Party Update: Policy and a Pint riles up Democrats

A phoned-in update from Beth Walton on the Policy and a Pint event in downtown St. Paul.

By Beth Watson

There was beer, there was politics, and there were crayons.

The Policy and a Pint forum at the Minnesota Public Radio building in downtown St. Paul was packed Tuesday night as people of all ages cheered CNN’s Wolf Blitzer when he called Michigan for Obama. With Summit in their hands, St. Paul residents Carolyn Merriam Jenkins, 24, and Nicole Menard, 27, were quite a scene.

The two brought their own map and red and blue crayons, and were coloring in the lines as news broke. “People keep looking at our map to see who’s winning,” Menard giggled, snatching the blue crayon from Merriam Jenkins.

“I wanted to come tonight because I wanted a big party, see the end of this ‘oh my god it took forever’ election,” says Jenkins.

Wearing a red and white Obama shirt, Jenkins can’t get over the candidate’s ability to use the internet to get the youth vote. She is his Facebook friend, she frequents www.mybarackobama.com and claims the candidate texts her all the time.

“He calls me a lot too,” she giggled. “So much I can’t always answer. He inspires anyone to do anything that they, we, can do to get him elected. That’s really amazing. It shows you can come from anywhere and be president.”

As she talks, the crowd around her cheers. Jenkins with a quick glance at the TV, snatches the blue crayon back. She needs to upate her map. Obama just won Ohio.