99%. The USA is only the shadow of a democracy anymore. There are so many strings pulling the marionets in positions of power, our taxes have become tickets to a show.
Poet, without any exaggeration I received 21 e-mails today asking for donations. TWENTY-ONE. They didn’t care how big – or how small – donations starting at $3 were fine. It really is getting to me when I think how all the money being spent on ads could help education; homeless; etc. Orwell knew what he was talking about!
I’m beginning to think media consolidation is as big or even a bigger threat to our democracy than unlimited money pouring into elections. If you haven’t done so already, watch the video “Save KLSD: Media Consolidation & Local Radio”, a documentary “showing how American democracy is impacted by Media Consolidation”. http://www.SaveKLSD.com.
Thanks for responding, Dianne. I agree with you. I saw the Save KLSD a few months ago and was honored to see that my husband and I were thanked for our work trying to keep it on the air. We in San Diego have no choices. It is a sad commentary on our times. Judi
But we think we have to just sit there and take the nonsense. There’s one solution that’s always worked with dramatic effect, and that’s boycotts. It’s hard to manifest only because so many don’t realize its power. Boycotts could achieve most anything political.
We don’t have to just sit there. Since corporations own the system, vote with dollars!
Exmo. Sr. President Obama.
Sou um cidadão brasileiro comum e grande admirador de sua pessoa, que entendo ser possuidor das maiores virtudes dos humanos. Determinação, confiança, iniciativa e humor. Também com iniciativa venho lhe fazer as seguintes ponderações: Quais motivos levam seu país, e na sequência, muitos outros e o planeta quase por inteiro a se comportar de forma estranha e insensata, um cidadão, uma sociedade, o mundo.
Entendo da seguinte forma: 1º A proliferação de prostituídas ideologias criadas pelos cinemas, TVs e games, deturpam a educação das crianças, jovens e qualquer ser normal. 2° O bulling disseminado na sociedade, onde o feio, o negro, o gordo, o baixo, o pobre… são discriminados, mal vistos, esquecidos por aqueles que contrapõem a estes estereótipos, ricos, de olhos azuis, bonitos, espertos, mal educados.
3°Individualismo e libertinagem sem austeridade; 4º Culturas, religiosidades extrema-
das. Cultura e disseminação do maltratar, fingir, fraldar,roubar,prostituir, corromper, extorquir, se drogar, caluniar, praticar ataques, mesmo que em games, filmes, TVs, e por fim, chegando a matar. Sr. Presidente, sendo objetivo, por onde deveríamos começar a reconstruir a consciência de nossa sociedade?A questão seria simples , não fosse enfrentar àqueles que estão ganhando com isto. Não num só tempo, mas formando a opinião de uma maioria. E, sobretudo, com políticas sérias de obstrução de todas as formas de deseducação. Porque, em lugar do mal, não produzir ideologias do bem? Atenciosamente. Grande abraço. Délcio Viani
i love u
Thanks!