Slice of Life

Its been too long. I promise to be more consistent and make time to write every day.

This was a great weekend. After working hard for three weeks straight, I got a brief respite from madness of the office. Saturday at the Bewley’s in Guilford was a perfect way to come back to Connecticut.

It was hard to leave Connecticut, but I have to admit there is so much to do in Cleveland in the next 22 days it was even harder to keep my thoughts from wandering back. The first leg of my flight to Philadelphia arrived late -- not late enough for me to give up on my connection, but just late enough to make me run to the next gate. There was a mild sense of relief in knowing that I was able to reserve a seat in an exit row online the night before. Walking onto the plane I realized two things (1) this was a small puddle jumper meaning no extra room in the exit row (2) there was no way my duffle bag would fit in the over head compartment. I tried futilely to stuff my duffle bag into the compartment and after 30 seconds the person behind me says, “you’re going to need a black hole generator to get that in there.” Great. Thanks man. And then he sits down next to me.

I finally get settled in and over head comes this announcement “We’re fourteenth in line here and unfortunately there is no way to get the air going until we’re moving, we apologize, hang in there.”

So I look over to this gentleman and say:

So what are you doing in Cleveland?

I am heading there to put on an event -- he was clearly guarded in his response -- you?

Oh I am a volunteer with the Obama campaign in Cleveland.

Great, well I am one of Bill’s advance mans. He’s coming to Cleveland Thursday.

We start talking about the field program in Ohio, what the structure is and who the players are. He was curious to know how we could build an event in 3 days that would fit in well into the current campaign on the ground. Do I know a printer near by who can do tickets? What are the constituencies in the area? How far is your regional office from downtown? etc. etc.

Talking further, I find out that he worked Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992 starting back in New Hampshire. He ended up serving as Clinton’s body man in the first administration – for West Wing fans, Charlie’s role (played by Dule Hill) was based on his job. I picked his brain about hill politics, White house turn over and how transition programs are run.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Bill Clinton is coming here Thursday and we have the fight of our lives here to win Ohio for Obama.

Now that’s a big lemon meringue slice of life.

Devil's in the Details

I haven't posted in a couple of days because I have been consumed writing a speech and presentation for surrogates of the Obama campaign. The task: create a presentation on the health care system and the Obama-Biden plan and you only have 20 minutes of talk time.

Here is an email exchange highlighting the details you dive into with a project like this.

On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 7:57 PM, NK wrote:

Sachin, i wanted to get your feedback on my pronouns. Am having issues as to whether I can use "we" when we're talking about the plan. On the one hand, "we", if it includes myself, aren't going to be directly involved in slashing administrative overhead. However, it kind of sounds nice to be inclusive and say that "we'll" be doing this and "we'll" be holding companies accountable, etc. Because if I use "they," referring to obama and biden, it just sounds a little funny ("they'll" slash administrative overhead). and if I say, "Barack Obama and Joe Biden," it's just unwieldy. Do you think the below is acceptable?

Now that we've talked about how there's going to be more cash in your pocket to pay for health care, let's talk about how the Obama-Biden plan will eliminate wasteful spending. Did you know that at the same time that health care premiums have doubled for the average family in the last 7 years, insurance profits have more than doubled? If we don't do something now, our costs are going to double again, and go right into the pockets of insurance companies. That's why cutting costs is a key point of the Obama-Biden plan.

First, we will slash administrative overhead, which is where 1 out of 4 health care dollars go these days. We'll require insurance companies to put more money into patient care, and less into efforts to deny it. By reducing paperwork and holding insurance companies accountable for the amount they spend on paper-pushing, we'll not only cut down on costly red tape, but allow your doctor to spend more time with YOU.

NK

On Oct 1, 2008, at 8:32 PM, Sachin J Shah wrote:

Its an interesting issue your bring up.

As I see it there are three different uses of "we" in the dialogue. Highlighted in different colors.

I think if you use the "we" in blue ("now that we've talk") in reference to you and the collective audience, it obscures when you use the "we" highlight in green. The "we" in yellow is absolutely fine regardless of what we do with the other pronouns because it is more a collective "we need to do something now"

I think if you take out the one in blue, it will make the others more clear. I think the ones in green are at your discretion, I can see arguments both ways, I would maybe use fewer and see what that does for the delivery.

Probably more than you wanted, but let me know if that helps.

Sachin

On Oct 2, 2008, at: 1:30 AM, NZ wrote

dude, it's great. i was already moving that way but i needed the moral support to actually make up my mind. thanks!

Human Nature

Yard signs. Seemingly innocuous, these yard signs have become the bane of daily life in the office. Supporters of Obama stream in daily asking for signs and one would think, why not indulge potential voters and give them the signs they so badly want so they can demonstrate to all who they support. These yard signs however represent something to the staff that is much bigger.

Let me take you through an interaction that occurs daily with Obama supporters.
Staff: Hi Sir, how are you doing today? Have you decided whether you’re supporting Barack Obama in November?

Voter: Absolutely! He’s the greatest thing since slice bread and we all love him here.

Staff: Well that great to hear sir, we’re looking for people in your neighborhood to step up and volunteer for campaign in your neighborhood. I am actually a volunteer myself. Can we count on you to reach out to your neighbors about voting?

Voter: Well you know I would normally jump at the chance to volunteer, but…[enter random excuse here]. You know what though? I would love a yard sign -- can I get 5 of them?

And it would be one thing if that happened once in a while, but that happens 98% of the time (today we had 3000 phone calls and recruited 50 volunteers) so gets demoralizing. People come in constantly to the office asking for nothing more than yard signs, taking staff away from reaching out to potential voters and volunteers. Our office, being in one of the “worst parts” of Cleveland, is usually the last office in Cleveland with yard signs left. This translates to folks local and suburban coming to the office for a yard sign scoffing at the idea of contributing time or money to the campaign.

Yard signs, t-shirts, buttons and posters, better known as chum in the office, are the antithesis of the Obama campaign. “The campaign is centered around organizing members of the community to come together and work for the change they know to be necessary. Yard signs don’t vote, people do.” That usually the party line you’ll get but there is something more -- my observation is that frustration on part of the staff is fueled by an ever so subtle sense of entitlement. We have put, school, work and families on hold to come work for Change in your neighborhood and you won’t pick up the phone to call your neighbor? I don’t know its hard to put my thumb on exactly what it is, but on an unrelated note we got these amazing posters and stickers of Obama in to the office today which were snatched by the field organizers and full time volunteers. I'm lucky I got a couple -- check them out in these pictures

First week in Cleveland

It’s been a full week since I left school (don’t worry I am coming back) and came to work full time for Senator Obama’s campaign in Cleveland. This has been a week of long hours, humbling experiences and small victories. In the office here, I have been working to organize the 6th and 7th ward of Cleveland for Obama. The work here has been described as the “tip of the spear” – canvassing door-to-door, making phone calls and recruiting local volunteers. Cleveland, especially the area I am involved with, is rife with history and currently in financial upheaval. Hough, one of the neighborhoods in my ward, was the site of the Hough Race Riots in 1966, when the city was shut down for an entire week with National Guard troops. Subsequently, these areas fell into disrepair and when the bottom feel out from under subprime financed houses, these neighborhoods and these families were devastated. Its easy to use language like devastated, but take a look at some of the pictures attached and you get a sense that when 50% of homes are boarded up and there are houses for sale for $6,000, devastated only begins to describes this community. These days, suburban families looking to help hurting neighborhoods move back to Hough bringing their money and leading by example. The result is an amalgam of brand new houses, boarded up/leveled plots and small apartment buildings -- all on the same street. To further illustrate the bipolar nature of the community look no further than ward 6 and the Cleveland Clinic. Ward 6 -- boarded up houses, the highest prisoner reentry in the state, rampant unemployment, unsafe when the sun goes down and as you walk the street the grandeur and clean lines of Cleveland Clinic break the horizon. There is much more to say about work I’m doing as a member of Obama’s national health care committee, the people I work with and random conversations with voters, but for the sake of keeping this short, I’ll wrap up here. At the suggestion of some I created a blog and will try to post daily to talk about other facets of life on the trail in Cleveland.

This house (left) was one of on our canvass list and across the street was a brand new home