MAFOs

As you would expect from its American and youth-driven character, the Obama campaign is littered with buzz words, acronyms, targets and daily goals. The buzz word most relevant to me on my first day of work today in the field office I've been assigned to is MAFO.. a term which stands for Mature Americans For Obama i.e. the politically correct term for Democrats aged 60 and over.

My job here for the next few days is to ring MAFOs. MAFOs are rung during the day because it is felt that they are more likely to be at home than their younger counterparts who are in turn contacted in the evening. Campaign policy is that MAFOs should not be rung after 8PM in case the poor old dears are in bed.

So, I've been having a great time speaking to the senior citizens of Albuquerque. At times, I've felt akin to Joe Duffy counselling these poor people; at other times it brought me back to when my grandparents were alive. They really are a mixed bunch. Most are delighted with the chat and will make great efforts to tell you all the things they would do to volunteer were it not for their ailing health or the recent death which has occured in their family. I've even gotten the odd Irish American who emigrated in the 40s who then proceeds to trawl through my ancestry looking for a common connection. One lady proclaimed herself to be a holocaust survivor and informed me in great detail of how America had been a godsend to her.

For the most part, these people are favourable towards Obama which is quite uplifting. Maybe his old grassroots-style of politics resonates with them like Roosevelt's or Kennedy's did. For every rule there must be an exception however and that came in the form of a guy who tried to convince me that Obama was the devil incarnate and that if we thought George Bush was bad, we were in for a shock. There's always one..