On the ground in Indiana

By Mark Bennett
THE TRIBUNE STAR (TERRE HAUTE, Ind.)

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. Tue, May 13 2008

— The ball cap turned Sam Cargile into a magnet. A thousand miles from home, he had complete strangers approaching him in the terminal at Atlanta International, wanting to talk.

“It was just a remarkable response I was getting on the plane and in the airport,” Cargile said of that moment a few months ago.

The phrase emblazoned across his cap read: “Barack Obama for President.”

Some presumed Cargile was employed by the Obama campaign, though he isn’t. One woman told Cargile, “I really don’t get involved in politics, but what can I do to help?”

Her statement sums up the situation for Cargile and millions of other Americans.

The 61-year-old Terre Haute resident has plenty beyond political engagement to keep him busy. Cargile travels the country in his role as director of grant making for the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation, an independent group focused on bolstering higher education opportunities. In each destination, Cargile picks up the local newspapers. As the presidential campaign intensified in 2007, he read more and more about a U.S. senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. Intrigued, Cargile and his wife, Diane, traveled to Springfield, Ill., to hear Obama speak.

Shortly afterward, Cargile found himself in a lively discussion on politics with friends in a New York City restaurant. Cargile suspected Obama’s then-fledgling campaign could surge.

“We agreed to disagree,” he recalled of that dinner debate. “I just had a feeling, an intuition. I heard something in his message that this is a point in time.”

Cargile read Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope,” and found the candidate’s Web site. It included “Indianapolis for Obama” and “Evansville for Obama” groups, but none for Terre Haute. That soon changed. The Terre Haute for Obama group has now met a handful of times. Cargile wound up volunteering to gather signatures to get Obama on the ballot for the upcoming May 6 Indiana primary. He dropped off petitions at churches.

And he bought that Obama ball cap.

“I haven’t gotten this involved since college,” said Cargile, who earned two degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a doctorate from Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Historic choice


He isn’t alone. The presidential campaign has drawn record turnouts in many of the state primaries and caucuses. Even two demographic groups with traditionally low participation levels — single women and people under-30 — have voted in peak numbers as the races have boiled down to Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side, and Sen. John McCain for the Republicans. Though the GOP vote will be a formality for Indiana on May 6, the Democrats face a historic choice — Obama, who could become the first black president, or Clinton, who would be the first woman president.

Both have attracted support among people in Vigo County. Dora May Abel, a 72-year-old Terre Hautean, is the deputy chairwoman of the Indiana Democratic Party and a Clinton backer. Abel attended both presidential inauguration ceremonies for Clinton’s husband, Bill, in 1992 and ’96. “So I’m a Clinton fan, through and through,” she said.

As for Hillary, Abel explained, “I think she has a good understanding and compassion, and can go through with a plan as a lady and give us a new outlook. She’s got the energy and the belief in herself that she can do that, and that’s a power within itself.”

Abel hasn’t yet met with other Clinton enthusiasts but said, “We’re trying to get organized so that we can back and support her here in the 8th [Congressional] District.”

The level of support for each candidate, both locally and statewide, isn’t yet clear and may not be until Hoosiers actually vote on May 6. But Clinton appears to have backers within the state party structure. “Some of the members of the Indiana Democratic Central Committee are for Obama,” Abel said, “but most of us are backing Hillary.” Indeed, the Clinton Web site still carries an October 2007 list of 17 Indiana party officials who’ve endorsed Clinton.

But Obama’s appeal in Indiana became obvious last week. Just 90 minutes after an announcement that he would speak Saturday at Plainfield High School, free tickets to the event had all been taken.

Abel acknowledges Obama’s strong oratory ability. She heard him address the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004, when she served as a delegate. “Once you hear him speak, he’s very good and the people are impressed with him,” Abel said. “They’re both good Democrats, but I’m for Hillary.”

Others have heard and studied Obama, and have chosen him. That includes Peggy Tierney, who runs Tanglewood Publishing, a Terre Haute company specializing in children’s books.

“I just looked at him as someone who had the power to inspire people,” she said.

The 48-year-old Tierney is a Tulsa native who spent 10 years overseas, where she attended American University in Paris and also lived in the U.K. She opposes the Iraq war and thinks Obama can strengthen the United States’ international image. “I think he will get us out of the war in Iraq, and that will help our economy,” Tierney said.

Cargile, a Vietnam-era military veteran, sees “inclusiveness” as a prime reason Obama is leading the Democratic vote so far.

“It’s not just his programs, but the possibilities of bringing people together,” Cargile said. “Given that we’re more of a diverse nation, which is really how we were founded, his message is about how we can make that work for us, rather than against us.”

Inclusive appeal


The Clinton-Obama duel took a divisive turn last week, when Clinton fundraiser Geraldine Ferraro turned 200 years of history on its head by insisting that “if Obama was a white man, he wouldn’t be in this position” as the frontrunner. Like millions of other Americans, Tierney said Ferraro’s comment “really turned me off.” Ferraro resigned her post with Clinton, who repudiated those remarks by the 1984 vice presidential candidate who teamed with Walter Mondale in a landslide Democratic loss.

Ferraro’s assertion was indeed “ridiculous,” Cargile said.

It also unfairly twists the reason Obama has won over so many people, who see him as a change from factional, party-line politics. Though Cargile said he is proud that a fellow African-American is a presidential frontrunner, “that is not the deciding factor for me.” Instead, it’s Obama’s commitment to a more inclusive society and economy, Cargile said.

In the next 52 days, local supporters of Obama and Clinton will try to spread their messages to unaligned voters. Abel anticipates meetings for Clinton followers. Tierney said the Obama meetings will continue, and his supporters will be sporting Obama for President T-shirts soon too. Both see a strong possibility their candidate will make a campaign stop here.

Courting Vigo Countians makes historical sense. Since 1904, Vigo County has backed the winning presidential candidate in every general election except one, when Adlai Stevenson — Democrat governor of neighboring Illinois — won here but lost nationally to Dwight Eisenhower.

The rest of Indiana will be an uphill battle against McCain this fall for Democrats. Since 1936, Republicans have won Indiana in every election except one (1964). Abel thinks both Clinton and Obama have the potential to break that GOP grip.

“We’re certainly working on that, and have high hopes and expectation that’s exactly what will happen,” she said.



Mark Bennett writes for The Tribune Star in Terre Haute, Ind. He can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

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