Posted on 11/08/2007 7:08:28 AM PST by mware
Covering a presidential campaign can feel like this: Stop in one town, watch a candidate talk and shake a few hands, then move along to the town up the road.
There went Toledo, Iowa.
So that was Independence, Iowa?
The crowd back in Cedar Rapids sure was big.
It can be easy to see these scenes as photographs passed in a gallery, or a set of props neatly arranged for a candidate to make a pitch.
The reality is, these scenes are full of people with a story to tell — not only of whom they may vote for, but of what drew them to a political event, or how a candidate may have touched them in a fleeting conversation.
On a recent trip to Iowa, I came across two women who clearly had stories to tell. One had a chance encounter with Hillary Clinton. The other sought out Barack Obama.
A Chance Encounter with Clinton
I followed Clinton during a recent bus tour across Iowa, when she and her entourage pulled into a Maid-Rite, a greasy spoon famous for its loose-meat sandwich. Clinton settled into a red stool at the counter, ate a sandwich, chatted with her waitress and then was on her way.
The scene gave Clinton perfect fodder for her next few stump speeches. Turns out her waitress was a single, working mom — just the kind of voter Democrats are courting aggressively this year.
Clinton recalled the meeting for an audience up the road in Boone. "The woman waiting on us — it was her first day," she said, adding, "She was a little nervous. Single mom, raised two boys, works at a nursing home and always has a second job."
If she's elected president, Clinton promised, people like her waitress will have it better.
The way Clinton eased the waitress into her rhetoric is something repeated day after day, by all the campaigns. But in the process, people like the waitress don't always have their stories told.
'Nobody Got Left a Tip'
"I wished I would have been asked first," the waitress, Anita Esterday, said of Clinton's decision to insert her in a speech, adding, "I wish she would have asked if she could talk about me later. I didn't like it when someone called me up and said Hillary Clinton is talking about you. It's like, what'd I do now? What's she saying?"
When I returned to the Maid-Rite a few weeks later, Esterday said the senator had caught her off guard. But once they got talking, she was honest with Clinton about her need to work two to three jobs.
"I've been doing it all my life. Why should it change now that I'm old?" Esterday said.
Esterday does not think Clinton got it. "I don't think she understood at all what I was saying," Esterday said, adding, "I mean, nobody got left a tip that day."
Clinton may have decided not to tip. She was also never given a bill — her meal was on the house. Still, Esterday said Clinton might have left her something: "Maybe they don't carry money, I don't know."
Turns out the visit hurt Esterday in another way. The local paper ran photos of her with Clinton. She said her supervisor at the nursing home isn't a big Hillary Clinton fan, and she thinks that may be related to why her hours were almost totally cut.
Now, Esterday is looking for a different second job. Still, she said she's not upset that Clinton visited the restaurant.
"I got my 15 minutes of fame out of the world," Esterday said. "There you go. I got her autograph. That's something I'll treasure forever."
But as far as the attention she's received? "It hasn't helped me. It's made things worse."
Still, Esterday doesn't blame Clinton; she says she may even vote for the former first lady. She's also considering voting for Barack Obama.
Seeking Out Obama
Obama, in fact, passed through Iowa around the same time as Clinton. At an event in Independence, he asked if anyone had questions. A woman in the front row named Geri Punteney stood up. She said her brother was dying of cancer. When Punteney began to sob, Obama walked over to comfort her.
"I know what this feels like," Obama said.
Punteney recalled how her brother, who has stage 3 lymphoma and leukemia, had to work to keep his health insurance. Obama sympathized with the unfairness of the situation. All Americans, he said, should have access to health insurance — something he said he's committed to doing as president.
"Tell your brother we're thinking of him," Obama said. "Maybe I'll write him a note before you leave today."
Esterday's encounter with Clinton was by chance; Punteney's with Obama, by choice. Yet both women considered these moments – which observers may have dismissed as simply part of a busy campaign day — to be complex and meaningful.
'He Just Seemed Sincere'
Punteney has faced much tragedy. One of her brothers was burned as a boy in a Fourth of July fireworks accident and later died. Her brother, as she told Obama, has late-stage cancer. Her father died recently. Her mother has not been well. Punteney said she cries a lot.
A few weeks ago, at the home in Oelwein, Iowa, she shares with her mother, Punteney said she'd been inspired to see Obama when he came to the area.
"I'd seen the commercials," she said. "And he just seemed sincere, like he's for people like my mom, my brother and me."
Many people feel politicians may not be the first place to turn when in dire need of help. But Punteney said she was confident Obama could do something to make her feel better.
"I never had anyone pay attention to me and my needs — and he held my hand," she said.
I brought a tape recorder to Punteney's house and played her moment with Obama back for her — and his suggestion that he'd write her brother a note. He never did.
"He didn't have time, I guess," she said. "I understand. You know, he was bombarded by so many people. But just knowing he knows — that's more important than a note."
Indeed, Punteney seemed to get just what she wanted from Obama. She got noticed.
Once could be an oversight, a second time, it is for real.
"I mean, it like I have to give MY money. I'll just take it. It's really easy to do. People will either pay for his medical care or go to prison. See, it's simple.
Who else wants free money?"
Shillary is totally disconnected, and couldn’t care less. She and her minions pulled the no-tip stunt at Letchworth State Park during her senate run. Our reservations and everybody else’s at the Glen Iris were put off so she and her crew (and secret service agents) could dine there. When we finally were allowed in after she left, our waitress was steamed. She claimed no one left any tips, but they sent a few dollars in to the chef.
Bronzy I dont know. Last time I think FReepers sent it to her place of employment.
Absolutely true. It’s just the way it is. But I think Hillary hears about this and tries to use it as evidence that the Bush Economy is crushing the lives of the little people. Because she doesn’t understand the way most people live, and have lived for a long time.
A tip? This isn’t the way it works! The way it works is:
1. Give Hillary money so she can buy power and live out her idea of herself as Supreme Ruler
2. She then takes money from everyone and doles it back out to those who put her in power and who she needs to keep her there next time she has to degrade herself by asking for votes.
See, you freepers who sent the waitress the tips that Hillary didn’t leave just fulfilled Hillary’s concept of how things should be. She never gives her own money, everyone else gives theirs.
It's hard to have sympathy for these people.
We ate at a Maid Rite for the first time in at least 40years. I had forgotten what their specialty was. OK with mustard and pickles.
Where do we send the tip. I tipped the waitress $5 at Maid-Rite. My wife says I over tip,,but the people working in that kind of place are usually living pay check to pay check. They are competition for jobs with illegals..especially in health care, like this lady in Iowa.
Hillary will only make this ladies life worse and she started with the visit.
Where do we send the tip?
Let’s make this lady famous for a year.
heck the FReepers sent that woman a bunch of money. I know there is a thread about it somewhere here.
Hey Doc you remember the thread name??
This is from NPR? Maybe the shine is coming off her moon.
I’ll have to see if I can find some sort of way of getting money to her. I dont want to post her address or anything like that. Maybe her place of employment.
I'm sorry for being an ass, but anyone that says " I got her autograph. That's something I'll treasure forever" aint gettin' nothin' from me!
Ugh, I wonder if Hillary still has a gall bladder?
My standard rule of thumb is when I’m comped any item, food or beverage, I leave a proportionate tip based on the price of the item. And it’s generally 20%.
Here’s a woman that touts her wealth in public, bleats how much she cares for the ‘working folk’, and she stiffs this woman?
Libs anger me, but not sure which angers me more...the Libs spewing their socialism or the people that are so easily tuned in to the siren song.
When you receive a free meal in a restaurant or your bill is comp-ed, you are still expected to tip the wait staff at the price the meal would have been had you paid. It is the decent and kind thing to do.
Even more so if you are a prominent person.
I knew a gal at my former employer who was a supervisor in the tax dept at the corp office, pulling down real good salary. She was also a waitress at a local upscale restaurant working 3 and 4 nights a week. Why? She said she enjoys it and makes good bucks on tips plus it helped her pay for her son to go to an upscale private school called Cranbrook and then on to college........She was a single mom too.
Thanks a lot low, I tried to find that thread and couldn’t. You’re a peach.
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