From the Obama Grassroots: Students Fire It Up

The following piece was produced through OffTheBus, a citizen journalism project hosted at the Huffington Post and launched in partnership with NewAssignment.Net. For more information, read Arianna Huffington's project introduction. If you'd like to join our blogging team, sign up here If you're interested in other opportunities, you can see the list here.

After Barack Obama's September 7 speech in San Francisco, I met with three students from Humboldt State University who had driven the six hours down from Arcata to hear their man. If Greenwood, South Carolina is "an hour-and-a-half drive from everywhere," to quote Barack, double that for Humboldt County, California. From the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in the east to the rugged Pacific coast, Humboldt is tree country, home to the hardy few, many redwoods, and some mighty fine weed. Its inaccessibility is part of the point of Humboldt. And so I knew when I emailed the students to invite them for coffee that they had to be dedicated Obama supporters. Nobody heads south from Arcata on a lark.

I led the intrepid three, in their Obama tees, to the cafe at the Asian Art Museum, where we settled in for a chat. Scratch chat. It was an interview, for I have acquired a Bandaid-sized tape recorder. Moreover, the atmosphere was solemn, in the way that the young on their best behavior can color a mood. Leslie, the chairwoman of the Humboldt State chapter of Students for Barack Obama, not surprisingly took charge. A poised senior, Leslie is an archeology/anthropology major planning to do research in Belize before going on to graduate school in forensic archeology. When I asked her why Obama, I got the expression, the shift in gaze to somewhere over my shoulder, that I often receive in reply to this question. Clearly, she had been Obamitized, so I knew generally what she was going to say. Her words also encapsulate much that I've found to be significant about the Obama campaign itself. Therefore, since I now have this nifty new recorder, I'll let Leslie speak for herself:

"I grew up in a Republican household, and as soon as I was old enough to register, I registered Republican, because that's what I knew. And I worked on a couple of local campaigns, and I was active with Humboldt State University's college Republicans, and I was just very disheartened by the experience. I felt like I was a nameless body. They would give me a sign and tell me, 'go stand on the corner, right there, hold up the sign for a couple of hours, that's your job.' But they never really asked who I was, what my ideals were; I never got a thank you. So I kind of got out of politics for a couple of years.

"And then I happened to hear Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, and thought wow! This guy is different. He instilled this excitement in me, and he had this passion about the way he spoke. And I just felt like he touched me, and so I kind of followed up with him here and there; I saw him on the Oprah show, and saw him in the newspaper here and there, and I happened to be online, and saw the Barack Obama web site, clicked on it, looked around -- very easy for you to join on at the campaign -- and once again I thought I was gonna be a volunteer where they just told me where to go, that's what you're gonna do, but instead, the campaign calls me, and said 'hey, Leslie, we hear you want to get involved. Would you like to come to Camp Obama?'

"After Camp Obama, I went right to the post office and changed my voter registration to Democrat so that I could vote for Barack in the primary. And I have a completely different outlook on politics now. . . . Just Camp Obama, and the Obama Campaign, I found my voice through that. Before that, I was kind of afraid to speak to other people. I didn't know about politics, because it's such a touchy subject, people get really heated, but with the Obama Campaign, they're encouraging us to do that, and it's okay that we have differences, because we still have common goals as well. And it doesn't really matter what political party you are, we all -- we all have this excitement about Barack, and this passion, and, I don't know, I'm touched by him."

All the elements are here: the personal, almost mystical connection to Barack Obama, often beginning with that convention speech; the importance of the Internet for this presidential race; the Obama campaign's emphasis on each volunteer's "story" (translation: the dignity and worth of every single American that the Democratic Party hasn't really believed in since the Depression); the sharing of stories leading to the transformative experience of Camp Obama; the acceptance of differences between Democrats and Republicans, balanced by an acknowledgment of common goals -- core to Barack Obama's message and the man himself. Leslie's story also includes the significant note for this presidential race of voter re-registration, which I talked about in an earlier blog on the tabling at farmers' markets.

A lovely irony for me about Leslie is that she, a twenty-something college student, is the first Obama operative I've met who is concerned that her group toe the line with the FEC. She had wrestled with the pros and cons of registering Students for Obama as an official campus club. As a club, her group could table on campus. However, they wouldn't be able to ask for donations. Leslie sought advice from Meredith Small at Obama central. "You don't want to be a solicitor," Meredith told her. "That was huge for me," Leslie said, relieved to be relieved of the burden of fundraising.

Indeed contact with Obama Central may be the key to the engine of Students for Barack Obama, which has chapters at all 23 (number courtesy of Leslie) California state universities and colleges. "The California [Obama] team is so available to us," Leslie said. "They'll call and ask, 'How are you doing up there?'" Every Tuesday there is a conference call among the chapter leaders and the older folk with Obama California. By now Leslie knows some of the other student leaders, especially the ones who were with her at Burbank Camp Obama. "I talk to these people on Facebook all the time," she said. The last weekend in September, Leslie's group from Humboldt State and Obama supporters from other colleges in northern California will be driving to Reno "to support Nevada." The gas money alone is an act of commitment.

When Leslie and I first sat down together, she said that her goal -- and remember she is only a student -- is to bring all the Humboldt County Obama groups together, because "all the little groups in CD1, everyone is doing their own little thing." Here, as I've said in previous blogs, is a weakness of the Obama campaign in California. On the college campuses, however, the campaign seems to have its act together. Professors at Humboldt State are asking Leslie and her friends how to get involved. Administrators are offering to help with the phone banking.

The above piece was produced through OffTheBus, a citizen journalism project hosted at the Huffington Post and launched in partnership with NewAssignment.Net. For more information, read Arianna Huffington's project introduction. If you'd like to join our blogging team, sign up here. If you're interested in other opportunities, you can see the list here.

Comments

[ajv]

Obama has done alright with grassroots, but the problem is that he doesn't have a strong message that people react to. He's not different enough from the status-quo to encite much passion beyond a small group of supporters.

Take Ron Paul for instance. He's totally dominates Internet grassroots with 45,000 meetup.com voluteers, ten times Obama's. Paul's message of peace, prosperity and freedom is powerful. Independents, libertarians and even life long democrats are switching parties just to vote for him the primaries. What young people on the internet want is someone who speaks directly about the issues with clear solutions. Not someone who speaks in emotional platitudes. Someone who's consistent voting record and political career backup their statements and prove they aren't just lying to us, telling us what we want to hear to get elected like every other politician.

There's a reason Ron Paul has won 7 of the last 8 republican straw polls and 4 of the 5 nationally televised republican debates. He's the only Republican running who's against the war. Unlike Hillary he voted against it.

[MidMo]

On their site--
In Illinois they pulled kids from U of IL and other schools to roadtrip to Iowa last weekend.

That would be at least 4 hour ride, the group of 55, hit 1800 doors.

No college student would do that on a lark.

[Old time Dem]

The thing about Obama is that he appeals across the spectum because he has the same vision as so many of the every day American people.

He is able to give such good speeches not only because he is smart and articulate, but because he has actually done so many of the things he espouses.

College students certainly find him an attractive figure of hope and change, but we older folks also find him a figure of courage and justice.

We also see he has had all the right experiences to make him a leader for the now and for the future.

This country will not recover without Americans uniting to solve the serious problems facing us. There isn't another candidate in the field from either party who isn't mired in the old partisan fights.

Obama is the only one who can reach across the aisle and bring Americans together whether they be Democrats, Republicans, independents, young, old, black, white and on and on..........

This is the one time Americans can show their wisdom in selecting a leader. Let it be Barack Obama.

[Chocolate2008]

YES !

Obama 2008 !

[researcher]

there is an illegal war going on college students where are the protests like with we had with vietnam?

could it be the draft?

we humans are pretty good at looking out for old number one including myself.

and we wonder why the republic is in trouble.

my generation has handed off to your generation a huge national debt, a huge trade defeit, a war for profits industrial military complex, a declining middle class, a divided country, fewer well paying jobs, tax cuts for outsourcing, an educational system on the decline, zero money in the social security bank with an aging population, open borders, disrepect from the rest of the industrialized world, etc etc.

that should keep you busy for awhile.

[Zhonni]

I can feel your pain and remorsefulness and this no-social-security-generationer forgives you.

I agree there is a lot wrong with our country.

There isn't much reaction because people are very busy and can't even afford to take a day off.

The last I heard, employers are trying to scrap lunch breaks because not a lot of people take them anyways,what?

As for students, I dont know if the lack of massive demostrations is due to the absence of the draft. I must say professors were a big factor too.

[Kansas Evans]

It's like John Mayer sings, "We keep on waiting for the world to change."

You'd have to know all the lyrics to really get the point, though.

[MarkieBee]

The CD plan is still relatively new and hasn't been tried for a presidential election - ever! So excuse us for not having the organizational chart down to the individual level yet. But that changes later this month and will only solidify through Feb. 5. Considering where we are compared to the other candidates, we're way ahead. So for comparison's sake, when mentioning this as a "problem" please put that into context. I'm sure the other candidates would love to have the problem of having too many supporters doing their own thing. And really, that's the definition of grassroots.

[Kansas Evans]

Thanks for the context. Keep working hard!

[Zhonni]

I wish Obama the best I hope he wins the nomination.

I believe if he can be within 6% of anybody, in any poll, he would win because students would make up the difference.

Students like myself don't get called to give an opinion on polls. I am going to vote and haven't missed a vote since I registered.

[Kansas Evans]

This is why Barack Rocks!!

Except the whole everybody doing their own thing. Get it together!
Anyway,

Go OBAMA 08!!!!

[SensibleAmerican]

A lot of wide eyed socialists have been "obamatized"! "Oh! He gives such great speeches", "Oh! He's so good looking" and ofcourse that "he's for change and hope"!

Yep! ALL he does is give great speeches: "we have to get back our Country", "we have to do this and that together" and "together we will make it happen" ... but specifics? Oh well, does it not really matter to those "Obamatized"!

The fluff can last just so long and Barack Hussein is actually on the decline. I had predicted he would fizzle out by the time the first primary vote is cast as the hot air runs out of his media hyped balloon and cooing and sighing of the wide eyed left wing fringe!!!

It's happening ... downward ho! BHO!!

[Kansas Evans]

Yeah, sensible, this one time I've gotta disagree with you. You can be right about a lot of things, though.