"The reason I do this," said Barbara MacIntyre, "is because I can see it makes a difference."
For the past three months, Barbara, a local coordinator in the Bennington, Vt. Obama Campaign has worked from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. "There were mostly Republicans here," Barbara MacIntyre said the other evening, sitting at one of the front desks in the Bennington Democratic Party headquarters. Now, in 2008, she said things are different, "We'll know Nov. 4."
Barbara was born a Democrat, "It's in the blood, my grandfather gave me his Truman buttons; my father his Stevenson buttons," Even though she remembers marching for Civil Rights when she was in elementary school, it was her high school civics teacher who recruited her for her first political campaign in Pittsfield, Mass.
When she came to Bennington, Vt. in 1966, she worked during the day for a local Eveready Battery Company "back when people got their hands in the chemicals" but kept her hands in politics in the evening. She volunteered for all the Kennedy campaigns." For the past few years, she's been retired to full time volunteering for the Democratic Party.
Meeting John, Robert and Ted Kennedy, and their families and Roosevelt 'Rosey Grier [bodyguard for Robert Kennedy]," she likes to think she learned from the best. "They told me there are only two important lessons -- you have to be able to deal with people and know how to run a campaign." None of that was hard for her; she's had years now of experience running campaigns and she loves to talk to people "even the hard core republicans. Hey," she added, "some of those people come up with large donations!"
"When he gets elected, Obama needs to talk to heads of government to get them all on board making this world better," Barbara advised. "We're no longer Number 1, except for Number 1 in the doldrums. Oh, and Bill Richardson would make a great Secretary of State."