The DePaulia sat down with SGA Vice President Casey Clemmons to discuss his trip to President Obama’s inauguration in Washington D.C. earlier this week. The junior Political Science major with a double-minor in Environmental Studies and Urban Geography and Planning first worked for the Obama campaign as a media intern. He was promoted in August to be a full-time staff member up until the election.
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The DePaulia: What organization did you go with this time, if any, and what was your role within that organization?
Casey Clemmons: I attended the inauguration and the various associated events and balls as an alumnus of the campaign. I started off as an intern at the Obama for America Headquarters in June of 2012 and by August I was hired on as a full-time staffer. As an intern, I was a Paid Media Intern and dealt with analyzing and communicating paid media creative, i.e. TV political ads, to campaign officials. As a staffer, I was a Junior Tracking Manager and mainly worked with a state-of-the-art Web application used to track and organize paid media (political ad) spending, polling, and other critical campaign data. The last week of the campaign, I went to Appleton, Wisconsin to canvas.
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DP: What other DePaul students were you with?
CC: I didn’t go for DePaul but I was with two DePaul graduates — Tania Zaparaniuk and Anthony Alfano, whom I know from being on the Student Government Association. Christina Lewis, currently a senior at DePaul worked with me in my OFA department at headquarters and I was with her then. Emily Hampsten, a DPU graduate, also worked with Christina and I in our Paid Media department. Will Gross was an intern in our department.
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DP: Have you ever been to an inauguration before?
CC: No, but in high school, I was in gym class when President Obama was getting inaugurated the first time and my teacher wouldn’t let us leave to watch it. Some of my friends and I were very angry (and rightfully so) so we snuck up to the upper-track of our gymnasium and crawled on the track in a stealthy manner, left the gym and found a TV in the school and watched the inauguration. We snuck all the way back without our teacher ever noticing.
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DP: What events did you attend during the inauguration weekend?
CC: At the Presidential inauguration (Monday morning) – I had a very close location to the capitol (relative to the rest of the people there); inauguration of President Obama (excellent speech) and Vice President Biden; saw performances by James Taylor, Beyonce, and Kelly Clarkson.
The inaugural ball (Monday night) – The official inaugural ball was held at the Washington Convention Center with an estimated 35,000 people in attendance; the President and First Lady danced as well as the VP and his wife. I saw performances by Alicia Keys, Brad Paisely, FUN., the Glee cast, John Legend, Soundgarden, and Stevie Wonder.
The staff ball (Tuesday night) – All alumni and staff of the campaign were in one room; the President spoke so candidly to us and thanked us for everything that we have done (as Obama for America); the VP and Jill Biden spoke as well. I also saw performances by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett.
At the staff ball Obama said, “This is about us. This is about America. This is about what we believe. This is about what our values are. This is what our ideals are all about. We are gonna go out there and change America. That’s what you [staff] did every single day and so this weekend belonged to you.”
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DP: How would you compare your feelings, personally, this past weekend compared to 2008?
CC: I was undoubtedly an Obama ’08 supporter, but I wasn’t that involved at the time and I couldn’t vote at the time either. This past weekend was a culmination of all of the hard work all of my thousands of co-workers and I did to reelect this man. This weekend I cried, I laughed, I danced, I stood in the cold for hours on end, and I was reassured for the millionth time that President Obama will continue moving this country forward.
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DP: How would you describe the overall feel in Washington D.C.?
CC: The most celebratory environment I’ve ever been in. People from such a vast diversity of backgrounds and lives traveling to the same city at the same time to celebrate the reelection of the President of the United States is an amazing sight to see and I wouldn’t take it back for anything.
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DP: What was your favorite memory from this weekend?
CC: My favorite: Being reunited with all of my co-workers who have become some of my best friends, campaign life makes you love the people you are around so much. The weirdest: Being on the same flight as Paul Ryan and Roland Burris (who Blagojevich appointed to Obama’s Senate seat after he became president). I sat next to him.
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DP: Did everyone stay together? Where were you able to find a place to stay? What was the commute like?
CC: Most people that I know who live in DC had at least three people staying with them for the Inauguration. The commute wasn’t too bad but it was more crowded than usual. Cell phones barely worked so it was hard to find everyone.
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DP: How did the atmosphere change throughout the weekend? (Swearing-in ceremony vs. parade vs. later that night just on the streets vs. the ball)
CC: The inauguration (swearing-in) has a very formal feel and people just listen to Obama speak about the future of this country. I didn’t go to the parade. The streets were very crowded before the ball. The balls were extremely fun and everyone was just celebrating after years of electing POTUS.
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DP: Which ball did you attend, if any, and what was your experience like there?
CC: I went to the inaugural ball and the staff ball. Amazing experiences! Everyone celebrating for the same reason makes such a great atmosphere!
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DP: Finally, what do you feel that this inauguration meant for the county?
CC: The reelection and subsequent inauguration of President Barack Obama is a reassurance that the majority of the country knows that the President will continue to take us forward as a nation. His inauguration speech solidified the progress we will make in the next four years. The economy is recovering by the day, the wars are ending and the soldiers are coming home, the high costs of health care and the size of our deficit will be addressed, comprehensive immigration reform is happening, the equal rights of those who are gay will not be of question, climate change will be aggressively addressed for the sake of our children and future generations, and individuals will not have to wait in line for hours upon hours to vote.
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“America’s possibilities are limitless. … My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.” – Barack Obama
