Telemarketing Flashback

I am the manager of the Obama campaign office in Franklin City and Southampton County Virginia. Part of my job is make sure that hundreds of phone calls are made to potential voters every day and I sometimes get to make some of those calls myself. Fortunately my skills honed during my brief by stellar telemarketing career are still there.

Mostly it is just reminding me of the funny things you learn about people when you call them out of the blue. The old folks tell you way too much about themselves and can’t seem to avoid letting you know that they live alone and no one is there right now. The answering machines are the best though. In one day I had to listen to a women ranting a bible quote about Jehovah on her answering machine (and this is not an anti-religion statement, she was just all fire and brimstone) and then a short while later receive multiple options on one answering machine for what had to have been ‘night-time’ entertainment. One of the women said (and imagine this in a Anna Nicole Smith sexy voice), “Hi, you’ve made the right choice in choosing Star but at the wrong time because I’m not here…”. This contradiction I think captures some strange tension in this town. I really could not think of a better place to be campaigning for Obama!