by John McCormick
After going door-to-door Saturday, some of the volunteers for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential bid will be back on the streets Sunday. Several hundred from Illinois made the trip to Iowa for the weekend. About 50 attended a potluck picnic Saturday evening in Cedar Rapids.
The food was donated by Iowa volunteers, who also housed many of the Illinois visitors Saturday night.
"There were a lot of undecideds still," said Jeanne Uehling, an administrative assistant from Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. "But I only had two people who wouldn't talk to me at all."
The Tribune's Sunday story about Obama's nationwide canvass is linked here. Read more and see more photos as well:
Uehling said she knocked on 46 doors Saturday afternoon and figured she would do about that many on Sunday, before heading back to Chicago.
Many of the Illinois volunteers said they plan to make multiple trips back to Iowa over the summer and fall. They were given lists of known Democratic doors to knock on.
"It's nice to volunteer in a place where you know your efforts count," said Andrea Moore, a business information technology consultant from Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood.
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Comments
Looks like Obama, McCain and many other of our senators will not be in DC to vote tomorrow.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | June 10, 2007 9:52 AM
Being that I voted for Obama when he was my alderman, I have determined that he needs more experience and that the next presidential election if there isn't an incumbant democrat I will vote for him. He is just inexperienced though he has the right idea and will get some recognition this round.
Posted by: Robert Brown | June 10, 2007 10:20 AM
Robert, You are either misinformed or living in a parallel universe: Obama was never an Alderman.
Posted by: Erin | June 10, 2007 12:55 PM
"Being that I voted for Obama when he was my alderman..."
Robert Brown
Mr. Brown, I don't believe Obama was ever an alderman. But given the company he keeps, some of the "machine" pols vigorously backing him, and some of the endorsements he's made, that you would mistake him for a common "backroom", Chicago alderman is quite easily understandable...
Posted by: Anonymous | June 10, 2007 2:25 PM
Oops. Failed to include my tag in the last post:
"Being that I voted for Obama when he was my alderman..."
Robert Brown
Mr. Brown, I don't believe Obama was ever an alderman. But given the company he keeps, some of the "machine" pols vigorously backing him, and some of the endorsements he's made, that you would mistake him for a common "backroom", Chicago alderman is quite easily understandable...
Posted by: Biggdawg | June 10, 2007 2:26 PM
Mr. Brown writes, "if there isn't an incumbant (sic) democrat I will vote for him." News flash: the only incumbent president is Mr. Bush. Does that mean Mr. Brown would vote for President Bush if he were running?
Posted by: Kasha | June 10, 2007 4:59 PM
Experience?!? Not that worn-out meme...
Obama has a ton of experience getting things done with opposing sides of an issue. Everyone who has worked with him has nothing but good things to say.
We need Obama NOW - not some lame "in the future" non-argument. We're already in a world of hurt - literally.
Obama is the only one who has the intelligence, experience, and vision to actually bring things around.
Posted by: Lee P. | June 10, 2007 6:04 PM
He may be a very junior senator but he is not inexperienced. He studied (and I believe taught or teaches) constitutional law, which makes him very experienced in ways most candidates are not. Also, he spent a lot of time as a community organizer which means he is experienced with actual people's needs-not just big corporations. He is very smart and regardless of his small political career, he knows more about what he is talking about than 99.9 % of other candidates.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 10, 2007 7:55 PM
I'm happy that Obama was my alderman and will happily vote for him as US President. :)
Posted by: Robert Brown | June 10, 2007 8:23 PM
Great. Let's take somebody out of the cesspool that is Illinois politics and have him run the country. Good idea.
Posted by: IllinoisJoe | June 10, 2007 10:32 PM
I like Obama, and may still vote for him, but after hearing a lot of his positions I have lost a lot of enthusiasm (Lindsey Graham seemed to make Barack look kind of green). Wish he seemed more "Presidential" in the debates.
Still, I will never vote for Hillary, and outside of Giuliani, the repubs do not look very strong.
Posted by: Liz | June 10, 2007 11:25 PM
I have never understood why most people confuse strategy and policy formulation with strategy and policy implementation.
politicians are strategy and policy formulators while civil servants are strategy and policy implementors. you dont need experience to formulate strategies and policies, what you need is intelligence, leadership skills and alot of social skills to be able to articulate and sell your strategies and policies to the the public.
you do however need experienced and commited bureaucrats who can easily buy into your strategies and policies and implement them with vigour. Obama, is gifted with immense inteligence, he is visionary, he has extra ordinary social skills, he is a charismatic leader and he is a perfect political strategist.
Obama does not need any senatorial experience to be the president of USA. What he perhaps require to boost up his immence clout, is to line up experienced, gifted and commited Bureaucrats such as Collin Powell to lead his administration. Leaders are judged by what they achieve not what they say. The challange that Obama faces is to convince the electorate that he will be able to implement his strtegies and policies, that is the reason why he need to start giving some early signals of reputable and respected bureaucrats whom he would wish to deploy in his administration.
Posted by: Anthony Mwangi | June 12, 2007 5:46 AM