About a month ago, I signed up to attend a "Camp Obama" training weekend in Los Angeles. The campaign office's response is making me a little nervous.
I received several phone calls from the campaign since submitting my application. The first came a few days after I applied. The caller said space for the training session was extremely limited, so they could only accept volunteers who were prepared to make a major time commitment. Was I able to spend five weeks in Nevada as an unpaid intern? My answer was, sadly, no. Despite having just been laid off, I still have my girlfriend and kids to look after, and I need to start generating income as soon as possible. The caller hung up, and I assumed I'd been rejected.
Then about two weeks ago, another staffer called and asked the same question. This time she didn't give up on me. She asked if I couldn't go to Nevada full time, would I consider driving in for several weekends? I said yes. Could I provide my own car and lodging? Yes again. Could I do 15 hours of phone banking per week? Yes again. She said that a training weekend was being scheduled for Sept 27-28 (that was last weekend), in Riverside (a city about an hour away from my house). I said I'd be happy to attend. She said she'd get back to me.
Then, just before the event, she called me to explain that the event was being moved to the next weekend, October 4-5. Why? She explained that they had trouble "securing a location" for the workshop. The rescheduled Camp, she cheerfully offered, would be held in South Los Angeles.
Fine. Not a great neighborhood, but I'm up for anything. So I sad count me n.
More silence. I thought they'd forgotten about me... until this past Wednesday, when they told me I was "in" for this weekend... but they still didn't know where the training would take place.
And now it's Saturday. Haven't heard a peep.
So. When the Obama campaign claims that they've put together the biggest and best organized ground campaign in political history, should I a) dismiss their claim as a typical political boast; b) let them know how discombobulated their training arrangements are; or c) be very, very nervous?
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