VPOTUS dropped in on an Obama/Biden campaign field office at 516 East Colonial Ave in Orlando. It was on the second floor, a warren of small rooms with tables of volunteers making phone calls. Lots of signs on the walls: Hispanics for Obama, LGBT for Obama, Women for Obama. Per the campaign, this field office is regional hq for East Central Florida and a hub for reaching out to the growing Hispanic population in the area. It has been open for more than a year.
VPOTUS and his daughter, Ashley Biden, arrived with large brown “Boxes of Joe’’ from Dunkin Donuts. In addition, VPOTUS carried a large white bag of donuts.
As VPOTUS entered, people applauded, and he told the room, “This is what you call interfering with productivity.’’
“We wanted to come to the epicenter of the epicenter, man,’’ he continued. “Forida, you guys produce, we win Florida, we win Florida, this is all history, man.
“Thank you so much, thank you so much for what you’re doing,’’ he continued. “Barak and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate, for real.’’
“I’ll tell you what, I’m feeling good,’’ he said.
“From here we’re going to, where am I going? I’m going to Ohio. Back to Ohio. I’ve been living in Ohio. We’re going to win Ohio.’’
The volunteers cheered and applauded.
“Now you guys push Florida over, this thing becomes not close,’’ VPOTUS said.
“Thank you so much. I just wanted to come by say hi.’’
“I’m interrupting, like I said. Getting out there cavasisng, is that what people are doing today? Look it’s amazing, I actually wrote the numbers down.’’
He pulled a card out of his pocked and read statistics about the camaign’s field operation in the state.
“We’ve got 104 offices here,’’ he said. “You’ve alread done over 20,000, not countin this morning, phone banks. 20,000 statewide. 14,263 voter registrations. You guys are amazing. Really. Look. The reason we’re going to win, I mean this sincerely, the reason were going to win is because of you.’’
“The single most signifcant thing we can do to counter the incredible money they have and these godawful super Pacs is you,’’ he said. “It’s the only counter.’’
VPOTUS removed his blazer and folded it. A volunteer seated in front of him took it for him.
“Thank you,’’ VPOTUS told her. He rolled up the sleeves of his blue-striped dress shirt.
“But seriously,’’ he continued, telling volunteers that to counter “those scurrilous ads you’ve seen from one of their super PACS” is to have “you folks knocking on the door. Seriosly, it’s one of your folks knocking on the door and saying look I vouch for these guys.’’
“I come from a state where you campaign door to door,’’ he said. “It matters. The thing that matters the most, when you show up at the door you’re not just asking vote for us, you’re vouching for us. That’s the thing I want to thank you most for. The hardest thing for a man or woman to do in my opinion is to associeate themselves, to say I vouch for you.’’
VPOTUS hugged a young woman who was smiling at him, Marissa Priceman, 17. She started to cry.
“Thank you,’’ she said through her tears.
“The reason we win this elecection is we have the best ground game in the history of presidential politics,’’ VPOTUS went on.
The volunteers and staff applauded.
“I tell you what,’’ VPOTUS said. “We’ve got a lot of press here. I wanted them to see you guys.’’ (Press included just CNN and CBS embeds and your pooler). “But one of the thing is, you guys deserve answers to questions. Things you may have in your mind. So I tell you what, if we can, I don’t know if I’im allowed to do this, ask the press to go eat some donuts.’’
“By the way, these guys have been great,’’ he added, meaning the press. “They’ve picked up every mistake we’ve all made.’’
The room laughed.
“Of course you know I never make any mistakes,’’ VPOTUS said.
At that point pooler was escorted out. He was not offered a donut.
VPOTUS stayed in the field office for about 30 more minutes.
