Former Today Show co-host visits Valley to campaign for Obama
SULLIVAN — As a former Today Show co-host, Jane Pauley used to greet millions of television viewers each morning.
Now, she is traveling to cities and towns throughout Indiana to help Barack Obama become the next president of the United States.
Pauley, who turns 58 Friday, admits she is passionate about her new cause and her current effort to help Obama win Indiana on Election Day.
“As for battleground states, my fellow Hoosiers, you are in one,” Pauley said Tuesday during a visit to Sullivan’s Campaign for Change Office on South Section Street.
By the time she ended her talk, between 60 to 70 people had stopped by the small Democratic Party office.
“I can only pray that my state, Indiana, will be a blue state this year” and elect Obama president, she said.
She has visited the state three times so far to campaign and made other stops Tuesday in Vincennes and Evansville. Typical venues are coffee shops or Democratic Party headquarters.
She plans to return to Indiana on Saturday and stay through part of Election Day before flying back to New York to vote.
Pauley encouraged people to vote early and to help with the campaign in any way they can, whether through telephone calls or going door to door. “We can’t quit until the polls close at 6 p.m. Nov. 4,” she said.
While some polls have John McCain ahead anywhere from two to six points in Indiana, Obama’s support has steadily grown, she said. Through her visits across Indiana, she has seen that the Obama campaign here “is organized, energized and everywhere.”
Pauley, a native Hoosier, is best known for her 13 years as co-host on NBC’s Today Show, during which the show rose to become the No. 1 morning show in the country. Later, she co-hosted the popular Dateline news magazine and became deputy anchor to Tom Brokaw for the NBC Nightly News.
Pauley, who as a journalist had to remain objective in covering the news, said it was a difficult step to go to the “other side” and publicly campaign for a presidential candidate.
But this election, she believed it was not enough just to vote. She wanted to do more.
“I care about my country so much and I believe in Barack Obama and what he represents for the future of this country so deeply,” she said. “I felt I had to take that step” and campaign on his behalf.
She is not currently working in broadcast journalism.
Pauley noted that Obama has made 47 stops in Indiana this election year. “He knows where Indiana is. He knows who you are. He knows what’s going on in Indiana,” she said.
She has focused her campaigning efforts in Indiana. While criss-crossing the state has taken a lot of stamina, she described it as “the coolest thing I have ever done.”
Pauley said she has watched Obama the past two years and believes he’s the right person to lead the country. Echoing the words of Colin Powell, she said if Obama becomes president, “It will electrify the country … It will electrify the world.”
Under the Bush administration, “We’ve alienated a lot of our friends around the world and we’ve certainly emboldened our enemies … I think electing Barack Obama will cause the world to breathe a little easier,” she said.
Pauley’s down-to-earth demeanor was a hit with her Sullivan audience.
“We were just thrilled to death to have her take a few minutes to stop by and see us,” said Lynn Hamilton, Sullivan County Democratic chairwoman. “She was so kind and talked to us with such ease. It’s just like she’s known us forever. She did a wonderful job.”
Irene Loudermilk, 78, is a longtime Pauley fan. “It’s so exciting. I followed her all of her career,” she said. “She’s sweet. She’s so warm … She’s like you see her on TV.”
Loudermilk, who described herself as “a young Obama girl,” asked Pauley to autograph an Obama poster and a “hot for Obama” fan.