PHILADELPHIA SOLE: My weekend with Hillary

Prelude

Listen – Hillary is scoring with the older vote consistently. What does that tell you? Listen – Listen to your elders. Remember they are they ones that have been on this planet longer than any of us……

When I first arrived in the center of Philadelphia by train I immediately started looking for signs of Obama and Hillary. But at first it seemed that I saw more old Kerry/Edwards stuff. There was a great art poster of Obama on one of the bus stops with the word HOPE at the bottom. And on that first day I only saw one black man passing out Obama flyers; a group of young white men and women passed by and one of them yelled, “Hillary all the way!” I was trying to get a feel for how things were on the ground. These were my first clues.

When I say Madame you say President. “Madame” – “President” “Madame” – “President”

Stayed at one of the filthiest youth hostels I have ever seen. The room had at least 20 beds in it, maybe more. There was a club across the street so for Friday and Saturday night things were pretty loud. I was too tired to notice or care. I still slept really well. The 1^st night the guy above me was somewhat heavy and he kept on moving around a lot which made the bed squeak a lot.

I loved walking around Chinatown in Philly. There was so much support for Hillary there. The first time I walked around I would say about 70% of the windows of the restaurant and stores had Hillary for President signs. There was one place with an Obama sign and another place with both an Obama and Hillary sign. I went back a second time when I needed a boost of confidence and a lift in my spirit.

Clinton country. Clinton country. Clinton country. Clinton country. Clinton country.

One elderly woman I met at a mixer for Hillary supporters at the Sole food restaurant told me she lives in a not so nice area and she can not put a Hillary sign in her window because they will break her window. Another gentleman from DC said that Hillary “is the whole package” once in a while “someone comes along that has it all” - Ben Franklin, FDR, John Kennedy and HRC.

Diane and Liz started Hireheels as a grassroots support (mechanism) for Senator Clinton. The first thing they did was throw a Hillary supporter’s party or Hilladarity event. And it was at of all places “Sole Food.” The second thing they did was a pub crawl for Hillary. They went from bar to bar in search of Hillary supporters and when they found one they stickered them with a Hillary sticker. This was campaigning party girl style at its’ best.

Chelsea’s mama not Obama. Chelsea’s mama not Obama. Chelsea’s mama not Obama.

On Saturday I went and worked out of the North East Philly office. A working class neighborhood so tailor made for Hillary. Sabrina and I went with these two Philadelphians (women partners I think) in a jeep, with the top down, so it would feel real adventurous! When both seats got stuck and we had to climb into our seats through the window we laughed – more fodder for our stories. Embellish it a little – I jumped in through the roof and sped away as an Obama supporter was hard on my heels.

Sabrina came from New York City by 2 hour bus. She only stayed the day. Carol dropped her and me at the transportation center at the end of the day. Carol is this wonderful retired woman who had driven from her home in Vermont and had been in Philadelphia working on the campaign for the last 2 weeks! When she talked about why she was supporting Hillary she mentioned that everything was on track for her to get the nomination until “this pied piper came along.” I liked her attitude. She even brought her dog. The dog stayed at doggy day care while she drove people from place to place, neighborhood to neighborhood.

The people in the neighborhood were really nice as we went door to door campaigning for Hillary. There were a lot of people that were genuinely undecided and were very sincere about getting more information. So we gave our pitches as best we could and passed out some additional hand made information. I had 100 Reasons to Support Hillary Clinton. We also met a nice elderly gentleman that was sincere and honest in that he has a problem with a woman being President. So we did our best to convince him to try and become comfortable with the idea. We talked about how other countries (some more conservative than ours) have had women leaders already. We also talked about the strong support Hillary has from military and ex-military people and how comfortable they are with the idea of Hillary being CIC. There was even a nice couple that invited us into their home. The wife was very interested in learning more about Hillary. When the day was over I felt we had earned some votes for Hillary.

When I say Hillary you say Clinton. Hillary – Clinton – Hillary Clinton – Hillary Clinton

After emailing back and forth for months, now I would finally be meeting Marcia Pappas, the President of NOW NY. We were thrown together when she wrote an OP/ED piece about Ted Kennedy endorsing Obama. She felt betrayed. Not in the particular sense of this event but in the over arching way – women’s work and contributions to life are diminished once again. Many including myself related to her anger and hurt. From that point forward we have been exchanging important campaign information. The Hillary camp has had to do a lot of their own work in the information/communication area as normal channels are working against us, e.g. the sexism in the main stream media coverage of this election. I was headed to NOW con Hillary at the Cobre restaurant; a Puerto Rican restaurant down the street from Temple University which was perfect because the HireHeels gals had organized a visibility event down the street. In between my sangria and the visibility workers was a Hip Hop Get Out the Vote event. It’s all coming together for you now, isn’t it?

Marched with the NOW gals and guys down the street Hillary signs held high to join up with Piper (another Marshan) at the Temple U visibility event. We were rockin and we were strong on two corners! The Obama supporters had their group too across the street and down a bit. The Obama camp also had cars or vans that drove around with either people yelling something like vote for Obama or they had his voice taped from a particular speech. Hope or just words?

By the end of the day we were on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania – an Ivy League school. Rick Sanchez from CNN was there recording live – “Rick on the Road.” We were told by headquarters to show up there back when we were still at Temple. From that point forward the rumors flew all day - first Hillary was going to show up, then it was Bill, then Chelsea and lastly before learning the truth a student debate with one student Obama supporter and one student Hillary supporter. I don’t know where all the Obama supporters were this day or this night. There were maybe 6 Obama supporters in the audience and the rest were Hillary supporters. I had to call mom and tell her to watch the show to see if she could see me. She did – twice! Rick kept pan caking his face during breaks. God is he good looking. He was also very nice. When the producer said we couldn’t chant Hillary he said a little chanting is ok. That’s when we began with “We love Rick” “We love Rick.” The other “brilliant” idea we had was that we put all our tall Hillary signs against some bushes just so. Just so that as Rick Sanchez sat in his chair asking his questions and pan caking his face there through the window behind him was Hillary’s name everywhere.

We’re not bitter! We’re not bitter! We’re not bitter! We’re not bitter! We’re not bitter! We’re not bitter.

People came from Canada to work on the campaign. One Canadian woman told me that Canadians don’t like Republicans and they love Bill Clinton. “I can listen to Bill Clinton for hours,” she said. That wasn’t the first time I had heard that. We were at a sign making party. Signs we would use in our visibility events. Visibility is about marketing, media, pr, momentum, enthusiasm, declaring, and democratization. We were waiting for the media to show up to see all of us enthusiastically making signs. The Obama camp was beginning to follow us wherever we went. Liz spun in it in a positive light – “we’re leading they’re following.” I just found it more annoying than anything. So two Obama supporters show up and start dancing around with their signs above their heads chanting Obama, Obama, Obama…I asked people around me, “We don’t go around and do stuff like that do we?” The answer was no.

As I stood with my {we heart Hillary sign} and 10-12 black and Spanish high school students who had come down from New York City to help the lady they love at a visibility event at U-Penn for a rally with Hillary, Bill, and Chelsea a professor walked by and stated “She will never get out the youth vote.” And I thought you can’t get much younger than these high school students I am standing with that you are so oblivious to. Ramon is this cool Spanish guy who is quite the charmer and fancies himself a real ladies man. He is very smart and was schooling me on what “Ivy League” means. He’s a senior and wants to study Political Science in college. One gal from the group made a great sign about “a woman’s place being in the White House.” This jerk walked by, stopped and said “I don’t know about that.” My gal said “I do.” There was another guy that was real hip hopish for lack of a better description. He had the baseball cap turned sideways and did a great take off of Obama and his statement about “just words.” Every 5 minutes he’d say “just words” with a rising lilt. Their leader was Patricia; a great African American woman whose husband works for the Secret Service and was on President Clinton’s detail. He loves the Clintons! She does too and her daughter calls Hillary – Aunt Hillary. They have been targeted by some others in the African American community and called traitors but Pat, her daughter, and these high school students didn’t take any shit from their black “brothers and sisters.” They stood up to them time after time, undaunted and unafraid. I really admired them.

I see this kind of environment in the Universities where some students feel intimidated to express their Hilladarity.

It was like a carnival atmosphere at U-Penn the night of the Hillary, Bill and Chelsea rally – all 3!! People chanting, dancing, blowing whistles, leading cheers, banging drums, music playing – I am woman hear me roar in numbers too big to ignore – spirits high!! The Obama people couldn’t stand it so they HAD to open the windows of some campus building and stick some speakers in it and blared out some type of hip hop obama obama obama trance making Kool-Aid drinking melody. It was hard to overcome. I’m sure they knew that.

The rally was amazing – 7000+! People were stoked and didn’t need any warming up. I called my mom and put the phone to the roar of the crowd so she could hear it. As I spread my loving arms across the land. Oh yes I am wise but it’s wisdom born of pain. When Chelsea was speaking her father just sat back in utter amazement at what an incredibly gifted daughter they had raised. That’s some testimony. At the end as the Clintons worked the rope line I got about 10 feet away. I stood on a chair and yelled “we love you Chelsea” “we love you Bill” “we love you Hillary.” Yes I paid the price but look how much I gained. If I have to I can do anything.

Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!

Liz and I sat at a café on Rittenhouse Square on a beautiful sunny day and drank wine and Coronas. Got a totally great buzz and was having an absolute blast while the Obama and Hillary supports down on the corner were having shouting matches trying to out do each other. Of course the Obama supporters started the fight. Lost my buzz when Liz said the waitress heard Obama was still in town and was supposed to show up down the street soon. Until I could kill that rumor I couldn’t stop.

I met Stephanie Tubb Jones. Walked by Mayor Nutter. Shook Terry McAuliffe's shoulder and told him “Great job!”

I was interviewed by Urban Agenda television. I really let go when they asked me if I thought the media had been biased. At this point we were back at City Hall but on the opposite side from the day before. Today we were on the LOVE side but there wasn’t a lot of love to be found on that day. When Liz offered some friendly advice to some Obama supporters they thanked her then said something to the effect of wish your candidate was nice like you. I thought “Hillary is damn nice buster!”

Sat with Liz at The Palm restaurant in the Hyatt Hotel where the VICTORY party would be held and shared a very expensive and not so great filet mignon with grilled asparagus, and again another Corona. I want my buzz back! We were sitting next to a woman who seemed very tense or down. Because of that we assumed she was an Obama supporter and wasn’t looking forward to the night. Ends up she was a concerned Hillary supporter that just wanted her girl to score in double digits. She said “I keep thinking 12.” She was somewhat paranoid or self absorbed but was very nice to hang out with. Affie I think was her name. She was from New York. Affie, Liz and I ended up sitting in the bleachers behind Hillary when she gave her VICTORY speech.

Marcia was standing in front of Hillary and me at the VICTORY party. She kept signaling to me the current spread, 5% 10% 12% 5% 2% 7% 10% (is Philadelphia in?) oh what a roller coaster ride that was. But in the end Hill was victorious and she was beaming with pride and gave a knock out victory speech (waves to dee4hill from Taylor Marsh with the red boxing gloves).

Who do we want? Hillary. When do we want her? Now. Who do want? Hillary. When do we want her? Now.

Day after and I’m damn tired; can’t wait to be home in my comfy bed and clothes. I had a nice plane ride back and the nicest Christian Republican couple sat next to me. They live on a small island off the coast of New Jersey where they run a hotel for part of the year. The other part they travel and teach the gospel; have interfaith prayer meetings; sing for Christ and other various things related to their faith. Of course at the end the really nice woman after feeding me sweet baloney sandwiches and cheese and crackers handed me what I think they call a tract. I thanked her and put it in my backpack with all intention of throwing it away the 1^st chance I got. But when I got home I thought “no this was part of my experience too” and I placed it with all the other pieces of my memory.