Never Too Old - My Camp Obama Experience or Why I Am Campaigning Again After 42 Years
What is a 57-year old man doing in a week-long summer camp designed for campaign interns and volunteers? Especially one who has spent much of his professional life as a political reporter and analyst with the U.S. Department of State. The answer: learning new skills and networking. But most of all, getting in touch with the reason that I believe this is the most important election of my lifetime.
This blog originally appeared at
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community /blog/markwiznitzer
Camp Obama - Prelude
My mother called me on Friday to find out what I thought of Camp Obama. She was calling from the upscale assisted living Hyatt Classic Residence in southern Florida, where it seems most of the elderly occupants are Hillary supporters (probably blissfully unaware that the chairman of the board of the company that owns the facility, Penny Pritzker, is Barack Obama’s national finance chairman).
Many of my friends, corporeal and virtual, and relatives, are curious about my decision to apply for and attend the four-day training program for campaign volunteers. But my mom is probably the only one who actually, but vaguely, remembers my last direct involvement in a campaign. It was Congressman John Lindsay’s first successful run for mayor of New York in 1965. Drawn to NY State’s progressive Republicans (Nelson Rockefeller and Jacob Javits), I tried to become a Young Republicans, but the Queens NY branch would not let me join because at 16 years of age I was… too young. However, this did not diminish my enthusiasm for the candidate, whose posters I was tasked with hanging on every prominent telephone pole in the neighborhood. Around the same time, I tried to help the unsuccessful campaign of my friend Vito to become president of our High School. I remember that it was fun and an exciting time in my life.
My interest in politics began during the 1960 Presidential election of John Kennedy. I had just entered the US school system, having moved to NYC from the Caribbean island of Curaçao. The major issue of the time was school integration. I wasn’t sure at first what the big deal was, for I had come to an all-white fifth grade class from a Dutch public school where I was one of a small handful of whites in the room. However, it quickly became apparent to me that a fundamental change was underway in America. Had I been ten years older I might have gone to Washington to march with Martin Luther King Jr. or sought a role in the civil rights movement.
By the time I went to college in 1966, Vietnam was taking center stage and my nonpartisan political engagement was limited to a peaceful march against the war in Washington. My last activity was protesting in downtown NYC following the shootings at Kent State; when the event turned violent I walked down the subway steps to board a train to Brooklyn, “dropped out”, and withdrew entirely from politics for several years.
I later steered myself to the path of public service and entered the US State Department as a career diplomat in 1976. During the next 23 years of federal service, the Hatch Act precluded my participation in US political campaigns. I did get to enjoy reporting on and analyzing foreign politics, however. In fact, as political counselor at the US Embassy in Quito Ecuador in the early 90’s, I had the privilege of accompanying and advising the top three presidential candidates as they campaigned in different areas of the country.
Following a career dedicated to defending the Constitution, protecting our national security and advancing American interests overseas (including as desk officer for Iraq from 1980 to 1982, when Saddam Hussein was our “friend”), my retirement came in 1999. I went on to get an Executive MBA and began to relish the pleasures of retirement. But by the beginning of this year I could no longer remain on the sidelines as the damage to our country caused by the current Administration continued to mount.
June 4 Camp Obama - First Impressions
There was no hesitation when www.barackobama.com posted an announcement that a Camp Obama would be launched to train interns and volunteers. My application went in the same day. Later, the thought occurred to me that I could be the oldest — I am 57 — in the camp, and what would that be like? In a phone interview with Alex, a staffer who screened applicants, he explored this issue, asking if I wouldn’t prefer to attend a yet to be scheduled two-day program in the works. I was not too worried though, since my college-age daughter and son in high school had done a good job over the years of keeping me young and connected to popular culture. I hoped camp would answer the question of what else I could do to help my candidate. My interests were to learn modern campaigning skills and network with people who sought the same objective. Three weeks before the June 4 Camp Obama convened in Chicago I received an invitation that I immediately accepted.
Making my arrangements for travel and accommodations for three nights in Chicago, I wondered how all those college kids could attend, since we all had to pay our own way. It was with some trepidation that I entered the classroom on an upper floor of a Chicago office building late that Monday morning. There I was welcomed by Camp Director Jocelyn Woodards, a onetime organizer who had worked in Chicago with Obama and in Washington for VP Gore. A woman with a ready smile and tightly braided hair, her eyes revealed a joie de vivre and curiosity about what motivated me to come to camp.
Looking around from my back row seat I counted fifty “campers”. There was another older man in the front row. (By the end of the day I would get to know Robert well. An African-American from Detroit, he went into telecommunications after tours in the US Navy, and now works for AT&T with GM as his customer. Mitchell was a Republican swept up in the Reagan Revolution. A 20-year member of the National Republican Committee, we shared a concern about national security under Bush, and he had decided to join Republicans for Obama. For the rest, the campers ranged from high school teens to the twenties, with only a couple who were in their 30’s or 40’s. It was a racially mixed group of men and women. Many if not most were from Illinois, but we ranged geographically from California to Vermont to Florida. Over the next 3 ½ days, their intelligence, enthusiasm and commitment convinced me that, with their help, Obama could win this election and there was much promise in America’s future.
It was apparent from the first session with Jocelyn that we were in for a well-planned program of instructive lectures and role-playing. Little time would be spent on the issues, since no could put forward his positions than the candidate himself. We would meet some of the key people of the Obama campaign. Our first substantive session on Campaign Culture was led by Bob Creamer of the Strategic Consulting Group. He provided an information-packed presentation starting with a general theory of campaigns, getting a candidate elected, what makes a great campaign, the targeting of “persuadable” and “mobilizable” voters, application of quantitative approaches, and different forms of messaging and research.
After a session by campaign staff on finance and fundraising, we “hiked” to Obama headquarters (campfires or camp songs) to get a tour of the offices. Obama HQ occupies an entire floor in a high-rise building. We passed through a room strewn with papers and filled with some graduates of the two previous camps were assembling packets for a canvas in adjacent Iowa in 5 days. After touring the entire office we received briefings on field activities and campaign operations.
Camp Obama - The Training
John Kupper, partner with campaign consultant David Axelrod and Campaign Manager David Plouffe in AKP Media, led off the morning of June 5 with a discussion of the Obama for America Message. Subsequently, a campaign deputy director explained the role of Obama’s policy staff, followed by a presentation on New Media and how the internet is utilized, and a presentation by Jackie Kendall of Midwest Academy on the use of more traditional media. We simulated organization of a media “event” and then had canvass training. Those of us with prior canvass experience were asked to help in HQ with the tedious task of checking routes that canvassers would be asked to cover on Saturday. This provided me an opportunity to talk to some of the responsible staff members and seek their guidance on grassroots activities I had previously worked on.
For me personally, the highlight of camp came on day three. The morning session was led by Mike Kruglik, who was one of the people with whom Obama worked when he arrived in Chicago for the first time to take a job as community organizer. Assisted by Paul Scully, an organizer in New Jersey, they explained the techniques of community organization originally popularized by Saul Alinsky (who offered Hillary a job, but she turned it down), and how these might help in winning elections. While Alinsky was considered an agitator who delighted in the opportunity to “rub raw the sores of discontent”, Obama would opt for a less confrontational or doctrinaire approach that proved successful in building relationships that last to this day.
We were asked to find another camper with whom we had not yet had contact and conduct a “one-on-one”, the technique Obama used to learn people’s stories and identify community leaders. This was his open secret to organizing and gaining power. The purpose of the exercise was to uncover our subject’s “self-interest” in joining the campaign, not just the obvious “against the war” or “desire for change”, but rather the personal experiences and relationships that motivate the commitment to work for Barack Obama.
For my one-on-one, I picked out a crew cut young man, Mario, who had not spoken up in two days. Mario had graduated in economics from Berkley. His parents are both professionals, originally from the Philippines, and raised him in a comfortable southern California community. After 9/11, Mario joined the ROTC and following his graduation went to Iraq with the Army, where he spent 2006 training Iraqi military in his specialty, targeting. He began our conversation by telling me he could relate to a comment I had made during an earlier group discussion that many of my acquaintances were motivated by idealism, like those who had joined the Peace Corps inspired by John Kennedy. Perhaps because Mario and I are first generation Americans born of immigrant parents, we are less rooted to local communities and therefore identify more strongly with the ideals of America.
In reviewing our one-on-one experience, I had the chance to inform everyone that this silent member of our camp was in fact an Iraq veteran, a hero in our midst. The college kids absorbed the news in silence. As far as Mario’s self-interest, I suggested that he was seeking validation for his decision to join the military and his service in Iraq. Perhaps Obama’s plan for getting out of Iraq, which includes training the Iraqi army, and his calls for Americans to treat returning troops with dignity and ensure they get the services they need, Mario finds validation and comfort.
We heard a number of personal stories that day, of urban youth turned on by politics, privileged white kids concerned about the lack of diversity in their communities and the disparities in our society, of children of mixed race for whom Obama represents their desire to find their place in America.
Perhaps the most gripping of the many moving stories we heard this day was that of Thione (who is a future MacArthur Foundation grant candidate, if I ever met one). Born in the Cameroon, he was the 12th of 28 children in his family. He eloquently related his story of growing up in poverty, how he absorbed his father’s admonition that the way to get ahead was through education, and how he has lived a life driven from an early age to providing a better life for his mother. His stellar academic path took him to Europe and then to the US, where he now resides in Cleveland. Among his many activities is organizing, with grants from various organizations and foundations, the travel of young Americans to experience Africa first hand. For those of us who read Obama’s autobiographical “Dreams From My Father”, Thione’s story resonated with similar introspection and inspiration.
Camp Obama Reflections
The one-on-one exercises were also an opportunity for me to explore more deeply my own reasons for coming to Chicago. It was primarily anger.
It is not just the war, for which only the military and their families are asked to sacrifice for a misguided policy. It is because Bush let Osama get away and Iraq set back our war on terror by another ten years. It is the abuses committed at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, dissipation of international support and sympathy following 9/11, gross fiscal irresponsibility through lopsided tax cuts and congressional pork, divisive politics and questioning the patriotism of critics, tolerating incompetence and corruption, subverting basic constitutional provisions for due process, and undermining the separation of church and state, including federal funding for faith-based organizations that will not employ people who do not share their specific religious beliefs. Need I go on? I was determined to do more than send a check in the coming Presidential election. So, I would become actively involved in a campaign that could begin the long task of repairing this country and restoring its greatness.
This is the most important election of my lifetime. Surveying the political landscape there was no question on my part. Like Lincoln in the mid-19th century and Churchill in World War II, Barack Obama was the man for our time. I call it: “History meets the man.” Of all the candidates, only he can reunite us and break with the divisive politics that marked the Clinton and Bush administrations. He has the background to lead us out of our morass and the political skills to inspire and move people to action. So I sought every available means to participate in the campaign to ensure his election and the hope of a better future for my children.
Seeking opportunities to apply some of the skills developed during my days as a diplomat and political officer, I joined grassroots groups on www.barackobama.com that work to counter negative and disinformation in the media. I found volunteers online to help translate materials to Spanish for use with the Hispanic community. I collected signatures on a petition to put Obama on the Vermont primary ballot, and joined hundreds of other like-minded supporters in a canvas of voters in New Hampshire in mid-May. But I wanted to do more. And so I was here at Camp Obama in Chicago IL.
Camp Obama Ends
The afternoon of June 6 brought us another early colleague of Barack Senator Obama, Jamillah Muhammad. Together, and overcoming her trepidation about working in the projects on Chicago’s South Side, they conducted the voter registration drive that helped to elect Senator Carol Moseley Braun. After her Muhammad’s inspiring talk, we conducted a mock caucus to better understand how such meetings function and differ from primary elections. And on our last day Jocelyn led a discussion of how to GOTV - Get Out The Vote.
During the course of four days, we had an opportunity to meet and hear from important Obama campaign staffers. Field Director Temo Figueroa, Illinois State Director Jon Carson, and NH Director Matt Rodrigues, who happened to pass through town, provided briefings on their activities and strategies.
In the early afternoon of the last day we had a “graduation ceremony”. Our guest Speaker was Betsy Myers, Chief Operating Officer of Obama for America (Obama wants the campaign to run like a business) A former Clinton Administration official, she described how she left her last position as Executive Director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government when offered the opportunity to work for Obama, which also entailed moving her husband and five-year old child.
For those of you who are not directly involved in the campaign and are less interested in the mechanics than the candidate let me offer a few impressions. Obama retains the loyalty of people who have known and worked closely with him over the past 20 years. He has attracted highly experienced and professional campaign staff. They are all engaged in a venture about which they are enthusiastic. They also assured us that what you see and hear of him is genuine, that Obama is the real deal, an authentic leader, and unlike some other candidates, not the product of lies and spin.
Everyone understands this is a long slog, with its ups and downs. But Obama will try to conduct a positive campaign, reserving the right to respond to negative attacks. There will be lots of time to address “experience” and other red herrings. He will move at his own pace, and the policy positions that are articulated along the way will reflect his philosophy. The rules for fundraising will be followed carefully, even though this generates extra work. The polls can change dramatically right up to the final days. There is no attempt to package Obama, but rather to let him be himself. He is what some call a “post-partisan” politician, and the pundits will have a hard time understanding the implications of this. But the voters want change, and just about everyone who meets Barack Obama knows that he is very unique and represents that change.
