On a night when the nation is huddled in front of some sort of television set or computer screen, it is important to look back at what got us to this point.
Hard work by both candidates and volunteers alike presented tonight’s scenario. And since the spotlight is on the McCain and Obama camps tonight in Arizona and Illinois respectively, let me take time out to bring to the stage an underrated ingredient in the receipt for presidential nomination: phone banking.
Phone banking for those who don’t know is basically gathering up large numbers of volunteers to make calls toward registered voters. Both parties do this and for different reasons depending on how close it is to election day.
Back in the summer, I had the chance to phone bank for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in their Forest Hills office. The phone bank was automated and dialed numbers at random. You pick up the phone and basically never hang up. To be honest, it was quite fun and allowed for some creativity in terms of making up alias’ as the volunteers and myself found out. Our goal back then was to inform the person we were calling about Hillary’s track record and ask them whether or not they supported her and if they would vote in the primaries.
Not the case on Sunday, two days before the big night, in the Obama phone bank. Conveniantly looked in Flushing on 38th Avenue between Main and Prince streets in the abandoned “for rent” Interboro College building.
Windows of the phone bank showcasing Obama
This time around, I got a list of telephone numbers and names and voting districts. My goal now, call people in Pennsylvania and ask them whether or not they would be voting for Obama and if they needed a ride to the poll site.
The volunteers at the poll site were very diverse. Male, female, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, young and old were making calls alongside each other.
Andrew Sang, a senior at Stuyvesant High School, told me that he isn’t old enough to vote in this election but if he could, he definitely would. His experience last summer in politics through Flushing Councilman John Liu’s Youth Action Team led him to his first experience in phone banking.
In contrast, Jonathan Edelstein, a native of Kew Gardens and long time registered Democrat and Obama supporter, was making calls one table away. Mr. Edelstein has gone door to door in Ohio and has phone banked from his own home throughout the campaign. In 2004, he was in Philadelphia for the Kerry campaign and said he would be in Philly tonight. too. “Experiencing it face to face is just so much better,” he said. He was contacted through e-mail by the campaign.
Mr. Edelstein on the lower left, and Mr. Sang in the black jacket on the right.
Personally, I just want to know already! By the end of the night, the country will exude change. And if you need another indicator, look at the stock market. It rose nearly 300 points Tuesday. Yes that’s right, ROSE.
