Driving for Pete (Part 3)

(Continued from Part 2)

I’m writing this just after learning that Mayor Pete has suspended his presidential campaign. That’s sad news for me, but understandable after recent results from the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday polls. I like to think that Pete decided to do this in part so as to not split moderate voters with Biden. I hope Amy Klobuchar does the same.

This final story from my days driving for Pete in Las Vegas seems more meaningful to me now as we move through the primaries and towards a Democratic nominee to run against Voldemortrump.

My last driving mission was to transport Pete’s senior advisors to and from the Democratic Debate at the Paris Theater. The candidates entered the venue from a basement parking garage, a MSNBC TV crew there to catch their arrival. After we unloaded the candidates and their campaign teams, we drivers parked our vehicles tightly next to each other.  Pete’s driver, Oscar, and I were squeezed between Michael Bloomberg’s two gleaming right-off-the-factory-floor white Suburbans and Amy Klobuchar’s single, somewhat used Chevy Tahoe. It looked to be a dim and dismal setting in which to spend the next couple of hours.

The MSNBC basement crew had a tablet sitting on the floor streaming their network’s raw feed. A few of us wandered over to watch it. Someone found a table behind a column, hauled it over and put the tablet on it for a better position for viewing. More drivers joined us. Watching the debate was a good way to pass the time.

The MSNBC crew was packing up their gear and generously left the tablet we were watching for last. Eventually the time came for them to apologetically tell us they had to shut it down and move on. We were bummed.

Oscar came to the rescue as, unlike the rest of us, his phone had good enough reception in the basement to stream the debate. We propped his phone on one of Bloomberg’s windshields and the bunch of us crowded around the tiny screen to continue watching.

Most of the drivers, like me, had some affinity to the candidate for whom they were driving. Some were just hired hands. We were a diverse group – men, women, old, young, white, black, Hispanic, locals and out-of-towners.

As we watched the debate, candidates’ statements would sometimes give rise to comments, laughter, groans and jokes among the drivers. Yet, all recognized that we supported different candidates and so the comments, laughter, groans, and jokes were tempered with politeness. There seemed to be shared recognition among us of being a small part of an important process, something that drew us together as our respective candidates battled each other on the debate floor.

It was a brief moment, a touching scene for me of how politics can and should be. An example of civility. An example of coming together as Americans, despite differences.

I view the suspension of Pete’s campaign as consistent with graceful and pragmatic politics. He can read the writing on the wall and has decided to turn his support and energy towards the Democratic Party and eventual nominee.  He has earned the respect of many during his campaign, voters who he can continue to keep engaged for the big, critical contest in November.  One of them will be me.

I said goodbye to Pete after the debate. I told him that while we hadn’t spoken much at all, I had been observing him closely. I told him I thought it was more important how you do things than how you do and that he was doing it right. He thanked me and told me he was trying to do his best. We shook hands, looked each other in the eye and smiled. It was a nice ending for me.