OBAMA AND HILARY TAKE IT TO THE WIRE!!

March 3, 2008
In Ohio, Tense Race Hinges on Grass-Roots Organizers
By ANDREW JACOBS

CLEVELAND — The callers, volunteers at a Clinton campaign field office here, had some exciting news last week for the randomly dialed Democrats on the other end of the line. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York was appearing at a high school in Toledo the next day, and there was still plenty of room for cheering spectators.

But after 30 minutes of cold-calling, the volunteers, a mix of soft-spoken professionals and grizzled unionists, were beginning to wilt from the rejections.

“Oh really?” one woman at the phone bank was overheard saying again and again. “Even though he’s only been in the Senate three years? Well I’m sorry you feel that way.”

Not far away, a similar phone-banking session was taking place at a campaign office for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, but the task at hand was much different.

There, callers were trying to work their way through a list of people who were eager to volunteer but had been waiting days for an assignment. Some of the 100 or so names had been collected during an Obama appearance the previous night that drew 6,000 people to the Cleveland Convention Center.

“Our rallies fill themselves,” Ann Dailey, a worker, said with satisfaction. Ms. Dailey bolted to answer a ringing telephone.

For all the endless rallies and the 1,400 television advertisements a day the candidates have run in the last weeks, it is the street-by-street ground war that will determine the outcome of the Democratic primary on Tuesday. Phone calls must be made, doors knocked on, and every declared supporter dragged to a polling place, even if it means helping an elderly voter get dressed and providing escort to a waiting car.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS STORY