As an eyewitness to Scranton's legendary St. Patrick's Day Parade on Saturday, March 15th,I can assure you: Northeastern Pennsylvania Rocks for Barack!I had heard that Scranton's was no ordinary parade. Originally a coal-mining town settled by Irish immigrants, Scranton now plays host to the fourth-largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the entire US - more than 100,000 people in attendance!On the good side: In Lackawanna County, Democrats outnumber Republicans 4-to-1. But Scranton also holds a more dubious distinction: It was the girlhood home of our Democratic primary opponent - she who must not be named - and support for her still runs strong there.When I learned that You-Know-Who was planning to march in this year's parade with a bevy of press and politicians, I sprung into action. I contacted volunteer stalwarts Tom Brown and Rick Sharp and we hatched a plan. First, Rick rented a one-way U-Haul trailer. Then he and Tom stuffed it with all the 4'x8' Obama signs they had rescued from Chittenden and Washington Counties, plus boxes and boxes of literature and office supplies from our former Burlington office. Then we hitched it up to the back of my Subaru and I headed south to PA.I rumbled into Scranton at 2 AM Saturday, caught a few hours' sleep at the home of a very generous volunteer, and pulled up in front of the Scranton Obama office at 8 AM. Our office was in a prime commercial location - right on the parade route - but it had just opened the day before. There were no phones, no furniture, no office supplies - just a swarm of volunteers. They rushed out to greet me, and within 5 minutes the U-Haul was emptied out. While volunteers set to work duct-taping our big Vermont signs to read "Vote April 22" (instead of March 4), I dropped off the empty trailer at U-Haul. I returned to the office to find Max Kennedy (son of Robert F.) speaking to a packed house. We then dispersed all over the parade route to ply the growing crowd of spectators with green O'bama signs, stickers, balloons and voter registration forms. Left: Obama signs dominate downtown Scranton.By 11:45am, we had deployed Obama signs at every major intersection along the parade route, and we were attracting major media attention. Then the parade started! Max Kennedy darted back and forth from one side of the street to the other like a hummingbird racing from flower to flower. He worked the crowd like nothing I've ever seen, shaking hands and exchanging smiles at a speed of hundreds of voters per minute. We were working the crowd ourselves, plastering thousands of spectators with green O'bama lapel stickers, when a flatbed trailer crammed with press photographers rolled by, and we knew, "Our moment is now!" We hoisted our 4'x8' sign high over our heads. Instantly, two HRC goons raced over and blocked our sign with their 4x8-footer. We quickly moved right. So did they. We moved left. They moved left too. We darted back and forth, jockeying for position, as the parade slowly moved on.The parade route was horseshoe-shaped. By racing down a side street, I realized, we could redeploy our big signs for a second engagement. This time we set up in an unassailable position, and it wasn't long before the flatbed of photographers rumbled by again. We were holding our big signs over our heads, when I looked down and saw You-Know-Who greeting voters 10 feet in front of me! Then she looked up. With the sudden realization that she was being photographed shaking hands under two giant Obama signs, she did a quick about-face and retreated to the other side of the street. It was the Ides of March and the victory was ours. Defeated on her own home turf!I've never seen so many green T-shirts in my life. My favorite green shirts read, "I Dig Scranton" (a coal-mining reference) and "Irish whiskey makes me frisky" (a drinking reference). The young women wearing the latter shirts accosted me and demanded to have green O'bama stickers applied to every protrusion in their anatomy. Should I have refused? Such are the moral and ethical dilemmas you face when you volunteer for the most inspiring Presidential candidate in recent memory.Join the fun and volunteer in Pennsylvania before it's too late. Email the campaign at PA@barackobama.com or me at blackice09@gmail.com. Obama '08 - Yes We Can!We were also on the local TV news! Go to www.wnep.com - click on "Newswatch 16 Sunday am" - and fast-forward to about 3 minutes into the newscast to watch Max Kennedy's speech and see the big blue Obama sign leaning against the front of my Subaru. (If you look closely you'll see me open the driver's side door and climb out.)Below: Victorian facades line Lackawanna Avenue along the parade route.Below: Supporters plastered themselves with green O'BAMA stickers.Below: End of a long day: Volunteers outside the Scranton office.
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