The Dream Act

I am pleased to announce that President Barack Obama has passed the Dream Act! The will stop the deportation of illegal young immigrants.

It is great to hear that Obama is still passing bills such as this one which greatly helps his chances of winning and shows the people that he is still in control.

For more information follow the link to the BBC article.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18460894

BBC just happens to be my favorite new source.

First Lady Call Part Deux!

Right after the call, my excited face!

Imagine my surprise when Victoria Kirby calls me to inform me that I will be speaking with First Lady Michelle Obama once again! They had asked for me by name.

The practice call went well but the nerves really kicked in the day of the call. I could not wait! There were some bumps in the road of course, the pin number would not work, but it all worked out in the end. I had my questioned revised a couple and times and finally asked 

"Hi Mrs. Obama and thanks so much for taking time to talk with us tonight and to take my question. What can Hispanics do to help organize their communities and make sure we win Florida for the President this fall?"


She respond with poise and gave me some ideas to get more people involved. I am very honored to have had the opportunity to ask First Lady Michelle Obama one question, but two really made me feel special! I cannot wait to get back not the campaign trail and continue working for the Obama Campaign. 


Obama 2012!

Conference Call with Michelle Obama!!!!!!

After the call still full of excitement.

A couple of days before my last day interning, Victoria asked me if I was Spanish for some odd reason, I am. That same night I got a call from Geoff Berman the Deputy National Training Director, asking me if I wanted to participate in a call with Michelle Obama. Of course I agreed! I had to send in my bio and make sure to participate in the practice call.  

The call would have one person introducing the Michelle Obama, and three questions. The question that was tailor-made for me using my ideas was:

       "I am a student working to organize volunteer teams on campus here in Florida. What can I tell fellow students worried abut finding jobs after graduation?"

Everyone that was participating was nervous and didn't know how to address the First Lady, we all decided on "Mrs. Obama."

I was nervous when the time came for the call April 26, 2012 7:30pm. I asked my question and "freaked-out" when she said my name. 

Mrs. Obama spoke about going to college, Law School and about how she was working at a large corporate firm when she met this "Cute guy, that wanted to change the world." She also spoke about how she too was in debt after college and about everything Obama is doing to lower student loans and make it easier for students to attend school and build our future. 

Her response was amazing and relatable, and she said my name twice, which was excited and everyone I know who was listening "freaked-out". I was honored to have such an opportunity. I want to go to Law School and am assured that if Obama is reelected it will be somewhat easier. I also now have a response to those students who are worried about what to do after graduation. 

Last Day...

Last Monday April 16, 2012 was my final day interning at the Pinellas County OFA office. I will miss working at the office, I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I learned the importance of the persuasion calls which I thought were pointless when I was on the receiving end, but now I understand how important they are. Now that I myself have conducted persuasion calls, I promise never to bother a telemarketer ever again. I also learned how much work and planning goes into an event. I never thought I would have worked on a political campaign and hope to continue contributing to the campaign. My last day was a little sad, but everyone was nice.

Voter Registration!

This was my first time registering voters and I would say it was a success. Since we are officially in the General Election campaign season, we need to register more and more voters. The OFA office is doing voter registration everyday now, volunteers come in all the time with a plan to register voters.

Cristina and I decided to team up and tackle the task of registering voters. I registered voters while she looked for more volunteers. It was a little rough at first, the students were not very receptive. Many hesitated when asked if they were registered to vote.

Registration picked up when Cristina and I decided to head to the dorm. To every person that walked into the dorm I asked if they were registered to vote or not. 2/4 people registered with us. On our way back to Harbor Side Lawn we encountered a very enthusiastic participant. When asked if he was registered to vote his reply was "Are you Republican?" I replied "No" and he immediately began filling out the form. Once finished I informed him that we were volunteers and asked if he wanted more information on joining; he did. Cristina persuaded him to fill out an "I'm in" pledge card and we were on our way.

I registered four people and we had seven people registered by the end of our drive. I thought voter registration went pretty well and It was kind of fun. I liked having people respond with enthusiasm at the possibility of voting. Voting is such an important part of our country.

Persuasion Calls

In the wake of the Supreme Court case against Obama-Care, our office is making persuasion calls to see what people think about the bill. Today alone I made over 70 calls but as always the number of people who answered was much lower. Overall most of the people were in support of the bill. I was able to sway a caller into supporting the bill, that made me feel accomplished.

After learning about voter identification and polling, I realized just how important these calls really are. All the people who I called and actually spoke to were categorized into a list: call back, refused, support or not supporting the bill. The class lectures and readings made me realize that campaigning is really all about making list and contacting as many people as possible. Before I thought that campaigning was about getting you're ideas out there and making sure that the candidate looked better than any other candidate. Now I see that it is about contacting people and making sure they know what the candidate stands for and how it will help them.

Someone I spoke to said "Thank you for calling, I really appreciate these calls." That type of response makes all the mad calls worth it. I love hearing people support the President and what issues are important to them. My favorite caller from this scrip would probably have to be a woman who spoke both english and spanish but preferred spanish. She was a registered republican but was fully supporting the candidate, she thought that the republican candidates were not doing anything for the people and that we need to see a change in this country. She thought that minority support was an important issue that has to be addressed, all of this was conveyed to me in rapid spanish.

Along with the script from which I was reading also included a question about issues which are important to them. That question and the end of the call made people think about what is really important to them in the election.

Cristina Plazo and I sat in the office on a table making phone calls all day. Though our actual contact rate was low, the people who we did talk to gave us some give information on how to update our list and who we have to give more attention to.

Apart from the Health Care script Cristina and I followed a prospective list. The list included people which we wanted to recruit for volunteers and two questions about the media. The questions asked was "If they read their local newspaper" and if they watch "The nightly news." Victoria explained to us that these calls allow us to see if we need to start taking ads out in the newspaper and on local news stations.

The Republican race is coming to a close and their convention is coming up. I honestly think that Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican candidate and this general election is going to be tough. I still believe that no matter who the Republican candidate is Obama will be in office for another term.

Joe Biden

Wednesday March 7, 2012 Vice President Joe Biden stopped by the Vinoy Hotel in St. Pete and I was lucky enough to meet him. When Victoria called me and asked me to work the Joe Biden event I was extract, I was going to met the Vice President of the United States.

The Vice President stopped by as a fundraising event where attendees donated money, I was lucky enough to work the event. I was asked to arrive at 2:15pm even though Mr. Biden would not be speaking until 6:00pm, to make sure everyone was in the proper location. Security was very tight, I had to summit my information before attending and  was inspected before entering the building. I felt as if I was going through airport security. There were also big security dogs inspecting every room and waiting outside in the lobby. I could not even hold a pen! The secret service asked me to out my pen down, it was considered a weapon. I understand the need for security this is the Vice President.

Joe Biden's speech was very inspiring. He spoke about what he sees the middle class as unlike his Republican counterparts who "See the middle class as a number."  Joe Biden also mentioned how long he's been working in Congress, He was elected into office before he was of age. He also spoke about bringing he economy back up, how they have created jobs. The economy was not stable when President Obama came into office and he is doing his best to bring the economy back up. Joe Biden ended his speech with, "Osama Bin Ladin is dead and General Motors is alive."

After his speech he walked up to the front of the crowd and stopped to talk, hug, kiss and take a picture with every person in line. When he reached the left side of the line; where all the volunteers were he literally walked over the barrier in order to be closer to us. He took picture as a group and with individuals.

Everyone who attended had such a positive attitude that was infectious. I love that Mr. Biden took the time to talk to voters and really connect with us.