Jack Smiles column

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and NEPA Garage Sales

Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and NEPA Cars for Sale

Yes, I helped Obama

Sunday November 09, 2008 | 12:00 AM

Jack Smiles jsmiles@psdispatch.com

There a clich� – “The last thing I expected to be doing was…” fill in the blank. Like I might say the last thing I expected to be doing was rooting for the Yankees. But I did root for the Yankees when they played the Mets and I expected to.

But on election day the clich� came true, because the last thing I expected to do was volunteer for the Obama campaign, but that’s what happened.

My daughter, Sadie, and her friend, Kyle, were Barack Obama volunteers. He picked her up Tuesday morning and they reported to Mike Cefalo’s law office in West Pittston, the local Obama HQ, for their marching orders, er, I mean, their volunteer assignment.

They were given a list of addresses in Exeter and a pile of doorknob hangers. On the way back to Exeter they missed their first street, pulled into a parking lot turn around and the tire on Kyle’s car made a funny sound. They stopped and called Kyle’s father, a handy mechanical guy who can fix anything, and they called me, a soft-handed desk jockey who can’t sharpen a pencil.

I got there first and Sadie said, “I think we found the problem” and she pointed to something that looked like a railroad spike sticking out of the tire .

“I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be part of the tire,” she said. (She takes after me in that regard, I suppose.)

When Kyle’s father got there, he called a friend at a garage for help. It was going to take awhile. Sadie and Kyle were distraught. They walked in circles. What were they going to do? Should they call Obama HQ and explain what happened?

Ok, I said, I’ll take you around while the tire gets fixed.

Democrats households line the streets in Exeter, but the list of address Sadie and Kyle had were a little spread out. Not sure how the list was generated. May have been undecideds, households that didn’t vote last cycle, or new registrants.

In any case I spent two hours hauling these starry-eyed kids around Exeter. We had fun trading barbs. When we passed an uninhabited house with the windows boarded up and I said there’s a house that’s hopin’ for change. And Sadie said, no Dad, that’s an abandoned house.

We got the call that the tire was fixed and I dropped Sadie and Kyle off at the garage on Schooley Street. As they got out of the car Sadie said, thanks for helping us even though you hate Barack Obama and I said I don’t hate Barack Obama and she said well thanks for helping us even though you hate Democrats and I said I don’t hate Democrats and then Kyle said socialists, thanks for helping us even though you hate socialists, slam.

Yea, yea, that’s it, socialists, I hate socialists.

I wish I predicted in print that Paul Kanjorski would win.

I didn’t, but I did predict it. Ask my wife and daughter. He may have won, but it was very close especially compared to other house races around the country which were going 60-40 or better for the Dems.

I’ve always said that Republicans are in a tough spot running for the House of Representatives and even more so when running for a state house.

Barletta and Hackett both campaigned against earmarks. That’s the right thing to do in my view, but to a lot of people campaigning against earmarks is tantamount to saying something like -- need lights for the Little League, a roof on the hose company, a playground for the park, a trail along the rail, a breaker restoration, etc.?

Too bad, you’re on your own.

That’s a tough sell.