"What's going on?" asked one of the staffers. We explained. "My god," she said, "I can't fucking stand Obama people.
Being an Obama Precinct Captain, I always wondered what the tone and Mentality of the Clinton Campaign really was from the inside. Now, we can see it for ourselves.
I gradually learned more about why the other volunteers were delayed. "Actually," Lara said, "we were kind of late because we saw all the bombed-out houses and we were scared to park [the volunteer captain's] really nice car near them."
She studied my face. "We were scared." At Broad and Ridge.
Hillary's staff displayed a disdain for their audience, some areas of the city, and worse, their opposition. There was however Racism in the Anti-Obama people and Mysogeny in the Anti-Hillary people, at the voter level.
Attitudes on Canvassing in West Philly, home to 9 Delegates
On one of the first big weekends of canvassing, I asked to go into West Philly. "We avoid places," a staffer said, "where there are security concerns."
Security Concerns?
Working the Inside Angle with Chris Matthews?
No one paid us mind, that is, until Clinton's supporters circulated an e-mail on Friday afternoon heralding the arrival of Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's political talk show Hardball. He was coming, the e-mail said, for an "off the record peek at our fast-growing outreach program in Pennsylvania.
"Our volunteer coordinator ... is spending a great deal of time recruiting volunteers to help out in the office on Sunday morning (we are asking folks to arrive 11 a.m.) so we can show Chris Matthews how much grassroots support we have here in Philly. ... It is important that we show Chris Matthews that there are a ton of young people and students supporting Hillary here in Philadelphia."
Matthews ultimately cancelled... And the Major Take Away
The one unifying sentiment among all Hillary volunteers, besides the obvious, is their disdain for Obama supporters, whom they see as both delusional and impossibly peppy. Clintonites don't hate them per se, they just think they're not smart enough to think on their own.
There's also an undercurrent of envy. Obama supporters were everywhere in Philadelphia, and in March and the first days of April, we were not. Tales came in from friends of friends: Obama's people get to organize their own rallies; they have local offices all over the city. This, of course, is the character of their campaign, and is the opposite of Clinton's 1990s-style campaign setup.
It was frustrating, and soon led to a semi-revolt at a Wednesday night Philly 4 Hillary meeting. A hodgepodge group arrived to talk about voter registration — the primary registration deadline was five days away — and meet a paid organizer.
The staffer talked about the importance of signing people up to vote. The volunteers said they'd heard enough of this, and wanted to actually do so.
"The other candidate's people are knocking at my door," said an older South Philadelphia woman who eventually just set up her own voter registration effort outside her local ShopRite. "When do we do that?"
We got our chance several days later. This is when I realized that most Hillary supporters I've actually met in this city have two main motivating factors: They're either supposed to support Hillary, or they're horrified of the alternative.
Contrast this to a few bits regarding tales from inside the Philly Obama Campaign
In my four weeks of volunteering, I would enter about 800 names into the database. On average, I'd receive three e-mails a day from the campaign. (Plus, about four phone calls a week.)
Voter Registration (Recall above, there was a revolt in that Hillary Office a few days before the deadline...) Circa March 1st
Emma Tramble, a 46-year-old senior business analyst, lives on Larchwood Avenue... had already led canvassing efforts in Delaware's low-income neighborhoods during the run-up to Super Tuesday, and also organized a series of highly successful voter registration drives on the campus of the Community College of Philadelphia. So, the campaign had her assist with a registration training seminar for all the new volunteers and then, a few days later, asked her to lead a training seminar in Plymouth Meeting for 100 campaign field organizers who would be dispersed throughout Pennsylvania.
"These people had done it in other states," says Tramble, "but Pennsylvania's voter registration process can be tricky, so we trained the trainers in how to do it."
Tramble also organized a sub group
The group met at Tramble's house to figure out leadership positions — a faith-based coordinator, a volunteer coordinator, a data entry coordinator, a canvassing coordinator, etc. — and within weeks, the West Philly, south of Market team expanded by the dozens. By March 24, the group registered 1,800 new Democratic voters.
And about those Security Concerned Neighborhoods... West Philly? The white writer never blinked an eye as he went right into the area.
I showed up at the office the next Saturday morning and was assigned to canvass the Point Breeze neighborhood around 21st and Tasker streets. It's black and poor and there's a mural on a park wall bearing the names of more than 30 young people killed in gang violence. Aside from one woman who for some reason was convinced that Obama's a Muslim for not letting some pushy dude outside Di Bruno Bros. take his photo, all of the people I talked to here were Obama supporters. Most were enthusiastic in their support
And the Writer finds Racist Support for Hillary on the South Side
I talked with 30 white voters: 20 politely shut the door in my face, a few couching their Hillary support by saying, "And it's not because he's black."
And Worse Still
And a guy in a Phillies hat held the hand of his young child as he put his finger in my face and calmly told me, "If you think the niggers got attitudes now, wait till they get the White House."
UPDATE: in Interest of Fairness, there were many cases where Mysogony and hatred was expressed towards Clinton, though at the voter level. This differs I'd comment from the disdain the Clinton Staffers had for certain areas/populations/opponents. That Anti-Clinton Sentiment:
"I just got one woman," said Kathy, looking aghast, "who called Hillary a bitch."
Two teenagers yelled, "Hillary Clinton can give me a blowjob" from their window on Robb Street.
Reading the articles, I have a few opinions that confirm what I've thought all along:
- Hillary's Campaign is a Media Marketing Creation, a Cable-News Craft as explained by the first article
- Obama's Campaign is on the streets with the people
- Obama's Support is Diverse if at time timid
- Hillary's Support is either out of Conviction or out of Hatred/Fear
Because of This, it's no wonder to see Hillary morph in Pennsylvania into the 100% Negative Republican she's become...
Oh, and to finish up, the Clinton people hate the Blogs too
Mike agreed. "Now that Bush will be gone soon, the bloggers need a new target," he said. "It's her. She's always been a target."
Incredible... no wonder they're spiking the Polls...
Update Commentary: To the people below who accuse me of Disunity, the broader commentary of this diary is to examine the roots of division between the campaigns. On one hand, there is an active, buzzing campaign registering voters, block walking every neighborhood, and empowering Grass Roots Volunteers. One the other side, there is disdain, distrust, and even resentment. The anger and frustration can be understood, but in these articles, when the guard was down, the real feelings boiled up. The journalists spent a month each undercover in the campaigns posing and working as Volunteers. And the tone of the two articles is interesting. Some commentary from the writers is included, but what's most revealing is the commentary and sentiment of the Hillary Staffers, who avoid neighborhoods, resent Obama People and seem, honestly, a wee-bit bitter.
Unity begins when people get over their anger. This isn't to say all sides are so divided we can't come together, however the polls indicate a spiked differential between spiteful voters who protest to pollsters in choosing McCain vs. Obama than the other way around. And this diary is an exploration of where and how some sentiments come to be formed.
If you think this is a Hit Diary, or a POS diary, more power to you. However, I haven't seen anywhere before a more revealing look behind the curtain than in these two pieces of journalistic work. And if you read both articles in full, as I did, I can't see how any rational person wouldn't come to the same conclusion I did... namely, Unity will Start when Clinton People Get Over Themselves in the name of party.
I can remember Bill Mahar, rightly, saying the same thing in January about Voting for Hillary. We're all democrats in the end, and it's disappointing to see such anger amongst a group of fellow democrats.
UPDATE: The Disdain for Blogs seems to be carrying over. Please rec that new diary.
The Huffington Post headline reads "Hillary Slams Democratic Activists." I'm being told that Hillary Clinton was caught on tape disparaging Barack Obama because he's being supported by MoveOn, and that they opposed military action in Afghanistan.
Now Hillary's Attacking MoveOn.. the Same MoveOn that was created to tell the Right Wing Noise Machine to MoveOn from Impeachment. How Ironic.