Hillary Stopped By to Say Hi Today

Well it’s been a long day here in MD. Started off with a call from the sitter saying she would need the day off but then hubby came home early (weather prevented a rebuild they had scheduled) so I thought well heck – I’ve already called into work to say I needed to stay home with the kids and that’s covered now. So it was off to campaign headquarters to make a lot of calls for Hillary.

But first I put together a letter to all our friends here in the area to tell them why I was voting for Hillary. I reminded them of my son’s hard work and progress thanks to the early intervention and programs Hillary fought for, put into place and got funded. I reminded them of what her historic run for the White House means to my little girl – of how hers will be the first generation of girls who’ll actually believe us when we tell them they can be anything they want to be when they grow up – even President.

Then a friend called to set up a play date for our girls. I asked her if she was getting out to vote for Hillary today and she told me she’d probably be voting for Obama (Hillary’s not “warm” enough she says). But did I go into action at that! I’ve been at this for nearly a year now and the thought that a friend might actually vote for someone other than Hillary because of that…???? NO! I told her about Hillary’s work with the CDF (her daughter’s got delays too) and a lot of other things she never knew. I convinced her to vote for Hillary and if Kathy votes for her then I’m pretty sure Ron will to ;o)


I’ve only been down to HQ for phone banks once before – I’ve focused all my efforts in our county volunteer-wise – but I ran into a LOT of people I knew there this morning. There was Mike – a friend from on line. He’s a huge supporter of Hillary’s just like me. We’ve never met before so it was wonderful to actually meet after all this time.

I also ran into our statewide coordinator who’s been to several of our local events – Leecia and her assistant Ronda. At one point Ronda came by and told me to find her later – she’d found a couple small Hillary shirts that she thought might fit my kids. And Leecia’s always so upbeat and friendly – she’s the kind of woman who makes you feel like you’ve known her for years and she works herself ragged for Hillary. She’s that devoted to Hillary (they all are really). I think she said she’d gotten about 5 hours of sleep in the past 3 days. Then there’s Adrienne and all of her interns. They were really great about answering our questions as we logged onto the system and started making calls.

I sat near a guy named David who’d gotten there about a half hour before I did (10ish), and he was still there when I headed home at 7:30. Great guy – I got his card and said I’d send him a link to our new Yahoo discussion group – Hillary’s voice. There was also Beverly, who sat near us at the table. She spoke Mandarin and loads of other Chinese dialects and was a warm and hard-working phone banker – totally into helping Hillary make it to the White House.

An hour after I started calling I saw a very dear friend – Susan - who joined us at the table. I’ve known her for years. She’d been key in setting up the Infants and Toddlers program in our state in the early 90s, and knew everything about what we’d gone through early on to line up the early help that’s made such a huge difference for my son. (Another heroine of mine for the programs she helped to put into place for the thousands of kids in our state who’ve benefited from that early intervention that’s so crucial in a child’s development). She and another friend have been going to HQ to phone bank for a month or two now and it was great trading stories with her as we made calls.

Pizza for lunch.

My friend Susan eventually left – she’s going to be bummed out when she hears what happened later.

Loads more calls and then who should wander into the call center around 2:30 but Hillary herself. She stopped by to thank us all for our hard work and you should have heard the cheers! With everything she’s got going on she still thought to come by and thank everyone. She spent some time shaking hands and meeting us – a real class act to be sure.

She really is a woman of the people.

And boy did she fire us up. I turned into a cheer leader after she left and shouted to the room “are we ready to make calls straight through until the polls are closed????” It was like a pep rally for a few minutes I swear!

A few minutes after settling into more calls I overheard a fellow volunteer say to a voter – “you’re never going to believe who I just shook hands with!” I loved the way she worked Hillary’s visit into her calls!

At one point a woman joined us at the table with her 11 year old daughter – this was her daughter’s first time making calls and I just thought that was the coolest thing. A budding new activist and they’re working hard together to help elect our nation’s first woman president.

Around 4 a woman came in and sat at the table behind us. I overheard her say she’d been in the motorcade that brought Hillary to Headquarters and back out that afternoon. I spoke with her later and she said she was a local volunteer who’d been helping in Virginia. They asked her to drive the staff in with Hillary and even after all that excitement, she was back at HQ making calls with us later.

We were all starting to fade a bit around 6 but I was determined to hang in there until the polls closed at 7 – maybe even try to make some calls into the other states in the region that were open until 8. So I called some voters and then I called even more.

At 7:10 we started to get reports that the roads were icing over, so I signed off, signed out, thanked Adrienne for all her hard work and said I’d try to make it back in on Sunday in the lead-up to Wisconsin and Hawaii, got down to my car and…

Found it covered in a layer of ice.

Now our main car just died about two weeks ago (threw a plug which went right up through the engine block) and the ice scraper was – unfortunately – still in the backseat of that car. The roads were really bad so I was in no hurry even though I was tired.

Remember that scene on the train in Doctor Zhivago – where they open up the train doors to find a wall of ice as it roared toward Siberia (or wherever)? Well I thought of that as I rolled down the windows and knocked a wall of ice away. Got a good story out of it anyway I guess. You had to be there ;o)

As you can see, I got home all right – about an hour or so later. It really was a great day even if we didn’t win. I like to think we helped hold the line a bit and I met some really great people in the process.

Now as many of you might know by now, I’ve been really active in our local effort here in Maryland. I thought I’d share something that was reported in today’s Washington Post about our fearless leader Mary B. She’s been the driving force behind our effort and is a big reason for my taking my efforts on behalf of Hillary up a notch or five by posting to these blogs. Her enthusiasm and drive in this effort are contagious trust me. She could be on vacation with her hubby in So. California but instead, she’s here with us, done one of the things she does best.

Stumping for Clinton

Instead she is standing at a Metro station in suburban Bethesda early each morning, bundled in a grey wool coat, one cold bare hand clutching her standard : a wooden stake with two Hillary Clinton yard signs attached.

With the stiff fingers of her other hand, she offers a Hillary Clinton lapel sticker to each commuter who hurries by.

"Sticker for Hillary? Sticker for Hillary?"

Now she’s got a pretty impressive background our leader… she was in the House of Delegates, was elected to the Maryland State Senate and even made a run at the governorship in 1993. Like many of us, she got involved with Bill’s campaign in 1992.

And it was there that she saw Hillary Clinton.

"She came to Annapolis. We did a rally on the statehouse steps. She was speaking for Bill. She did one of her amazing speeches. Not a word misplaced."

Boergers was standing next to US Sen. Barbara Mikulski who was also listening carefully. She remembers Mikulski's assessment: "That's a presidential speech."

Then Boergers realized what Mikulski was getting at and the lens came into focus for her too. This woman, Hillary Clinton, was not just making a speech for her husband. This woman Hillary Clinton could be a president herself.

Smart lady, Mary. She knows people and she saw a leader even back then in Hillary.

Boergers started mustering local support for Clinton last April. She heads a team of 1200 volunteers in Montgomery County. They have been marching in parades, attending community gatherings. Her husband gave her nine days in Iowa as a Christmas gift, and she and several other local women went out there for the caucus.

On the day of the New Hampshire primary, she staffed a phone bank in Baltimore for nine and a half hours, calling voters in that state, making sure they got out to vote. Now there is a small office in Bethesda, and platoons of volunteers waving at passing cars at Montgomery county intersections, and giving out stickers at cold Metro stations getting ready for the Tuesday primary.

At any rate, I thought this article might be a bit of chicken soup for the soul for all of Hillary’s supporters out there. It’s this kind of drive, determination and heart that go into each and every one of us and we’re in this for the long haul folks. It’s a race for delegates and I can’t wait until Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania get their turn to vote.

Until then…

As Tom Petty says… I won’t back down.