Memories of Sleepless Nights

MSNBC has an article on the blunders that sleepy presidential candidates are apt to make staggering around Iowa. Obama exaggerating the death toll of a tornado (it was 12 dead, not 10,000) and Clinton observing that she had 300 supporters "literally freezing to death" - apparently they all survived. John Edwards pulling an all-nighter. It reminded me of an election past.

In 1989 I was working on a San Diego City Council campaign. They had off-year voting in those days to depress voting and enhance Republican chances. My candidate was also a good friend so I threw myself body and soul into the campaign. We were a grass-roots campaign, bodies making up for a lack of money. During the day I worked with the volunteers, keeping them engaged and interested while walking precincts. On weekends I walked with them. At night, when everybody else went home, I stayed behind doing data entry on our only computer. The volunteers corralled hundreds of supporters during their walks and by dawn I had made sure they were all in the computer. I took one or two breaks a night to visit the nearest Denny's for coffee, maybe a catnap or two, and because the campaign headquarters had a shower I was even able to keep marginally clean.

This lasted for about a week, I think, it seemed like three months. One morning the candidate and her campaign manager took me aside and in the sweetest possible way told me to go home and get some sleep because I was beginning to scare the volunteers. We won.