Hillary Clinton at a Maid-Rite restaurant during a recent bus tour of Iowa. That is where she met waitress Anita Esterday.
“I don't think she understood at all what I was saying.”
Anita Esterday on Hillary Clinton
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.
Why was that done?
Re #21. Agreed, although tipping servers in America seems to be so reflexive that an “oversight” is hard to explain. In any event, it is not news that she is a selfish, arrogant and cheap person.
Imagine a Republican doing this, twice! “Out of touch!” “Rich, white man!” It’s a good thing the Democrats are the party of the ‘common folks’ or else they would be just plain hypocrites.
WEST PALM BEACH - Peter Kessler didn't mean to start an avalanche, but now that it's rolling, he's really enjoying the show.
A week ago today, someone posted a news story that caught Kessler's eye on FreeRepublic.com, a conservative Web site. It was about Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign entourage having breakfast at a cafe in Albion, NY, and forgetting to tip the waitress - a single, uninsured mother who makes only $5,000.00 a year outside of tips.
"My comment was, 'Gee, maybe we should take up a collection for this poor woman,'" Kessler recalled.
The comment, which Kessler posted on the Web site, took off like a helium balloon in high wind, buoyed by the power of the Internet and a puff of publicity. Sympathetic and outraged readers around the globe stuck money - dollars, kroner, yen - into envelopes and mailed them to Tricia Trupo, the stiffed server at the Village House Restaurant.
"We are well, well over $1,000 for Trish," Kessler said Thursday. He said he had never spoken with Trupo, but could identify with her.
Why was what done???
You are talking about the woman who took tax deductions on used underwear given to charity when she was First Lady of Arkansas. Ever think it isn’t a mistake? She’s just cheap - at least with her own money.
Yeah but it make one hell of a political commerical against her.
I’ll look up that Maid Rite on the net and send it to her there. I’m sure they are honorable Iowa people and see that she will get it.
Maybe Rush should auction off the autograph for her to set up a scholarship fund for her kids. She sure sounded like a hard working single Mom. Just a thought.
Rush remembers his history. Want to bet he mentions this on his show today.
bigjoe, a stack full of dollar bills from people telling this waitress that they are happy to send her the money while they are still able to could go a long way toward making that little autograph lose its value in her mind.
...lol or a bake sale.
“Re #21. Agreed, although tipping servers in America seems to be so reflexive that an “oversight” is hard to explain. In any event, it is not news that she is a selfish, arrogant and cheap person.”
She has never had to pay since feeding at the gov’t trough, on our money, so she doesn’t know what things really cost, or how people who WORK for a living actually count on things like a TIP.
Also, she knows nothing about SERVICE , so expects things to be taken care of by someone else, instead of being individually sensitive and responsible.
Her operating mode is always “ someone else did it, or prevented me from doing the right thing”
Amazes me that more people don’t see through this tired act.
N/m, I think I can see.
Priceless.
And now that I think of it, if it does turn out that this woman receives much publicity and tips from caring people across America, a carefully crafted ebay auction of said autograph (ala Rush’s Senate letter) could pull big bucks.
I believe the more famous event happened a short time before this, and was downstate somewhere. Can’t remember!
GREAT Piece-that should ALSO come in very handy when Conservative go Door-to-Door themsleves to make sure THEY don’t (by accident of choice too) Forget to tell ANYONE in their Campaign if not thems PERSONALLY to “ make sure we leave this nice person a TIP before we leave.!
VERY BIG DIFERENCE?
Why Didn’t SCHRILLARY go Jump Behind the COUNTER!? and Put an Apron On and spend 15 minutes waiting on Customers?
LIKE SHE DID WHEN Visiting that Hospital?? Or Planned Parent Floor? What WAS that “ Photo-Op “ Again from a few weeks back? I forgot-but she spent a Few Hours (if I remember correctly) Walking around Bitch’n & Huffing over how “ ..IF she was shot down by the EVIL Republicans in the Houses HER HEALTH CARE BILL Would Have SAVED THE WORLD!! ANNNNND PROBLY ALDERAAN (Princess Leia’s Home Planet Darth V Blew Up!) too!!”
Amazing just WHAT “Jobs” and “Finincially/Medically HURTING Citizens “ Schrillary DIES Decide to Spend TIME with and photo Pics for her sites and those that she shoe Flies Thru or merely uses to FILL UP SPEECH TIME or dead air time on her trips.
DA
Hillary and her “entourage” left NO TIP!!!! Doesn’t this just say it all!! Please forward this to Hillary’s girl fans.
Likewise. I saw it in her husband too. But then, look at “man in the street” type interviews and consider that many of them vote. *sigh*
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.