President Barack Obama had fans before he became the presidential candidate in 2008. Alumnus Doug Rosenthal was one of them.

After watching the then-Illinois senator on “Meet the Press” in 2006, Rosenthal was drawn by Obama’s articulate speech and down-to-earth appearance. He was only a junior in high school at the time, but also one of Obama’s biggest advocates.

In Rosenthal’s freshman year at Syracuse University, nothing changed. He joined SU Students for Barack Obama and was a canvasser for the Democratic Party in fall 2008.

But the 2012 alumnus now finds himself in a different role for this year’s presidential election — one much closer to the president.
With a degree in political science and a history minor, Rosenthal always knew he wanted a job in politics. Rosenthal is now an operations associate at Obama for America – Virginia. In the 2012 election, he works in a key battleground state at the Virginia headquarters in Richmond. His days are long and he hasn’t had a day off in more than a month.

Obama for America is the Democratic National Committee’s call-to-action campaign to mobilize Democratic voters. Working in the Virginia headquarters, Rosenthal’s days are filled with providing support and resources to the 60-plus field offices across the state.
No two days are alike for Rosenthal. He makes sure the campaign offices in Virginia have enough resources to run efficiently. He deals with contracts, taxes and anything else that could hamper other departments’ work. On one day he drove to campaign offices and distributed gas cards.

On Oct. 25, Rosenthal finally got to meet his idol: the president of the United States himself.

“The day I got to meet President Obama, I actually got to be a driver in his motorcade,” he said. “We got our vans, we waited at the airport for Air Force One to arrive and we got to see all the behind the scenes.”

The Virginia headquarters in Richmond had been anticipating the president’s trip for some time. Rosenthal said the preparation for the visit was extensive. Secret Service showed up a week in advance to prepare, he said.

“When he was done speaking, he came in the room and met all of us, and we got pictures taken with him,” Rosenthal said. “That’s something that I still can’t believe happened — being able to shake his hand and look him in the eye, and he calling me by my name.”

Aside from his meet and greet with President Obama, he has met former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and fellow SU alumnus and Vice President Joe Biden.

Rosenthal credits his understanding of the political process to his time at SU and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Political analysis classes and diversity in the student body prepared him to work on the campaign, he said.

Majoring in political science prepared him for all of the “moving parts” to a campaign. His experience as an intern during Dan Maffei’s 2010 congressional re-election campaign prepped him for the speed of a political campaign, he said.

During Maffei’s campaign, Rosenthal was mostly doing fieldwork: ground operations and contacting voters. But he wanted something more on the operations side of a campaign.

“I’ve always really wanted to be behind the scenes and not be the face of the campaign, but be doing everything to make it happen,” Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal had another position with the Maffei campaign this year, but he stumbled across the Obama for America – Virginia opportunity through a job posting on a political website. The opportunity to work for the president was too much to pass up, especially for a longtime advocate.

When he got a call back to work for the campaign, he deliberated shortly. But he knew it was an experience he had to jump at because he could work with the president in one of the election’s most crucial states.

Being in Virginia, he recognized the opportunity to meet some of the country’s most important politicians.

After the election, he wants to stay in politics and remain behind the scenes. He wants to move away from operations and move toward the communications and press-related aspect of campaigns.

As election season winds down, the long campaign has taken its toll on the staff as a whole.

Said Rosenthal: “There’s been some long days on this campaign. For the past few weeks it’s been 15-hour days at least, seven days a week. But I’d work 24-hour days if they were to ask me to.”

Published on November 6, 2012 at 3:01 am

Contact Boomer: egdangel@syr.edu