The Day The President Called Me From Air Force One
by Maggie Van Ostrand
Where but in the U.S.A. could a true story like this happen. Never mind the phone calls I've received from Andy Rooney, Michael Douglas, Bob Barker and other well-knowns. They are not the most powerful man in the world. The President of the United States is.
Friday, June 29th, I got to be on a phone call with the President of the United States, and following are the actual notes I took, warts and all, of two interesting questions from callers, and informative answers from President Obama. An article was published in The Daily Beast the next day, but it was not the truth. It did not mention the people's questions the President answered, the President did NOT "beg" for donations, the President did NOT "ramble," and the President did NOT sound like "a dog-tired idealist forced to grapple painfully with hard reality." Give me a break. The guy who wrote that admits he was not there. I was.
I'd received an email asking if I'd like to conference in on a call from the President, since I was one of Obama's "original supporters." Why not, I thought, it's probably going to be a recording of his voice or something, but I'll find out. Excuse my cynicism but I’m sick of politicians, especially the partisan shenanigans of congress and the supreme court. So I signed up for a call that would come in at 3:45 PT. I clicked on the website given to sign up for the call, filled in a question to ask the president, and shortly received an email with the number to phone at the time given, and a pin number.
At 3:44, I dialed the number and a woman asked me to wait for a few minutes. 3:46, she came back and said the President would be on in a few minutes. Yeah, sure, I thought, like it will really be him. Live. About 3:48, a man's voice introduced himself as Rufus Gifford, Finance Director in Chicago of O's campaign. He spoke a few minutes about fundraising and soon introduced Jim Messina, Campaign Director, who spoke about how much they needed our donations ... you could hear the same muffled airplane noises that had been on The West Wing TV show when "Pres. Bartlet" was on Air Force One. Messina vamped a minute or two waiting for Obama and then, there he was. Obama. No intro needed. He just picked up the phone. He apologized for sounding tired. Air Force One had just left Colorado. He spoke in a matter-of-fact way about the need to again ask for the help of those who had first helped get him elected, and it was as though you were in the same room with him. He spoke of the difference between the 2008 campaign and this one. He spoke dispassionately of the changes since Citizens United. He could have ripped it to shreds, but he didn't.
Unlike when we hear him speaking on television, every now and then, there'd be an "uh ... um ..." as he composed his thoughts. Talk about someone who can think on his feet! Talk about someone who can multi task! Here's a man whose schedule had already been changed due to unexpected trip to Colorado in connection with the tragic fire, and still, he's almost exactly on time with a phone call to us. I don't care that the reason was fundraising, I care that he's smart enough to leave no stone unturned to compete with massive political PAC donations. I then heard him ask, a little off the phone like he had turned away and was speaking sotto voce to someone else, "Don't you have some questions for me?"
I'm not a celeb or a millionaire or even a political activist, so I shook myself out of the fantasy universe in which this phone call from the President had put me, and started to write down what he was saying. There are a few spots in the notes where I couldn't write fast enough, in which case I inserted dots, but I got as much as I could:
Question 1 from a woman in NC (who had apparently received an earlier email than I did and knew what the phone call would be about) "Are these deadlines real and what are they about?" and the President responded, "We need to report our fundraising and that can be a double-edged sword ... the media looks at it and hyperventilates. Last month, Gov Romney had $76 million to our $60 million ... it's for how much advertising we can buy in battleground states....we have to hire people to see it all the way through ... early money is more valuable than late money ... some people think Gov Romney doesn't know what he's talking about and then we find out some millionaire sat down and wrote him a million-dollar check... there's a voter registration deadline we must meet ... we need to purchase TV ads [now] with August and September deadlines..."
Question 2 from a man in Minneapolis: "In 2008, I gave $2300 but this time I'm against big donors. How can my money have much impact when we're up against millionaires?"
President Obama: "We don't have to match these guys dollar for dollar. We have got a better message. We can't be drowned out. Two million people have given money instead of buying something they want. Gov Romney doesn't have a broad base of support ... I'd take a grass roots check every time ... Whatever you can do will be helpful. I have confidence that the number of people can beat the gazillionaires every single time ... The Affordable Care Act ... spent ten times as much as we did advertising against it. It's not surprising the American people don't know what's in it.... If we have enough resources to carry our message, we're going to win this thing....
"In 2008, everything was exciting and new. I've got gray hair now from working with an obstructionist republican congress ... I hope that you guys haven't become disillusioned because I'm not a perfect president. Michelle can tell you that. But I have fought on your behalf and I hope you still believe in me. If you're willing to do what we need to do to win ... I have extraordinary confidence in this country."
***
When I'm home and safe, a comfort-food dinner finished, reading a good book, dogs happily twitching in their sleep, I'm still not as relaxed as Obama was on that call. I can't swear to it, but it seemed to me, an "audio witness," that he was grinning when he said certain things, like "Michelle can tell you that." He was calm, cool, and collected. Confidant. I never knew charisma could come right through a telephone.
Take that, you revisionists. I don't care which party you're voting for, but don't distort the truth.
He never “begged,” like The Daily Beast article claims he did, but I am begging you, here and now to make an informed decision when you vote. Listen to what the "other side" (no matter which one) has to say and, most of all, remember that opinions are not facts.
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