John Cole is a disgruntled former Republican who blogs at http://www.balloon-juice.com/. Although he still considers himself a conservative, he has had his fill of the GOP over the last three years, and is determined to vote Democratic this year; and now that the primaries have reduced the Democratic field to two candidates, he leans toward Barack Obama. However, like many others, he questions whether Obama's calls for unity reflect a naive view of the modern GOP. For that reason, he has taken to calling the Obama campaign the Magical Unity Pony ("pony" being blog shorthand for wishful thinking). Those Obama supporters who frequent his website have proudly adopted the name.
I took a ride on the Magical Unity Pony on Saturday. In the morning, I went up from Newport to Attleboro to take part in a visibility event there with Joan from Attleboro and her band of local Obamaniacs. Four of us stood on a street corner in downtown Attleboro for an hour and a half, keeping the candidate's name in the minds of passing Attleborovians.
Then it was off to New Bedford for a stint at the local Obama field office at 30 Centre Street. For an hour and a half I was busy creating colorful handmade signs. We got an unexpected chance to use them when word reached us around 3:30 that the Clinton campaign was staging a visibility event just a few blocks away from the field office at the intersection of routes 6 and 18. Well, we couldn't let that go unanswered, so about twenty of us snatched up signs and hurried over, taking up positions across the street from the Clinton people. Half an hour of chants and waving signs and honking car horns later, we trooped back to the field office to be on hand for a surprise visit from Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. Patrick is one of the top three elected officials in Massachusetts to publicly endorse Obama (the other two being Senator John Kerry and Senator Edward Kennedy). Cameramen from the local news stations were on hand (one of whom also covered the visibility event) to watch as Governor Patrick greeted various campaign workers before being introduced by the mayor of New Bedford and other local officials. Patrick gave a short speech praising Obama and his campaign, and those of us who were working to get him elected.
After that, it was time for me to return home, and I drove past Patrick as he was being interviewed by a cluster of media people. But I'll be returning to New Bedford every day until the Super Tuesday primary is over, because I just can't resist a field office at the height of campaign season.
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