When an Obama TV ad claimed that the senator had “worked his way through college and Harvard Law”, factcheck.org was a little skeptical. Obama’s campaign provided only two examples: a summer construction job during college and his work as a summer associate at a big law school. Now, Lynn Sweet reports, “During one school year at Columbia, Obama was a telemarketer in midtown Manhattan selling New York Times subscriptions over the phone, wearing a headset. He did not like the job because ‘he worried that some of the people he called couldn’t really afford the subscription.'” Having worked a couple of summers during college as a paid telemarketer raising money for the GOP, I can sympathize with Obama. It was no fun asking little old ladies to dip into their Social Security checks–especially considering some of that money was blown on people like Lincoln Chafee. Ugh, that still gnaws at my conscience. Furthermore, telemarketing is the most mind-numbing work you can imagine. Somehow, coffee and my subscription to The Onion kept me mostly sane. But if this is what explains Obama’s experimentation with “a little blow,” far be it from me to judge.
