Oh Barack, where art thou?
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wasn’t in New Hampshire at a national fire fighter’s convention, to the annoyance of some.
At the recent political mating call ritual in Portsmouth -- at stake is a late summer endorsement for a Democratic presidential hopeful by the powerful and well-organized International Association of Fire Fighters -- at least three fire fighters from different states told me were less than impressed with the effort of Obama who phoned in from the campaign trail in Iowa Friday morning.
While Obama said the right things via telephone, one told me Obama’s ‘appearance’ in Portsmouth was disappointing especially coming after this delegate said was a “mailed-in” speech by Obama at the national IAFF conference in March. “Has he written off our endorsement?” said another delegate who was skeptical about Obama’s explanation to the convention of a staff scheduling snafu. “Sounds like S**t to me,” said the union leader, because this meeting was known long in advance by all the candidates.
Reid Cherlin, Obama’s communication maven in New Hampshire, told me it was nonsense to think that Obama was ignoring the IAFF endorsement. He has “been a friend of the Firefighters since the start of his career as a legislator. He looks forward to standing with the Firefighters in this grass roots effort to transform our country,” Cherlin said. The campaign had nothing further to add about the scheduling oversight.
Perhaps you can chalk this up to the rigors and miscalculations of being new to the biggest campaign stage on the planet -- and one with no shortage of variables (babies to kiss along with unintentional sleights made) on a daily basis.
Or maybe, as one unattached political consultant told me, it wouldn’t be surprising if securing the IAFF embrace, despite the union’s track record as a good and devoted friend, is less of priority for Obama’s campaign than the other Democrats. After all, it fits in with his transformational, over-the-partisan-rainbow siren’s song to attract a broad swath of Democrat and Republican support. In political terms, he’s determined to remain the unattached bachelor who owes little allegiance to few if any in the special interest universe — it can also be a risky, razor’s edge approach in the midst of a primary battle.
SIDE SCRIPT:
In the ‘why he hate us’ category, here’s an observation about the overall feeling of fire fighters nationally toward the Bush administration. “To the victors go the spoils,” said a delegate from a Western state. “We didn’t support him (in 2000 and 2004) and he’s done his best to screw us every chance he can.”
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