by Andrew Malcolm
Barack Obama made an unscheduled stop on his campaign bus tour of Iowa the other day. Even a presidential candidate needs an ice cream cone of an afternoon.
Obama got the ice cream cone in a dairy bar in Wapello. But he also got a little more than he bargained for. After ordering around $20 worth of snacks - -mostly ice cream and onion rings --for his campaign group, Obama got to talking with the counter waitress, Angela Dossett, who had some non-edible pressing concerns.
Turns out, she's the widow of a Marine killed in Iraq three years ago. She's afraid she'll lose all her survivor benefits if she makes more money or remarries and moves on with her life. "I can't move on," she said. "If I do I lose'' medical and other benefits.
Obama, who is a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, made a note of her concerns. Afterwards, she said Obama was the first presidential candidate to stop by the small diner. Now she is favorably disposed toward him. "He's really a nice guy,'' Dossett told The Los Angeles Times' Janet Hook.
Obama could have gotten away without paying the check. As the candidate was about to leave, one employee told him that the diner owner, who shyly stayed in the back kitchen, would spare him the bill if he just left an autograph. But the senator had already paid.
Obama chose vanilla, by the way.
Andrew Malcolm writes for Top of the Ticket, the L.A. Times blog.
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Comments
No way! Mr Rogers ordered vanilla! Just when I thought his costume on SNL was so exciting. Please bring us more...
So did he or did he not leave the autograph? Did he or did he sign with his right or left hand? Did he or did he not personally hand it to the lady or the shy owner? Was it a napkin or a ready made and always available poster of himself? Was the sky blue outside or was there a storm cloud hanging over the place?
Posted by: Darnell | November 10, 2007 9:17 AM
People seem to like him so much better when they've seen him in person.
Posted by: Larry from Purdue | November 10, 2007 9:42 AM
Is anyone simple-minded enough to believe that this meeting of Obama and Angela Dossett was just a chance encounter?
Trace W. Dossett's death was written up by AP and Military Times, among other media sources. See for example http://www.militarycity.com/valor/257267.html
Thus Obama and his staff had every opportunity to know of her, and her husband's death, in advance.
And if Mrs. Dossett really said "she's the widow of a Marine killed in Iraq three years ago", something is wrong, because the Military Times reported that Trace W. Dossett was a Navy Seabee, a reservist with a naval construction battalion--NOT a Marine. Did the reporter get it wrong? Or did the Obama campaign, the reporter's source?
Mrs. Dossett's loss was real. This appears to be a cynical attempt by a politician to take advantage of that loss.
Posted by: Bruce | November 10, 2007 10:05 AM
The real question is: Unlike Hillary, did he leave the waitress a tip? The world wants to know.
Posted by: Josephine | November 10, 2007 10:12 AM
Readers should see the media swarm, with the dozens of cameras, in the dairy bar covering Obama's "unscheduled stop" there and his supposedly accidental "encounter" with the waitress.
The photos of the media swarm are all over the internet.
The stop was about as unscripted as the tv show "Oprah".
Posted by: Bruce | November 10, 2007 11:08 AM
When doesn't he have press following him Bruce? That doesn't prove anything. I'd be surprised if it was just a chance meeting, but you'll need one of these intrepid newspaper reporter types to ask Ms. Dossett or her boss about the visit to prove that it wasn't.
Posted by: Tom O | November 10, 2007 1:07 PM
"People seem to like him so much better when they've seen him in person.
Posted by: Larry from Purdue | November 10, 2007 9:42 AM"
I agree.
We personally met Mondale not long ago. A very engaging likable, intelligent guy in person. We had a 20 minute conversation about ordinary things. And his subsequent talk was interesting and compelling.
Yet in '84 he came off uninteresting and bland.
Could there be something wrong with the 'lens' we are required to look through at our candidates??
Posted by: C.Morris | November 10, 2007 1:35 PM
This is nothing new for the democRATic party...Remember last month when they abused a twelve year old with a scripted statement with regards to s-chip. But,what they didn't tell you was his parents own several [luxury] late model [gas guzzling]S.U.V's and have a net worth of over $600,000.00
Hmmm???
If there is a sad story to be told,true or untrue, the dems will sniff it out and use it till they get caught in a lie.
Thank-God we have posters like Bruce and JohnD. to spread the truth.
Oh....I almost forgot,Barack's middle name is Hussein.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | November 10, 2007 1:49 PM
Bruce,
The link you provide leads to a web page that was last updated in January of-----2003. DO you really think that the Obama people knew in advance and took advantage of someone's loss. How stupid and sinister are?
Posted by: zm | November 10, 2007 1:49 PM
Breuce:
Why do you care so much about this?
Get a life.
Posted by: John A | November 10, 2007 2:01 PM
I agree with Bruce on this - there is no way this was a random meeting.
CM found Mondale "engaging, likable intellegent guy". It could be the lens that you perceive Mr. Mondale thru - a left-leaning "womb-to-the-tomb" gov't solution lens.
I thought close encounters with waitresses was the territory of ChRis "bump'n'grind" Dodd?
Posted by: Terry | November 12, 2007 12:28 PM