Women for Obama Town Hall in Dubuque, IA

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Post from Obama HQ:

Women for Obama Town Hall in Dubuque, IA
By Olivia M. - Dec 14th, 2007 at 5:56 pm EST

Guests arriving at the site of the Gayle King and Barack Obama town hall in Dubuque, Iowa last night were greeted by tables of Debuquers cheerily signing folks in with a smiling “We’re so excited you came out today!”



Kathleen, Jessica and Janet

Kathleen says she supports Barack because she has “hope he can bring this country together. The extreme partisanship is deadly to our democracy.”

Kathleen is a retired nurse and is excited about the upcoming arrival of her fourth grandchild. She reassures the Flannigan family, first time caucus-goers, that caucusing is actually pretty simple.



Loretta, Nicole and Joni

Loretta, a precinct captain, is firm but friendly as she goes about getting supporter cards filled out.

Joni tells me her son brought Barack to her attention after he read The Audacity of Hope, which she duly read herself. Later she seeks me out to add that she was amazed by Barack's speech at the 2004 Democratic convention too.

“I was real impressed with because it was obvious he’d be a good listener. He totally supports education and, as a retired teacher, that’s very important to me. I’m 65 and social security is very important too. “

Joni is comfortable with his experience level. She says he’s “very smart and doesn’t come from much, worked his way up the hard way.”

Joni has always been interested in politics and regularly attends the caucuses, but she has never been this motivated before. “Nobody has moved me like he has” she says.

And with three children and five grandchildren, she is adamant that “we have to undo this mess now, not leave it to our grandkids. He’s the one to do it.”



Colleen and Anne

Colleen and Anne, a mother-daughter team, help guests find seats. Colleen, in her 80’s, is a “life time Democrat” who says she supports Barack because “with him there is hope for real change. We need to bring more ethical ways to the White House and Obama is the man to do it. I feel it in my heart.”

Colleen had assumed she would be a Clinton supporter, but her daughter encouraged her to read “Dreams from My Father” and “that’s what did it”.



On stage with Gayle, Barack talks about his own life experience, raised by a single mother and bread-winning grandmother, and his support for policies that help working parents.

“Women shouldn’t have to choose between careers and family” he says. He would expand the Family and Medical Leave Act and after school care, would pursue a 50 state strategy to adopt paid parental leave, and calls for giving parents 24 hours of annual leave to attend their children’s school activities.



Barack has made a strong case for his candidacy and his team makes the most of it. The Obama team in Iowa has made sure that the town hall doubles as an organizing event; at its conclusion, supporters are organized by precinct to meet with their precinct captains.



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