The Scrappy Factor, By: Tory Lauterbach

It is really hard to blog when you are in a different city every 4 hours and your computer is crashed. To answer the call from all the folks asking for an updated entry, I asked Tory Lauterbach, President of Students for Hillary at the University of Texas to be a guest blogger. Of course it took me a while to put her post up, but here you go...

- - -

The Scrappy Factor

This week the Clinton campaign has mounted the greatest political comeback since, well, our last political comeback on March 4. Our critics—in the media, on the street, and on our opponent's campaign—wonder how we do it; what they don't understand is that comebacks are what Clinton supporters are good at. Why? Two words: We're scrappy.

I had a talk about this with Jehmu about a month ago. I told her I knew that we were going to win these late primaries because our supporters are scrappier, and our supporters are the ones who will make real sacrifices for this cause that they believe in so much. I said that our supporters would stick with Hillary for the long haul. I'm so happy that today I can say that I was right.

Our supporters are from all parts of American life, but by far our strongest support is found among two groups: American workers and American women. These two groups, more than any other, know that the key to success is twofold: First, keep working; second, never quit.

The proof that we're tougher? You could see it all over Pennsylvania:

There was the elderly but spry woman from rural Center County who gets around using a walker, who walked 11 miles from her home to attend a rally with Bill Clinton.

Then there was the 20-year old ballet dancer from Queens who knew Hillary needed her in Philadelphia, so at the last minute she took a bus to Philly on Election Day and walked around downtown until she found a group of Hillary volunteers she could join with in the fight. I was in that group, and we were glad to have her.

And then there was the group of 20 or 30 Texans who traveled to Scranton and Pittsburg and Philadelphia. Some of them arrived in Pennsylvania without housing or much money, but they wanted to help, and they knew that the people of Pennsylvania would greet them with open arms. And Pennsylvania did, providing housing and food to these out-of-state volunteers, and joining these volunteers in hours and days of canvassing, calling, and rallying support.

We won on Tuesday after our opponent outspent us on TV ads nearly 4-to-1, and we did it with elbow grease. We knocked on every door and we called every supporter. Volunteers of all ages awoke at dawn and stayed up 'til the wee hours, all because we know that if we stand up for Hillary, she will stand up for us.

Senator Obama may have had the money, but we had the passion, the determination, and the drive to defy the odds. We are the campaign with heart, and that heart won over Pennsylvania. 

Comments

[Andrea]

Finaaly...you resurface.

I think you are not getting this blogging thing and the interest in having to hear "the passion" you state or to "see" the passion you state. Do you have anything archived...for us to see...of you...doing your work...seeing your computer crash...seeing you sleeping...seeing you trouble-shoot...hearing you speak to the people...seeing you comfort your team...seeing you journal???

Are you not getting that you are an important factor that needs to be archived and the only way to consistently connect or want to connect to you and see your relevance is to see you support your candidate WILDLY and to see a Black Women work. So many people don't know what all of that looks like.

People don't know what "building" looks like.

I don't care about some 3rd person take unless it is the candid record. I know that after this campaign is over people will never understand what you are talking about because most people never work as hard as people working to campaign an issue.