ABSTRACT
The state's 2008 Democratic presidential primary has kicked into full gear following last night's televised debate between Obama and Hillary Clinton. The candidate's lo-fi voice sounds as though it's been projected backwards through a megaphone, and the crowd frequently interrupts it with their thunderous, distortion-inducing cheers. The chapter aims to document the campaign as it plays itself out through the body of a gringo volunteer from the north working the rhetorical grassroots. Mercurians have often been "professional cultivators of people who use words, concepts, money, emotions, and other intangibles as tools of their trade. From the beginning, Hillary Clinton has enjoyed advantages among Laredo's media of mass communication. The city's main newspaper, the English-language Laredo Times, has supported her strongly during the campaign, tracking and amplifying the Clintons' run-up to the election. The Obama campaign in Laredo has nothing remotely comparable.
