Carla Offenburger: Barack Obama for president

A phone call from him helps affirm her earlier endorsement!

By CARLA OFFENBURGER
December 23, 2007
COOPER, IOWA

I’m caucusing for Barack Obama on January 3 in my Greene County Democratic Party Central Precinct, and I’m thrilled to be doing so. I like to follow my gut instincts, and they’re leading me straight to Obama. I didn’t need Oprah Winfrey (although I admire the woman’s influence). And I didn’t need a lot of the literature I’ve received – from Obama and others. What I needed was Obama himself, and he delivered.

I wrote in my initial endorsement of him in my column of December 3, 2007, that I met him after listening to him speak in nearby Guthrie Center earlier in the fall. I’ve listened to his speeches on-line, and the on-line coverage of the debates.

And in the late afternoon of Saturday, December 22, he called me on my cell phone.

“Carla, this is Senator Barack Obama,” he said, as he introduced himself, explaining he was calling me personally to ask for my support.

Oh, it was him, believe me. I recognized his voice. Plus, it was a call from a cell phone with a “312” number – that’s the area code for his home city of Chicago. And he responded to my specific comments and questions. I’m guessing the entire conversation lasted six or seven minutes, while he was riding in a car leaving Winterset, Iowa, in a snowstorm after he’d made a campaign appearance there.

As I admitted later to my friend Nancy Teusch, I know he’s making a lot of calls like this while he is traveling, but it was still a thrill. I was picked for one of his calls, and that’s enough to make it the highlight of my caucus experience this time around.

What did we talk about?

First, he asked for my support. When I told him I am indeed planning on supporting him, he asked in a joking way if he could “take credit for your decision.” I quickly answered that he sure can take credit, because he IS my decision!

Then I asked how he got my number, since he was calling my cell phone, which is not a listed number. He started to explain how his campaign staff members in Greene County had told him about me, and he knew that I am active in my community. Then, almost as suddenly, he stopped himself, and very humbly said with a chuckle, “I don’t know how I got this number!”

That’s another reason I like him. I hope he’s that frank and honest when he doesn’t know something when he’s president. I also liked how he got correct information from a staff that he trusts. I hope he has – and can depend on – good staff like that in the White House. I have confidence in both those things happening.

Then we moved on to his “electability” in November. He talked about the latest polls showing that he is the candidate among the Democrats currently in the race who can win against any of the Republicans in the race. I told him that’s important to me.

He told me about his confidence in winning over independent voters, as well. I agreed.

We talked about the upcoming Iowa Political Caucuses, of course. He asked me to be a precinct captain for him. A member of his staff asked earlier, and I have been hesitating. But, hey, how can I turn down such an easy request from the next president of the United States? I told him to sign me up!

Then I told him about the lunch I had earlier on Saturday with my mother and sisters, all from Des Moines, in which the conversation was quite intense about the caucuses and how they work. This was especially so, since my sister Tammie Amsbaugh is a precinct captain for John Edwards and my other sister Chris Woods is still undecided. My mother Sue Burt appears to be undecided, too, although Tammie seems to think she’ll be for Edwards by January 3. Mmmm.

I told him he could read my earlier endorsement on our Internet site, Offenburger.com, and he said he would when he got back to the hotel, after two more campaign stops.

He wished me and my family a happy holiday and I wished the same to him – and told him to get home to his family.

Chuck snapped a photo while I was talking to him, which someday might seem a silly picture – me sitting in my rocking chair, talking on my cell phone. But I’m hoping the back of the photo can read, “12/22/07 5:45 pm, Carla talking to President Obama.”

Make your plans now to caucus with me for Obama on January 3, please.

SPEAKING OF CAUCUS NIGHT, there appear to be quite a few Iowans who are tired of this whole process. I’m reading letters-to-the-editors, and hearing things on the radio from folks complaining about the evening campaign phone calls, all the campaign literature arriving by mail and all the television advertising by the candidates. Honestly, this whining concerns me.

This is serious business. We need not only to tolerate what may very well be political overkill, we should bask in it. Our responsibility as Iowans requires it. So what if it’s been a bit more intense and long-lived this time around?

It’s our responsibility to read the literature we get closely – first to see what our candidates are approving on their behalf, and second to see what other organizations are sending out to sway us one way or the other.

It’s our responsibility to accept the phone calls and answer the polls honestly and thoughtfully. This is what the candidates, and the rest of America, are expecting from us.

It’s our responsibility to consider what is being shown in television ads with a critical eye. (And I confess, I’m thankful I don’t watch television and haven’t seen most of what’s on it.)

The Iowa caucus process gives us a chance to be first in the nation on a political decision that will very much change the course of our nation’s future – perhaps moreso this time than in the past. How can we complain about this opportunity? Or how can we not take it seriously right down to the very end, right through the holidays, right down to January 3, the day all of America and much of the world will be watching us here?

And we can rest afterward, when all the candidates will leave us behind, their staffs here will dwindle, the national and international media will forget about us, too. In their wake will be millions and millions of dollars spent in Iowa. According to the Internet site www.iowacaucus.org, “In 2004, Iowa economist Harvey Siegelman estimated that the economic impact of 2004 Iowa caucuses were approximately $50 to $60 million. Considering that both political parties are competitively vying for the nomination and the earlier start to the campaign season, it’s fair to say that the economic impact of the 2008 Iowa caucuses will be tens of millions greater than that of 2004.”

That’s another good reason to be enthusiastic supporters of the Iowa caucuses.

Most important about this year, there’s a lot at stake for our nation. So forget the whining, and let’s get ready for the caucuses with a vow of responsible, thoughtful and enthusiastic participation.

RECYCLING PARTS OF THE CAUCUS PROCESS. I wrote in my original Obama endorsement that I was saving all the literature we were getting, and would recycle it by sending it on to a friend of mine out of state. I did that last week at a cost of $6.40. I think the package was nearly two pounds!

And I got a wonderful thank you call, as well as a hand written note of thanks, from that friend, Douglas T. Bates III, in Centerville, Tennessee. “Dear Carla,” he wrote, “thank you for the campaign stuff. I have salivated over all of it. You knew I would.”

Of course, I’m already saving later campaign brochures and mailings for a second shipment to him after the caucuses are over.

All Iowans should do something similar. Most people across the U.S. – everybody except possibly the people of the other “early” campaign states of New Hampshire and South Carolina – have no idea how much we Iowans are wooed during the caucus campaigns. So share the wealth!

FINAL WORD HERE, and it’s a repeat, please join me on January 3 – and cast your important vote for Obama!

To read Carla Offenburger’s December 3, 2007, column endorsing Senator Obama’s presidential campaign, click here.

You can write to the columnist at carla@Offenburger.com.