Opinion: Barack Obama, during an unplanned stop, works the phones

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Barack Obama had reason to be proud and pleased Saturday with the work of his on-the-ground campaign in Missouri. A rally in St. Louis drew an estimated 100,000 people; a similar event later in the day across the state in Kansas City attracted about 75,000 (more details available here).

So it made sense that between the two events, he would drop by one of his campaign offices (at right).

Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico.com was the media ‘pool’ reporter for the excursion, and she relates that Obama ‘thanked volunteers and spoke with about two dozen voters on the phone. He also ate a slice of sweet potato pie –- yes, pie.’

Brown filed more, and since it speaks for itself, we pass it along as she wrote it:

“We only got two more weeks,” Obama told the volunteers. “So we got to work tirelessly. We can’t let up at all. Just run right through the tape.”

“It would be fun to win Missouri, wouldn’t it?” he added.

He arrived at the office shortly after 4 p.m. local time, and greeted more than a dozen volunteers who were assembled around several tables, hunched over lists of voter names with phones pressed to their ears. The volunteers rose to their feet and applauded.

“I am so proud of what you guys are doing. This is the lifeblood of this campaign,” Obama said. “It is what makes all the difference in the world. I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”

He then asked the volunteers to get a few undecided voters on the phone. Many of the calls went down like this one: When Karen Puhr, 58, a Democrat and volunteer since June, got a voter on the line, she told the voter that Obama was in the office and wanted to chat.

“Yes he is here, and he wants to talk to someone,” Puhr said to the voter. “I am not kidding you, I am serious. Here he is.”

Obama, who was standing close by, took the phone ...

... from Puhr: “Hello, who’s this? Hey, Ms. Turner, this is Barack Obama, how are you. Well it is nice to talk to you. Are you going to be voting in this election? You are going to be voting for me? All of you? How many do y’all have? Three in your house, and you have four or five four down the street? I just got a whole family. Going to the polls. Well, I am grateful to you. Thank you so much. Keep me in your prayers now. Ok, God bless you, bye bye.”

He repeated this almost two dozen times, taking cell phones and land lines from volunteers, and pacing around the light-filled office as he talked with voters. At one point, he talked with one woman who was dusting, another who said she might have worked with his grandmother on the bomber assembly line.

‘So you were like Rosie the Riveter on there too?” Obama asked. “You are part of that greatest generation. We are very grateful for you.”

Sitting on the table was a sweet potato pie in a box with this written on the outside: “There’s one with Obama’s name on it – just call pie lady.”

It’s unclear what exactly this meant, but it might have had something to do with Obama’s recent and well-publicized obsession with pie.

While talking with a voter, Obama broke off a piece of the pie crust and ate it.

“I’m good, because somebody just gave me some sweet potato pie,” Obama said into the phone.

He took a slice with him as he left.

“And thanks for the pie, by the way,” Obama said before walking out the door. “I am just going to have this one slice.”

Puhr, the volunteer and manager at the county prosecutor’s office, on the visit: “To take time out from everything he does, it is a personal touch we don’t see from our neighbor let alone someone running for president.”

-- Don Frederick