Chapter 5

As we were headed for Lancaster Falls, I drew Brady aside and said I wanted to talk with him about a new strategy. He sat down, none too happy.

'Brady, I think we have a new theme for Barbara's campaign. 'Go Get em, Barbara!' I think we need a new banner to hang off the end of the observation car with that slogan, and then get a mess of campaign signs out:

Go Get em Barbara! Barbara Roberts for US Senate

'I think it will be killer. We hand out all those signs at each of our stops and ask people to put them around their local area. Hell, we'll ask Frank if he can add a box car to our train consist to carry them all. We just have to get them printed and staked in a manner of hours. Can you handle that?'

'Well, don't you think we should ask the Candidate before launching into this?' he queried.

'Well of course. Let's have a confab and also invite Frank to see what he thinks and if he could support the logistics for this.'

So we did. Barbara and Frank thought it was a fabulous idea, Brady was sent off to get the signs printed with red, white and blue, and we were promised them within day three of the tour. Frank added an express box car to the consist the next day, and by the end of the day, it was filled with these wonderful new signs that we would hand out at every stump speech. I am a genius when I let myself be one. Brady was not happy being overshadowed, but saw the brilliance of what I was pulling off. One more notch in the election saddle!

The banner was completed in record time and hung on the back of the observation coach. Frank even wondered if we should have metallic signs made to put on the sides of the passenger coaches. 'Shit, why not?' I said. 'More marketing the better. Let's do it.' So we did, and they were in place on the car sides by the third day. We were truly becoming a campaign special. Anyone who saw the train would get the message.

Meanwhile, after the first day of three stops, we were settled into the lounge watching the evening news. MAN! The coverage was fantastic. The camera angles were great, they covered the entire speech, and there was 'color commentary' from the local news guys (no girls, interesting to note), about how Barbara Roberts had launched a barnstorming campaign of the state by rail. Some even commented on the similarities to Harry Truman's campaign against Thomas Dewey, which won Truman the election, and wondered if a similar upset might be in store.

The press coverage was even more fantastic. Reporters lauded over Roberts' command of the podium, seeming to touch every rural nerve of our state, and the enthusiastic response she had received.

One commentator: 'I've been following state politics for over two decades, and I've never seen anything quite like this. Barbara Roberts is using tried and true election strategies from six decades ago, and making it work. Whoever she has guiding this campaign is exercising a stroke of genius that just might pull her campaign out the basement into the fore. It's amazing to watch, especially to me, a political old-timer. I can't wait to see how this unfolds. Stay tuned, folks! This is just getting REALLY exciting!'

All this new media and political signs was too late for Lancaster Falls, but we had them on hand for New Ireland, two days later. We had, or rather Brady had, recruited the local Democratic committee to be on hand to pass out election signs, as Barbara implored them. 'Take as many as you think you can use! Stake them down alongside highways, put them in your yards. The key to this election is to get 'The Word' out. And the Word is: Go Get Em Barbara!' Thank you so much for your support and encouragement!'

At each stop, the rally cries from the audience got louder and louder, and the crowds got larger. We were really building momentum. When we pulled into our final stop at Haverston, the second largest city in the state, there were thousands in attendance. And Frank had added another four speakers to the observation car. We were on a par with Truman!