Barack in Brooklyn: Treat the People Right!

This is the full text of my reply to the campaign's ill-considered, anonymous, and generally impoverished apology for Wednesday night's mismanaged event. I never imagined that this blog would be launched with a wake-up call, but here it is.

To: Obama for America - NY Finance

Dear campaign staffer:

I appreciate your effort to address what happened at Senator Obama's Brooklyn event last night. I cannot tell you, however, how dismayed I am to receive this message in this form.

Last night's event was handled abysmally from a supporter's point of view, and unfortunately you are extending the worst of what took place last night into today. In the spirit of supporting this campaign, I would like to enumerate a few of the obvious problems here.

First, I'd like to know why I am unable to address this email to a person. There is no one taking responsibility by signing this message or sending it from a named email account. Why not demonstrate accountability by offering supporters the reassurance of a point of contact? One-way communication from an anonymous address and "Team Obama" is not good enough for a campaign built on listening.

Second, again to the issue of accountability, stating that "overwhelming grassroots support for Senator Obama" is the reason that pre-sold ticketholders were not able to be admitted to a planned event is both disingenuous and disrespectfully evasive. Offering that you "couldn't accommodate everyone interested in attending" approaches simple doublespeak. You are implicitly refusing to acknowledge that you made a promise to people -- sold them something, in fact -- and failed to deliver.

I suspect that Obama supporters, myself included, are willing to accept mistakes and anticipate some disappointments. What we expect in return is candor and some degree of transparency.

This is where the management of a campaign becomes a significant indicator of what one might expect from an Obama administration. Is the culture of the campaign one that inspires people to act with integrity and respect, or does it inspire a self-serving, self-justifying "win at all costs" approach? If the Senator cannot transmit his values throughout the campaign bureaucracy, why should we hope that he can inspire a country?

Beyond the semantics of your message, I am even more disappointed by its failure on a practical level. Nowhere do you mention that you clearly told ticketholders not admitted to the event last night that they would have the option to choose between a future event and a refund.

Not being prepared to begin processing refunds is certainly reasonable. Not acknowledging what you said outside the Marriott last night is not. It effectively raises an opaque wall between the formal campaign and the "overwhelming grassroots." Don't be afraid of your supporters!

Even worse, the logistical problems that seem to have plagued the event itself are echoed by what you offer here. You propose that your message serve as one non-transferable admission to a future event, based on one email address as an identifier.

I purchased three tickets in two separate transactions. How precisely does your offer accommodate my wife or the 16-year-old young man I mentor, who was hoping to attend his first-ever political event?

I can tell you that it will also further alienate a voting-age friend, not yet a supporter, whom I invited to the event. She'll be out of the country next month, and now likely to cast her lot with Senator Clinton in the primary.

This event was not a free rally. It was a planned event targeting people of lesser means. It offered to make donors of those supporters who might not have had the income to attend Manhattan's $100 per ticket fundraiser.

Validating that smaller contribution level with a personal appearance was a great idea. A logistical mistake was regrettable. In the wake of that failure, not treating $25 donors as you would treat $2000 donors is disgraceful.

Downplaying what a $25 contribution might mean to a working person is anathema to the spirit of a campaign lauding its grassroots funding and hailing $5 donors. These are the people whose contributions should be treated with the most respect.

I have been a supporter since before the Senator declared his decision. I hosted a viewing party on April 1, and was proud to be featured in the New York Times ( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/us/politics/01obama.html) as "a dream of a supporter."

I have not been deterred by past mistakes and shortcomings in my interactions with the campaign. Politics is a rough and dirty business, and I understand the technical, logistical, and ethical challenges of trying to run a different kind of campaign while remaining competitive. That said, I believe that I would do a disservice to this effort by remaining silent about the latest negative experience.

I'm sending this message, and plan to enlarge this conversation, because as much as I want Barack Obama to succeed, I want his espoused values to succeed even more. We are a country in crisis, and people need more than inspiration. They need to be trusted by the people who would lead them.

Respectfully,

Justin Neely